Improving Post-School Outcomes for Rural School Leavers

Abstract

A study of Year 10 leavers from rural high schools in Tasmania has found that school pressures to remain in Years 11 and 12 have not necessarily solved the post-school career dilemmas of rural youth. Indeed, despite growing numbers of VET options in schools, these are not being taken up significantly by younger students despite student and family aspirations for a ‘steady job” and job related training, within an increasingly depressed and casualised regional labour market. Implications of family support and community “social capital” in negotiating a way through the trials and errors of the work/study mosaic are discussed in relation to national policy frameworks.