How well do youth fare in labour markets around the world?

Australia’s youth employment rates are beginning to show positive progress, with numerous regions across the country now becoming ‘hotspots’ for job creation and apprenticeship uptake.

WA rates in particular are ‘very encouraging’ and ‘demonstrate that the regions do indeed boast strong economies and good employers’, so says Skillset’s CEO, Craig Randazzo.

However, it’s always insightful to view things on a relative global scale, so let’s take a look at youth labour market outcomes in relation to youth participation in vocational education and overall education quality.

In the countries highlighted in green, less than 10% of young people are not in employment, education or training!

Now, let’s look at how these countries with strong youth labour market outcomes do when it comes to involvement in VET.

Almost all countries in this selection have high-quality VET programs that enrol at least 1/3 of all upper-secondary students. But what about overall education performance?

Likewise, almost all countries in this selection have overall student performance at or considerably above the OECD average. And the two outliers, Iceland and Luxembourg, have high rates of upper-secondary VET participation (previous chart).

While economic factors outside of education have an impact on youth labour participation, the impact of high-quality, upper-secondary VET programs and of overall high-performance for all students is apparent.

As the highest-performing country on these overall scales, Singapore offers compelling insights for policymakers in Australia. It certainly begs the conclusion that the mission for improving education in Australia should be informed by lessons from the world’s best and most equitable education systems, so that all students, particularly those who face the greatest challenges, have access to a world-class education.

The question is, are we doing this, and are we doing this enough?

Written by: Beth Hampton

I came to Australia in late 2016, having spent some time travelling through Southeast Asia and briefly living in Singapore – I was ready to embrace the lifestyle of a working Sydneysider!

I grew up in London, and completed my degree in Psychology at the University of York. I always dreamed of landing a job in the police, but figured it was worth swapping the handcuffs and late shifts for an exciting new city and a job full of fun and opportunity in a fantastic company like Akolade!

Love cooking, playing the piano, terrible British soap operas, an ice-cold G&T and exploring new places.