The latest OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results reveal that 37% of Australian 15-year-olds have never spoken to a careers adviser at school.
PISA provides policymakers and educators with important insights into how prepared 15-year-olds are for the future as they near the end of compulsory education.
In sharing the PISA findings, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has carried out new analysis to provide a snapshot of the career guidance and support received by Australian 15-year-olds in 2022.
The proportion of students in both advantaged (36%) and disadvantaged (38%) schools who said they had never spoken to their school’s careers adviser was similar. However, compared to 37% of students in large urban schools, only 28% of students in remote schools had spoken to their school’s careers adviser.
The analysis found that 81% of students in advantaged schools had a career counsellor on staff compared to 59% of students in disadvantaged schools, while students in disadvantaged schools were more than twice as likely to have a designated teacher, rather than a dedicated school career adviser, provide career counselling than students in disadvantaged schools (39% vs. 17%).
Why it matters
ACER researchers found that Australian schools with dedicated careers advisors were more confident in meeting students’ needs.
The GENERATION longitudinal study, which follows thousands of young Australians through their school years to age 25, shows how young people’s aspirations are shaped in the later years of secondary school.
A new survey has revealed that many of the 11th graders who no longer want to go to university were unsure of what they wanted to do in 10th grade.
With 7.7% of Australians aged 15 to 24 expected to be neither in study nor in employment in 2023 and the OECD concluding that “early unemployment can have long-term consequences, and long periods of inactivity in particular can discourage young people from seeking work”, it is vital that all students have access to careers guidance.
learn more
The ACER Snapshot series presents findings from all global education research studies in which Australian schools participate.
Read Snapshot No. 18, “Career guidance opportunities in Australian schools,” by ACER Senior Research Fellow Dr Sarah Buckley.
Find out more about Australia’s participation in PISA.
