The Career and Transition (CAT) Pilot and the Partnership Outreach Education Model (POEM) Pilot have been successful Australian Government initiatives. This paper presents the learnings from the CAT Pilot and the POEM Pilot within the context of the development of a youth transition system as envisaged in the former Prime Minister Howards's Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce report, Footprints to the Future. Such a system would include the successful elements of both the CAT and POEM approaches and tie together and build upon existing programmes and services. This approach would ensure that all young people have access to a high quality transition system, and appropriate career and transition education provision.
The CAT Pilot was implemented in 2002 to test ways of delivering career and transition services for all young people while the POEM Pilot was implemented at the same time to test the delivery of flexible education models in supportive community settings, for young people disconnected from school and/or family, or in certain circumstances, for young people at risk of becoming disconnected from school.
Among other things, the Taskforce found that:
- young people do not make a single transition. They are more likely to make a number of transitions in life, which will be complex and multi-faceted. A framework for effective support through these transitions should include a learning pathways plan, access to professional career and transition support, mentoring and follow up; and
- learning delivered in community settings, by a partnership involving education and community providers, offers the best possible opportunity for engaging disconnected young people in appropriate education.
While a number of themes were common to both Pilot programmes, they were very different in nature and in the young people they targeted. The CAT model is a proactive strategy commencing in schools. The POEM projects, on the other hand, provided a second chance for young people (including significant numbers of Indigenous students) who had been experiencing severe difficulties in engaging with mainstream education, training or employment. Both models are needed as elements of a youth transition system to ensure that the multiple education and career transition needs of all young people are met.
The evaluation has demonstrated that there will always be a role for the very flexible programmes and more intimate settings of the POEM model in meeting the needs of the most severely disconnected young people, and that the achievement of high participation and retention targets is unlikely to be met unless there is a continuum of provision that includes the POEM model for those who learn and grow best in supportive community-based learning environments.
Common to both Pilot programmes was the testing of a range of strategies involving partnerships between schools and other education providers, youth and community service agencies, employment brokers, health services and representatives of the community and local industry.
The community support for services and outcomes from both the CAT and the POEM Pilot programmes has continued to grow as the projects become more established. This support presents an opportunity to consider a youth transition system, through partnerships which act to coordinate and integrate existing services and programmes, and thereby build the capacity of communities to support young people through their education and career transitions.
Governments have an important role in better equipping individuals for life, learning and work. The social and economic costs of inaction are enormous, leading ultimately to a low-performing economy and a divisive society with an increasing gap between rich and poor.
An effective youth transition system can act to more efficiently utilise human capital, generating larger dividends from investment in education and training in the form of greater productivity, a higher performance economy, and a happier more satisfied workforce. Effective CAT services can empower individuals with the knowledge to make choices and take advantage of opportunities for successful pathways. Effective outreach and re-engagement strategies such as those embodied in many of the POEM projects, have the potential to reduce the need for a whole range of very expensive lifelong support services and initiatives (such as welfare payments, community services, health services, drug and alcohol programmes, juvenile justice and corrective services to deal with potentially lifelong recidivism), currently required to ameliorate the effects of the negative behaviours resulting from disconnection.
The Pilots have assisted young people to manage the multiple transitions required of them, and were designed to equip young people with the competencies needed to manage life, learning and work. The evaluation has shown that the CAT and the POEM Pilots have achieved significant outcomes in this area.
Conclusion
The evaluation of the CAT and the POEM Pilots has demonstrated – at an individual level and for the society as a whole - the benefits of supporting young people with their transitions through school (including those whose re-entry to education opportunities is being tested through the POEM Pilot) and from school to further education, training and work.
The POEM Pilot has re-engaged in education young people who had disconnected from school and often from their families. Through flexible and holistic approaches to supporting them through their transitions, and with the support of local community partnerships, POEM participants had in many cases recommenced their studies, reconnected with families and achieved optimism and hope. An important lesson from the Pilots serving the transition and educational needs of young Indigenous Australians, particularly in regional areas, was recognising the greater lead-times required to get projects started, reflecting the importance of gaining the support of the broader Indigenous community. The development of support materials (such as Learning Pathways Planning documentation) which were culturally specific or appropriate, and the appointment of Indigenous staff were also found to be useful strategies when implementing education programmes for young Indigenous people. There is also a need for greater resources to implement the specific project elements of a project as outlined above.
The CAT Pilot has demonstrated the value of dedicated career and transition advisers in guiding young people through their transitions in and beyond school. Through working closely with teachers, career advisers and principals in schools in project sites, CAT Advisers assisted significant numbers of young people with their career and transition planning, by working through their individualised Learning Pathways Plans. Like the POEM Pilot, the CAT Advisers were supported by Partnership Committees, the members of which brought to the projects information about the local labour market, career options and support services.
Despite the recent development of a range of State and Territory career and transition activities there remains inconsistency in individuals’ entitlement to comprehensive career and transition support. The Australian Government therefore clearly has a legitimate role in facilitating a nationally consistent entitlement to career and transition support for young people around Australia.
The approaches taken with the Pilots have provided a wealth of action research that demonstrates the need for their particular areas of support. The Pilots also show how these approaches can be extended to become part of a broader ranging youth transition system, involving community partnerships, that bring together the roles and activities of governments at all levels and relevant industry and community interests.
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