The long- term benefits to increasing educational attainment can help improve multidimensional social exclusion. How education can help improve social inclusion Simulating what would happen to exclusion rates if Australia’s educational attainment were lifted to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) target of halving the proportion of Australians aged 20—64 years without qualifications at certificate III level and above between 2009 and 2020. Because education and skills is one of the domains of multidimensional social exclusion, increasing educational attainment directly increases inclusion. However, because the contribution of the education and skills domain to overall social exclusion is only about 12%, this immediate impact is relatively modest. Alternatively, a longer-term view can be taken: if it is accepted that, with increased educational levels, other variables such as health, income and labour market outcomes will also change, then the impact on the multidimensional exclusion measure is stronger, resulting in a reduction of the ‘headcount’ measure of social exclusion of approximately 30%. Note that the change in the variables will, on average, take on the levels observed for current school completers. It might be considered this is mainly due to assuming higher incomes (‘material resources’) in tandem with assuming higher education levels. This is not the case, as the income poverty headcount ratio barely changes. It is the other dimensions, such as health, personal safety and employment, and in particular their combined impact, which reduce multidimensional social exclusion under the COAG scenario. For further information about the Brotherhood of St Laurence Social Exclusion Monitor and to see the latest research based on its data, go to w monitor/>.
VET IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM Various policies at both national and state levels are aimed at helping disadvantaged individuals to reach their educational potential and improve their labour market opportunities. The introduction of VET in Schools in the 1990s is one such initiative that aims to retain less academically inclined students in school, while also providing them with a broad range of post- secondary options. This initiative was expanded in the early 2000s with the introduction of scored VET subjects, which allows for some VET in Schools subjects to count towards a national VET qualification and a university entry score, providing yet more options for students. This aspect of VET in Schools programs is the focus of Does scored VET in schools help or hinder access to higher education in Victoria? (Polidano, Tabasso & Zhang 2014). The motivation for introducing scored VET subjects was to improve the status of VET in the secondary school curriculum. A further benefit was that it offered viable options to students who were not entirely certain of which pathway to take — university or vocational education and training. Victoria was the focus of the research because its VET programs have been highly integrated into the Victorian secondary school curriculum since the 1990s and it was the first state to introduce scored VET programs. The effect of undertaking a scored VET subject The study shows that, among those who intend to go to university, students who take a scored VET subject on average have a university entry score of around six points lower than those who do not take a scored VET subject (111 compared with 117 out of a possible 205). Consistent with a lower university entry score, those who take scored VET subjects have a 12 percentage-point lower chance of receiving a university offer. Most of the lower university entry score can be attributed to the relatively low scores attained in scored VET subjects. An exploratory analysis suggests that current subject-scaling arrangements in Victoria that adjust for differences in the difficulty in attaining the middle ranking in a subject may be a key reason. In particular, scored VET subjects appear to be scaled down more than general subjects. This is because there is a relatively high proportion of students in these subjects who do not apply for university but who concentrate their effort in VET subjects, possibly to attain a vocational qualification. This research highlights an example of an unintended outcome resulting from efforts to make VET meet conflicting purposes; namely, opening up VET pathways without closing off higher education options. Broadening VET in Schools pathways may not necessarily benefit all students.