Education in the Media - Research Proposal Example

 Education in the Media CONTENTS SUMMARY This report identifies four research articles which describe the plight of today’s youths in procuring adequate employment after leaving school. Coupled with the current poor economic conditions being felt in Australia (and abroad), youths are simply unable to find adequate employment and are looking for alternatives to expand their knowledge-base. The articles presented in this report identify problems with diminished welfare assistance, high dropout rates in various industry-specific training programmes, poor youth budgeting skills, and a breakdown in the availability of important apprenticeship and traineeship programmes in Australia. All of these identified problems create opportunities for today’s educators and governmental policy makers to re-examine the current compulsory curricula in place today and readjust it to best fit employer perceptions and also to diversify youth skills profiles. Various statistics, in a variety of domains, are offered to illustrate the problems with today’s school leavers and their responses to existing school programmes designed to offer them better, more functional skills for entering the labour workforce. The government has developed industry-specific training programmes for school leavers in an effort to build a stronger skills portfolio in youths, however only a very small percentage of youths actually complete these programmes even though they are designed to give youths long-term opportunities for career growth. This points toward a growing need to change existing school policies and programmes in a manner which gives marketing appeal to youths and offers the incentive to actually complete this much-needed training. Response to Education in the Media Recession and the Lost Youth Generation A recent article in the Herald Sun describes the difficulties of today’s school leavers in finding adequate employment due to the challenging economic climate in Australia and around the globe. This article stems from a social justice professional, Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers, who illustrates that due to shrinking availability of welfare programmes in Australia, youths are not only finding employment difficulties, but also face potential homelessness in this economic crisis. The source of this article comes from expert statistics in the welfare division of Australian government which examines the plights of today’s school leavers not only in relation to education, but also in procuring adequate housing in an employment environment which consistently leaves youths without access to welfare assistance, apprenticeships, or traineeships (Power, 2009). Today’s unstable economic conditions have created an inability to provide adequate welfare assistance to school leavers, leaving educational policy makers concerned that this crisis will create a “lost generation” of youths who might no longer be viable in today’s Australian job market as they cannot get access to formal job skills or receive governmental assistance in their job searches (Power). Byrne and McCoy (2009) further support the difficulties of today’s school leavers, suggesting that those who are currently entering the labour market for the first time are the most vulnerable job-seekers due to the current difficult economic environment. At the same time, as families struggle with economic problems, many parents are defaulting on their mortgages, leaving their youths with absolutely nowhere to turn in order to find the stability needed to continue in their job searches (Power). With businesses overlooking new traineeships and apprenticeships, this is providing today’s school leavers with much less opportunity to enhance their professional skills. In the transition stage between formal education and entering the job environment, youths are finding themselves more concerned over financial matters. At the same time, with teenager access to welfare being unavailable due to economic difficulties, the stresses and anxieties which could result could lead this potential lost generation to find themselves without any important, transferrable skills. This is especially true for male youths, as job losses in today’s economic recession are mostly in manufacturing and construction, jobs which are largely held by men rather than their female counterparts (Schramm, 2009). The financial services area, additionally, is another area of business which is largely dominated by men, thus the difficulties in procuring a quality job is even more of a concern for young, transitional male teens (Schramm). The point of governmental programmes related to education and the workforce have been established to give transitional youths the opportunity to expand their professional knowledge and become active and viable members of today’s workforce. However, with even governmental programmes drying up and access to rental housing almost impossible to procure, the idea that today’s school leavers could become the lost generation is most certainly a probability. This is of considerable concern to today’s educators who work diligently to provide youths with the functional skills necessary to become active workers in a variety of industries. From the educator’s perspective, this could also be a point of considerable frustration as their dedication to teaching and the provision of youth knowledge is being wasted due to shrinking job-support programmes. This could be a proverbial wake-up call to governmental policy makers to provide further funding for school leaver programmes and working with various industry leaders to develop more viable trainee or apprentice campaigns. Youth homelessness and youth joblessness will have a long-term impact on economic stability in the Australian region as consumerism is reduced, thus this is a concern for every stakeholder in society. Drop Out Ratios Increasing Another article from the NZ Herald describes that dropout rates are increasing in programmes which provide transitional youths with specialized industry training. The source of this article stems from statistics from both the Labour Government and the Chief Executive of Competenz, a manufacturing and engineering training organisation, both knowledgeable organisations which consistently track youth participation in such programmes. Industry training involves industries such as polytechnics, engineering, food services, and manufacturing, which are some of the most sought-after career opportunities in Australia today. These types of industries provide considerable economic growth in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and can be significant contributors to the economic health of a nation. Therefore, higher dropout rates in these programmes are of considerable concern to all members of society if there is not an adequately-trained youth workforce prepared and trained to accept these job roles. The article offers that completion rates for these types of school leaver industry training programmes is less than 10 percent (Smith, 2009). This is a rather startling statistic, especially considering that the government provides considerable financial resources into ensuring that these programmes are available for transitioning students. Most surprisingly, the government provides $2200 per year for each student who pursues these industry training programmes, thus there is an incentive to complete the entire programme, however youths simply are not finding this to be an attractive training campaign. “There is a wealth of evidence showing that learning by doing enhances young people’s ability to perform well in the workplace” (Shoesmith, 2009, p.21). This is the point of these extended industry training programmes, to provide youths with hands-on experience in multiple industries to give them the functional skills necessary to become active participants in the workforce. Thus, the programmes, from a stakeholder perspective, are theoretically sound and the government appears to be on the right track as far as ensuring that there is an additional financial incentive available to attend and complete these training campaigns. Educators should be greatly concerned about these extremely high dropout rates, as there is likely something about the programmes which students are finding too stressful or difficult to complete. This might also be another proverbial wake-up call to educators and governmental policy makers to examine whether there are aspects of this industry training which should be redesigned or restructured to be perceived as more lucrative to transitional youths. In the horticulture industry, as one example, the completion rate is only 12 percent (Smith). In Food Processing, there is a zero percent completion rate (Smith). This again would reinforce that it is, perhaps, the specific types of industries which transitional youths are not finding appealing, suggesting that new and more innovative industries which have more marketing appeal should be the focus of these training programmes. Perhaps it is just the variety of industries offered to the contemporary youth which is causing high drop-out rates. In any event, all stakeholders should be concerned as taxpayer funds are being utilised to maintain these industry training programmes and if youths are abandoning them, this represents a waste of funds which could be applied to more relevant and interesting industries. Budgeting Skills Again in relation to the current economic crisis in Australia, a recent article from Courier Mail describes that school leavers, today, are ill-equipped with the knowledge necessary to budget their expenditures. The article suggests that today’s youths have been somewhat spoiled by their dependence on parental financial support and are not prepared to function independently in the professional world with the ability to regulate finances. The source of this article describes the opinion of Timothy Fredericks, team leader of strategy and modelling at Suncorp, who suggests that this is one of the most fundamental learning lessons required of transitional youths and this lack of budgeting knowledge can cause significant difficulty long-term (Chung, 2009). Expert opinion from leading business professionals only reinforces that financial awareness and budgeting should be a fundamental learning lesson for today’s youths prior to leaving school in the pursuit of independent living and workforce adaptation. The idea that students can get themselves into a great deal of financial trouble is supported by Dolcamp (2008) who offers that many youths get themselves into financial nightmares when they begin relying on credit cards to sustain their lives at their individual colleges or universities. According to the author, students can quickly amass $5000 in debt in just a few months because “no one ever sat them down and explained the financial facts of life; how credit cards work and why they can be dangerous” (Dolcamp, 2008, p.103). It would seem that budgeting is not one of the fundamental educational outcomes of today’s Australian (or even worldwide) educational systems. It was previously identified in another article that rapidly-diminishing availability to welfare programmes and far less trainee and apprenticeship programmes is causing youths difficulties in procuring the funds necessary to sustain life outside of the educational system. Thus, if youths are turning toward credit in order to sustain their lifestyles after leaving school (or during their university experience), this should create a new awareness of the need to provide some sort of budgeting classes to assist youths in understanding the dangers of credit and how to manage their personal finances. “For students ready to cut the apron strings straight away, they’ll need a crash course in ‘Budgeting 101’ to ensure they are equipped to survive in the real world” (Chung, 2009, p.1). Educators, school leavers, parents, and even the government should be considerably concerned about students relying on credit in order to sustain their lifestyle needs, as this can put a burden on the broader society. Higher instances of youth bankruptcies, due to poor budgeting skills and reliance on credit, strains the economic stability of a nation and also impacts areas of consumerism and governmental funds availability. It would seem that redeveloping the school curriculum to provide budgeting know-how and assistance should be a primary focus, especially in an economic environment where jobs are becoming more scarce and welfare provision is diminishing. If youths, today, have nowhere to turn but to the credit card in order to sustain their needs, the long-term impact on society and the youths’ financial portfolios is detrimental. Governmental and/or educational policy makers should be re-examining mandated curriculum guidelines to ensure that students are equipped with the knowledge necessary to manage their personal finances so as to provide more positive long-term benefits to society. No Jobs? Travel Overseas The Daily Telegraph provides a recent article which describes the boost in travel companies’ revenue streams stemming from school leavers who have simply been unable to find adequate employment in today’s economic conditions and have turned toward international travel as an alternative (Kleinig, 2009). Additionally, international universities are receiving record applicants from school leavers who are looking for alternatives in an environment where the employment market is in continuous decline (Kleinig). The source of this article involves statistical information from Kim Paino, University Admissions Centre Information Services Director as well as Glyn Williams, a notable professional from Lattitude, an Australian travel agency. Both professionals acknowledge unexpected increases in school leavers looking toward international options in an effort to ride out the tough economic crisis in the country and escape the frustrations involved with the inability to procure adequate employment after graduation. These professionals are knowledgeable experts in their industries, thus the statistics they provide offer substantial research evidence that Australian school leavers are facing multiple dimensions of frustration due to economic, regional instability. The article further insinuates that the most prevalent, available jobs in Australia are low-paying positions in offices or in a bar (nightclub) type of environment, thus they do not consider their current job opportunities in Australia to be appealing or lucrative (Kleinig). Therefore, they turn toward international university study as a means to expand their knowledge-base and improve their transferrable job skills so that once the economy has stabilized, they can be more viable and worthwhile job candidates upon return to Australia. Another recent article proposes that youths should be forced, through governmental policy mandates, to remain in school an additional year in order to give them functional and worthwhile job skills and prepare them more efficiently for the labour market (Berkovic, 2009). “Forcing kids to stay in school an extra year boosts their lifetime earnings by about 10 percent” (Berkovic, 2009, p.1). Perhaps the largest problem involved with students seeking international travel and education abroad as a means to ride out the economic crisis is that youths are not being provided with a wide enough variety of functional job skills in the current, traditional educational system. Therefore, they might be leaving school with a skills profile that is not considered to be largely attractive by a variety of employers in multiple industries. Once again, governmental and educational policy makers might wish to consider increasing the compulsory school age at which students should leave school by another year, allowing the final year curriculum to consist of a broader range of industry-specific skills. It seems that the current economic environment has created a mindset for many employers that transitioning youths are not considered to be as viable as their older, more experienced counterparts in relation to professional knowledge and experience. Therefore, they are often over-looked for hiring, especially with the downturn in trainee and apprentice programmes. Raising the compulsory age would give educators the opportunity to create elective-style coursework which allows students to choose from different labour-oriented programmes which can best fit the contemporary employer mindset. Giving youths the extra year of study could focus on delivery of various industry certificates, illustrating that they have met the governmentally-mandated criteria needed to become qualified and competent business leaders in multiple industries. Though this would require significant effort on behalf of educators, students and the government in order to implement, such an extended programme might offer the incentive for youths to explore domestic opportunities rather than turning toward international options to improve their skills base or simply escape current, difficult economic environments. Conclusion It is clear that today’s economic crisis causes significant problems for many different youths who are unable to procure sustainable or financially-lucrative jobs. Additionally, the breakdown of available welfare or other government-sponsored programmes for jobs training creates a frustrating environment for today’s school leavers, forcing them to turn to credit to sustain their needs or attempt to broaden their skills profile by escaping into international environments for further study. This should be of considerable concern to all members of Australian society as these youths represent the future of business and industry, thus their immediate needs in relation to education and workforce experience should have a more concentrated focus. The economic environment should also be of considerable interest to the male school leaver, who generally dominate the manufacturing, construction, and financial services industries. The pressures to find adequate employment, for the male youth, should give pause to today’s policy makers to examine whether existing training or other educational programmes are actually congruent to the needs of today’s workforce. With such a high percentage of dropout rates in relation to industry training programmes offered by the educational system, this statistic really points toward a total re-examination of whether industry-related training is sufficient to meet the demands of a difficult labour market. It was described that raising the compulsory age for school-leaving by another year might provide youths with the skills necessary to create a diverse, certificate-justified resume which highlights a broader labour skills profile. Though there would certainly be financial costs to such an educational focus, it would seem the most viable option to prepare students to enter a very volatile and uncertain job market. As identified in one of the research articles, budgeting and understanding the long-term dangers of relying on credit to sustain lifestyle should be included in such a restructured programme. It does not seem that school leavers are impressed with the job opportunities available to them as they struggle to enter the workforce for the first time. Why these youths are exploring international opportunities for travel or further education is not entirely clear, however it is logical to assume it is because they have lost faith in the Australian economic environment as it exists today. This tends to point toward a youth trend in relation to their perceived role in today’s labour market which should give educators and other policy makers an opportunity to re-examine whether traditional educational or industry training programmes are adequate to meet youth needs during this transitional phase between education and entering the workforce. With school leavers, traditionally, having become accustomed to parental support during their learning years but are now facing difficulties as parents struggle to make ends meet in tough economic conditions, opportunities for assistance in this area is also depleting. Coupled with drops in available welfare or other government-sponsored programmes, there is clearly a need to develop a more sound curriculum which forces youths to explore multiple industry-related skills to diversify their knowledge base. This is a role which can only be accomplished through the dedicated support and assistance of the government and educational leaders. However, it is clearly something which cannot be ignored as youths, long-term, can be creating further economic problems in Australia if they exit the country looking for opportunities or put financial burden on society’s stakeholders by being unable to contribute to areas of consumerism. Something must be done to build a positive linkage between youth skills profiles and meeting the demands of a rapidly-changing and volatile labour market. References Byrne, D. and McCoy, S. (2009). “School leavers: How are they doing?”. Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin. Berkovic, Nicola. (2009). “Keep kids at school longer for core skills”. The Australian. Retrieved 20 Sept 2009 from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25163892-13881,00.html. Chung, Francis. (2009). “In tight economic times, uni students need budgeting skills”. Courier Mail. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24920560-3102,00.html Dolcamp, Marina C. (2008). “Many College Students Graduate Bankrupt”. Business & Finance Week. 21 April, p.103. Retrieved 20 Sept 2009 from ABI/INFORM Global Database. Kleinig, Xanthe. (2009). “School leavers and workers taking gap years overseas”. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 Sept 2009 from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/travel/news/pack-up-troubles-and-travel/story-e6frezi0-1111119048157 Power, Emily. (2009). “Recession could create ‘lost generation’. Herald Sun. Retrieved 21 Sept 2009 from http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,25180435-5015825,00.html. Schramm, Jennifer. (2009). “Unequal Unemployment”. HRMagazine, Alexandria. 54(2), p.80. Shoesmith, Kate. (2009). “Practical Learning: A Vital Opportunity”. New Statesman, London. 138(4931), p.21. Smith, Jacqueline. (2009). “Most trade trainees drop out early”. NZ Herald. Retrieved 21 Sept 2009 from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10568110. Read More