Calls to give school leavers ‘more information’ about the reality of the labour market

Youth advocates say those in their final years of school simply aren’t given enough information to make informed decisions about their future once they leave school.

It comes after research found “passion” and not money and possible employment prospects drove most students and their decisions.

Will Stubley from the Year 13 academy told Tom Elliott more needed to be done during high school to inform students about their options once they leave the classroom.

“That’s one of the biggest problems,” he said.

“They’re not given the opportunity to understand the labour market.”

Mr Stubley said when they were, it had an immediate impact, pointing to a real-life study involving an apprentice Sydney carpenter and a Sydney student studying arts at university.

“When you take into consideration the amount of money earned, and money spent, on apprenticeship wages and university degrees – the apprentice was $150,000 ahead,” he said.

“We actually put that stat in front of young people and just that one metric increased the consideration of apprenticeships by more than double.”

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