NSW high school students are to be given access to statistical data findings to help them make better career choices following a successful pilot project from the Departments of Education and the Department of Industry.
The Department of Education said a 2017 pilot of its Pathways for the Future Program linked and studied de-identified data on young people in NSW between 1996 and 2016.
“Using this data, we analysed different student and learner groups, mapped their pathways through senior secondary school, tertiary education and into work at age 24, and explored the drivers of positive employment outcomes,” the Department said.
“We are now working on a new program of work that expands upon the Pathways Pilot Program,” it said.
“We plan to fill gaps in the data and to extend the age range to better understand students’ lifelong learning journeys through education and work.”
The Department said the Program would help empower and equip students with knowledge of study, training and work options so they could make informed decisions about their future careers.
It said that through the Program students would be able to explore information about subjects and key education or training milestones that could boost their employment prospects.
“The next phase of the project includes refining the de-identified dataset to better answer the questions of 21st Century students and to analyse lifelong journeys from education to work,” it said.
The Department said it was to study de-identified data from a broad spectrum of people who attended a NSW secondary school, who undertook a vocational education and training qualification, or who completed an apprenticeship, traineeship or higher education qualification in NSW from 1996 to 2020.
It said the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Centre for Health Records Linkage were the authorised linkage authorities responsible for linking and de-identifying the data.
It said findings from the pilot Program would be made available to the public later this year and people could request that their data be withdrawn from the newly linked datasets and the 2017-2020 refresh of datasets until 30 October.
Further information on the Program can be accessed at this PS News link.
