School Students Making Education and Career Decisions: Aspirations, Attitudes and Influences - Final Report

The report provides findings of 96 focus groups held with students in Year 10 and 12, their parents, and their school career guidance officers and principals to explore how and when school students develop career aspirations and plans; who and what are the main influences on their decisions; the importance and role of career education and career counsellors; and student attitudes to study and career options available to them, especially vocational education and training (VET) in schools, the trades and teaching.

The study was commissioned by DEST and the field work was undertaken in the second half of 2003 in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. It covered 9 government schools, of which one was a regional school, and around 340 students. Schools and students were selected so as to provide insights into decision making according to school socio-economic status (SES) and metropolitan/regional location, and student gender and academic orientation.

Some of the main findings were:

Parents are the most significant influence on the formation of students’ career aspirations;

Career advisers are less influential but very important in helping students to clarify their options and pathways to achieve them. Career advising in schools is of variable quality;

60% of students aimed to go to university and 20% to VET courses (including apprenticeships), reflecting students’ hope of a career in professional occupations. Back up plans feature VET more prominently;

VET opportunities are not well understood by many students. Traditional trades are not often perceived as attractive options and the image of VET is still relatively poor compared to university;

Teaching is not a first choice profession for a variety of reasons, especially among males.

Full Report: RTF RTF (2.2 MB); PDF PDF Document (982.2 KB)