The study monitored 800 students who left high school in 2020 while receiving support from the charity.
Unsurprisingly, better school attendance, higher grades and completing year 12 were all associated with better employment and training outcomes, the research found, but access to career advice was fundamental to success.
“Highly engaged young people had clear goals, strong support networks and well-developed career management skills. They successfully navigated alternative pathways, overcame setbacks and adjusted plans while staying on track,” the report said.
Last year, the long-awaited Universities Accord set a target for students from poorer backgrounds to make up 25 per cent of university places. The Rudd government in 2009 set a target of 20 per cent, but universities have so far failed to achieve anywhere close to that.
There were 66,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds in tertiary education in 2023, federal Department of Education data shows, about 16.9 per cent of all students.
There has also been a decline in the number of students taking up initial teacher education degrees, as well as a slight decrease in those taking up nursing, while society and culture courses were also down. By comparison, information technology, engineering and hospitality and personal service courses were up, the data released in March showed.
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The Smith Family said its report indicated schools needed to focus on intentional career development learning which should include personalised career advice and support.
The report also found while 87 per cent of young people from a disadvantaged background were either working or studying three years after leaving high school, those who had work were often in insecure, part-time jobs which had very limited opportunities for promotion.
The charity’s head of research and advocacy Anne Hampshire said career counselling must connect young people with the world of work beyond school.
“Many of the young people we spoke to wanted much more personalised careers advice, thinking about what they were interested in, helping them to connect to employers, helping them to get exposure to different industries and particularly new jobs that are going to be created in the future,” she said.
“We cannot expect the one lone careers adviser to provide that support for the whole of the school. What works much, much more is when there are partnerships developed … to really support within the school, young people to have access to employers, to universities.”
McCullough knows the value of supporting boys from disadvantaged backgrounds first-hand.
After his stints as a plumber and plasterer, he landed a job as a trainee with Top Blokes, a charity organisation which runs mentoring programs for young men focused on healthy masculinity, respectful relationships, mental health, leadership, and positive decision-making.
“I wanted to do something where I can connect with people more on that psychological level,” he said.
Sara Abdalhadi graduated from Liverpool Girls High School last year and knew she always wanted to be a doctor. Having the goal was the easy part: actually securing a spot in a pre-med program meant she needed to be tactical about her academic focus. Fortunately, career counselling was readily available at her school.
“My career adviser was my rock,” she said.
Sara Abdalhadi is studying medicine at Macquarie University. Credit: Steven Siewert
She met her every fortnight last year and, Abdalhadi said, helped her balance the competing priorities of getting the required ATAR, scoring well in the medical school admissions test and succeeding in an interview.
“I think she kept me going. Like, obviously, everyone has their bad days, and everyone loses hope sometimes, especially when you’re coming from, like, a school that is not as recognised as other schools,” she said.
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