Push for career education overhaul as Monash University study reveals students struggling

More than a third of female secondary students fear they won’t ever get a “real” career, and experts are slamming outdated careers advice for causing the anxiety.

Victorian secondary school students are struggling to choose careers and say they are overwhelmed.

More than a third of Victorian female students feel “unemployable” and don’t believe they have the skills needed to enter the workforce.

Experts say Victoria’s outdated and insufficient careers education model is “failing” students and is in urgent need of reform.

The new Monash University study, which surveyed more than 1300 female secondary students in years 10 to 12 across the state, found many students have no sense of direction when it comes to considering a career and feel anxious and stressed about their future.

Nearly 40 per cent said they were concerned about ever achieving a “real” career.

Girls are also confining their career decision making to conventional occupational fields from the “last century” including nursing and teaching, the research revealed.

Researcher Dr Jo Gleeson said young girls were overlooking new and growing careers around digital technology and potentially lucrative vocational options, such as trades.

Young girls from high socio-economic backgrounds are reported to be the most anxious about the future.

“Despite being better educated and more ambitious than previous generations, the young women who participated in our research seem far from liberated,” Dr Gleeson said.

More than half of the female students said they were making career choices to please others, such as parents.

Researcher Lucas Walsh said young girls from high socio-economic backgrounds were the most anxious about the future.

“Some parents who pay for private education for their kids say they want a return on their investment,” he said.

“They want their kids to go to the top-tier universities and pursue conventionally top-earning careers, such as medicine and law.”

A third of female students felt they had insufficient information to make career choices and more than half felt overwhelmed and needed more help to navigate it.

“Careers advice needs to do much more than tell young people about what subjects to do in year 12 to qualify for certain degrees, or hand out pamphlets at university open days,” Mr Walsh said.

“We’re getting young people either getting poor quality information, or they’re being pulled in a bunch of directions. That’s producing this anxiety.

“Some schools may have dedicated careers teachers. Students sometimes seek private careers counselling. Others may have nothing.”

Mr Walsh called on the state government to implement careers education into the curriculum as a subject.

Experts say some parents who pay for their children to go to private school want them to pursue top-tier careers.

“There’s a counter argument that I hear time and time and again — the curriculum is already crowded, and teachers are busy,” he said.

“But one of the core purposes of education is to get a job, and preferably a satisfying one.

“There is still a long way to go in improving students’ knowledge and attitudes as well as the practices of frontline school-based careers advisers.”

A Department of Education spokesman said they delivered “dedicated careers education” to students from the beginning of secondary school.

“Career education is a priority in Victoria – and we’re strengthening the support schools give young people to make sure they are equipped with the skills and capabilities to navigate complex decisions about the multiple careers they’ll have throughout their lives,” they said.

In the 2018/19 Budget, the state government announced $109m over four years for the Transforming Career Education in Victorian Government Schools initiative.