Education and training The national Year 12 retention rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is 32.1 per cent compared to 72.7 per cent for other students. Research shows that poorer education levels not only affect employment opportunities and income levels, they also have an impact on crime rates and health status, subsequently resulting in social and economic costs for government and society, particularly Indigenous communities. Improving education and training is a priority in order to bring about changes in any of the subsequent key action areas.
Education is the key to economic and social empowerment.
By implementing the actions below there is the capacity to make substantial gains, particularly in student performance, experience and skill building, curriculum approaches and cultural understanding, in the very short term. We need to strengthen existing partnerships and create new alliances and approaches. Providers begin with an audit of their existing training programs to identify the level of local employer demand for program graduates. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Indigenous population is likely to increase from an estimated 386,000 in 1996 to 469,100 by 2006. This is double the growth rate for non-Indigenous Australians.