LSAY follows nationally representative cohorts of people aged 15—25 years over a ten-year period, with interviews taking place annually. Each cohort starts out with about 14 000 students. To date, there have been five cohorts, the first beginning in 1995 (known as Y95), followed by further cohorts in 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2009 (known as the Y98, Y03, Y06 and Y09 cohorts respectively). Information collected as part of the LSAY program covers a wide range of school and post-school topics, including: literacy and numeracy achievement attitudes to school aspirations post-school plans careers advice work experiences what students do when they leave school. It also covers a wealth of other information about young people’s family background, their living arrangements, looking for work, job training and satisfaction, their financial situation, and satisfaction with life. The importance of LSAY The LSAY program is an important evidence base for youth policy, providing information on the key transition points in young people’s lives up to the age of 25 years. LSAY findings continue to contribute to the evidence base for policy initiatives. Examples include: increased financial assistance to regional/remote Australians for relocating to reforms to youth, career and transition policies and programs structured workplace learning opportunities for students undertaking VET at school. These kinds of policy changes ultimately lead to increased chances of successful study, employment and community outcomes. Since 2010, there have been more than 300 citations of LSAY work in reports, papers, journal articles and the like. There have been more than 10 000 unique page views of the reports published under the LSAY program in 2013 and LSAY research was cited 76 times in the media. The program’s capacity for more nuanced and sophisticated analytical techniques enables important policy or research questions to be explored. Because each cohort follows the same young people over a ten-year period, changes to their circumstances can be observed. The design also allows for comparisons between population subgroups over time, providing useful and relevant evidence for policy development. Governments are interested in what is happening to particular groups of individuals and how they are faring in the context of changing economic, educational and social environments. LSAY is one of the few longitudinal surveys in the world supporting multiple cohorts, thereby allowing comparisons to be made across different time periods and between cohorts at the same age. This feature substantially adds to the value of the LSAY program.
LSAY follows nationally representative cohorts of people aged 15—25 years over a ten-year period, with interviews taking place annually. Each cohort starts out with about 14 000 students. To date, there have been five cohorts, the first beginning in 1995 (known as Y95), followed by further cohorts in 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2009 (known as the Y98, Y03, Y06 and Y09 cohorts respectively). Information collected as part of the LSAY program covers a wide range of school and post-school topics, including: literacy and numeracy achievement attitudes to school aspirations post-school plans careers advice work experiences what students do when they leave school. It also covers a wealth of other information about young people’s family background, their living arrangements, looking for work, job training and satisfaction, their financial situation, and satisfaction with life. The importance of LSAY The LSAY program is an important evidence base for youth policy, providing information on the key transition points in young people’s lives up to the age of 25 years. LSAY findings continue to contribute to the evidence base for policy initiatives. Examples include: increased financial assistance to regional/remote Australians for relocating to reforms to youth, career and transition policies and programs structured workplace learning opportunities for students undertaking VET at school. These kinds of policy changes ultimately lead to increased chances of successful study, employment and community outcomes. Since 2010, there have been more than 300 citations of LSAY work in reports, papers, journal articles and the like. There have been more than 10 000 unique page views of the reports published under the LSAY program in 2013 and LSAY research was cited 76 times in the media. The program’s capacity for more nuanced and sophisticated analytical techniques enables important policy or research questions to be explored. Because each cohort follows the same young people over a ten-year period, changes to their circumstances can be observed. The design also allows for comparisons between population subgroups over time, providing useful and relevant evidence for policy development. Governments are interested in what is happening to particular groups of individuals and how they are faring in the context of changing economic, educational and social environments. LSAY is one of the few longitudinal surveys in the world supporting multiple cohorts, thereby allowing comparisons to be made across different time periods and between cohorts at the same age. This feature substantially adds to the value of the LSAY program.
youth-transitions-in-aus-2772.docx