Abstract

The association between family background and educational attainment persists across countries and across time. One factor that has attracted plenty of interest among researchers and policymakers is occupational aspirations. Rather than focus on encouraging young people to aim high, we may want to consider how education systems work to support the development and achievement of aspirations. Although the Australian education system is comprehensive with no formal tracking between schools, some schools, typically private schools and government schools in high socio-economic status areas, focus on preparing students for university whereas other schools focus on preparing students for VET (vocational education and training) and the labour market. That is, the system is theoretically comprehensive but tracked in practice.  Drawing on data from the LSAY (Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth) project, I examine associations between the occupational aspirations of 15 year olds and their family background, their peer group and levels of academic achievement, as measured by PISA. I code occupational aspirations at age 15 according to the ISEI (International Socio-Economic Index) and divide the ISEI distribution into quintiles. In other words, the focus is on the level of occupational prestige rather than the occupation itself. A comparison of ISEI values for aspirations at age 15 and occupational outcomes at age 30 is not possible due to data limitations, therefore, I focus on whether young people appear to be on the path to achieve their aspirations. Preliminary analysis indicates that a large majority of young people held aspirations for occupations in the top quintile of the ISEI. In other words, jobs with the highest levels of prestige.

The lecture is part of the colloquium of department 2.