Business leaders push to remove ‘stigma’ around high school dropouts

BUSINESS leaders are pushing to eliminate the “stigma” surrounding high-school dropouts and let students make their own choices from as early as year nine.

Business groups are pushing the message that school isn’t for everyone as they reveal a tradie shortage.

BUSINESS leaders are pushing to eliminate the “stigma” surrounding high-school dropouts.

A coalition of industry groups has banded together to push the government to support school-age kids on their path to apprenticeships rather than pushing them to finish year 12 and strive for university.

The campaign comes as the number of apprenticeships in Australia had dropped by 45 per cent in the past five years — from 515,000 apprentices in June 2012 to 282,000 at the same time last year.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said a major contributor to the decline in taking up trades was “snobbery” promoted in high school education, and the tendency to look down on dropouts.

“The whole direction when you were sent to school is about getting to university, and the whole focus of year 11 and 12 is what mark you get. We’ve become a nation that’s testing people all the time, when we need to become a nation that’s skilling people,” she told news.com.au.

Ms Westacott said the way the Australian school system was set up — with targets to complete a year 12 education — was misguided, and that kids should be free to make informed choices about continuing their education from year nine.

“We accepted that this is the way it’s been for so long, but we haven’t looked at better ways a young person can set themselves up for the future,” she said.

Ms Westacott said there were limited resources for kids who were deciding whether to continue their education beyond year 10, and there needed to be more guidance in place so that students could know their options.

She conceded that kids who didn’t complete year 12 or equivalent qualifications were much more likely to be unemployed, but said it was important to give young people an alternative career path — one that might suit them better than university.

For those that did decide to pick up a trade, Ms Westacott said there were advantages in teenagers starting their apprenticeships earlier, and beginning their careers before their peers had finished their education.

“They’ll start working earlier. Part of the challenge with our university system is that kids are going to be at uni for four or five years” she said.

“A lot of kids want to be working soon because they want the money, and that’s fair enough, but also they’re going to have the experience that will help them get their next job as well.”

Mr Westacott said career counselling needed to be more available to high school students from year nine, when many were deciding whether to continue their secondary education, or take an alternative path after their compulsory schooling finished at year 10.

The group of business organisations, which includes the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group, and the Business Council of Australia is pushing the Federal Government to maintain the agreed $1.75 billion in funding for the National Partnership Agreement focused on apprenticeships. They’re also calling on “more effective regulation, information and support, data and path ways into apprenticeships”.

Originally published as Business leaders push to remove ‘stigma’ around high school dropouts