Socioeconomic disadvantage is disruptive to a young person’s education and to their school to work transitions. Young people from families with low socioeconomic status have lower levels of literacy, numeracy and comprehension and are more likely to leave school early. Once a young person opts out of school their life chances are seriously reduced. Around 40% of year 10 school leavers end up unemployed or NILF (not in labour force), compared to only 10% of 12 school completers.
Beacon Foundation works with schools in disadvantaged communities to prevent young people going onto insecure or unproductive post school pathways. Every Beacon school is committed to preventing their students leaving school without a defined pathway and becoming marginalised from school, training and work as a result. The results speak for themselves. Beacon schools have comparatively better retention, employment and participation than the national rates, despite the myriad of challenges they face. Our 2010 Outcomes Report shows that:
Post program, the percentage of Beacon students likely to go onto insecure or unclear pathways was halved from 30% to just under 13%.
Beacon students are over five times less likely to be disengaged from full time education, training or employment after year 10 than the national average for 16 year olds (1.2%, compared to 6.6%).
Beacon schools report above average grade progression from year 10 to 11. 92% of students were still in education six months post year 10, which is 3% more than the national average of 89%. The average for low SES schools would ordinarily be lower.
The unemployment rate for Beacon students post year 10 is five times lower than the national unemployment rate for 16 year olds (0.4% compared to 2.1%)
If we could achieve what Beacon schools are achieving Australia wide for all 16 year olds then we could potentially help more young people go on to productive and meaningful post school pathways.
