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The chapter focuses on the precariousness of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic, trying to illustrate how the subjectivity of individuals may take shape in relation to the changing social reality. Although the relationship with the world of work is regarded as central in framing youth experiences, in contemporary societies precarious conditions extend beyond the labour market. After illustrating how precarisation is affecting current forms of subjectivation under the sign of uncertainty, the chapter aims to interpret the way precariousness is experienced by young people in relation to different life dimensions. Some possible research avenues for exploring and supporting young people’s life paths during and after the pandemic are indicated in the concluding section.

This report presents findings from survey data collected in 2020 from participants of the first two Life Patterns Program cohorts. In 2020, cohort 1 participants were aged 46 – 47 years (corresponding to generation X) and cohort 2 were aged 31 – 32 years (corresponding to generation Y). In 2020, we included an open text question in the questionnaires distributed to both cohorts asking our participants to nominate the three most important issues facing Australia today. Our analysis shows that, for both cohorts, the two major issues in 2020 were the environment/climate change and COVID-19. Despite the pandemic context, the environment has remained one of the most important concerns for Australians. For cohort 1, the older cohort, these two issues are followed by the economy, Australians’ physical and mental health, and public services. For cohort 2, i.e. adults in their early 30s, public services, the economy and social issues are the other widespread concerns. We conclude that, alongside the concerns directly associated with COVID-19, both cohorts urge governments to do more to address the issues of climate change, economic wellbeing, and the availability, quality and affordability of public services, including health systems.

The persistence of occupational sex segregation is a global phenomenon that relegates women into lower paid, lower status jobs. Understanding why young women apparently choose such jobs is integral to reversing decades of economic inequality related to employment. The strength of the association between the education system and labour market as well as high levels of occupational sex segregation makes Germany an interesting case to study. Using data from the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) Starting Cohort 4 data, I examine whether the occupational aspirations of female secondary school students are related to family characteristics and/or attitudes to gender roles. The results indicate that girls with fathers employed in male-dominated occupations hold more conservative gender attitudes than their peers with fathers employed in gender-neutral occupations. Girls with more conservative gender attitudes are more likely to hold aspirations for jobs in female-dominated occupations. These findings suggest that despite growth in gender-neutral knowledge-based industries, the socialisation of young women, particularly with regard to attitudes to appropriate roles for women, continues to influence occupational aspirations.

The school-to-work transition is a demanding period during an individual's life course in all societies particularly because the educational decisions made during this period have long-lasting consequences in multiple life domains. Moreover, adverse starting points after secondary school are likely to lead to adverse outcomes that might cumulate over the life course. This study analyses subjective well-being during this sensitive period and examines the following two questions. First, how do different school-to-work transitions relate to subjective well-being changes? Second, how does subjective well-being develop during and after secondary schooling? As the school-to-work transition period is structured by gender, each analytical step aims to identify gender differences. Furthermore, based on life course theories, this study investigates whether adverse starting points after secondary school lead to cumulative effects in the development of subjective well-being. Based on data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey and fixed effects regressions, our results reveal that transitions to employment increase subjective well-being, while transitions to unemployment decrease subjective well-being. Furthermore, transitions to study increase subjective well-being only among men, while such transitions appear to decrease subjective well-being among women. The results related to the development of subjective well-being indicate that subjective well-being decreases during secondary schooling and continues to decrease after individuals leave school. This decrease is stronger among men. Finally, our results reveal the negative cumulative effects of adverse starting points on the development of subjective well-being. Overall, the results reveal great intra-individual variation in subjective well-being during the school-to-work transition period in Australia.

The new and distinctive social and economic conditions that are explored in the chapters in this book demand new ways of conceptualising the role and significance of family relationships in young people’s lives, including viewing this support as a two-way stream and beyond financial realm to include emotional sustenance. Against traditional views of families as critical actors in the process of social repro-duction of inequalities or a youth transition approach that establishes a binary independence/dependence in youth-family relationships, this chapter extends the call for a more relational analysis of youth that includes their engagement with family to more fully understand how young people make their lives. We draw on longitudinal data from participants in cohort 1, that left school in 1991, to illustrate the relevance of family support against a background of declining institutional structure, and data from cohort 2 participants who left secondary school in 2006 to place the experiences of these participants against two central contemporary issues in social life: the rise and widespread of precarious labour and the crisis of housing affordability affecting in particular young adults. Further, we provide evidence of intergenerational practices of mutuality between cohort 2 participants and their parents. Ultimately, while these youth-family relationships show the complexity of transitions in late modernity and an interdependence and mutuality, they also bring into sharp relief the resilience of old and the generation of new patterns of inequalities, dimensions that are shaping a new adulthood.

As the Australian labour market restructures and the pace of technological advances quickens, reskilling and up-skilling are now required for sustained employability. Thus, many adults embark on further study after spending a period of time in the workforce. To examine the reasons for reengaging, and for not re-engaging with education during adulthood, we conduct analysis of longitudinal data collected from a cohort of people who completed school in 1991. The majority of the participants completed an educational qualification between 25 and 44 years and were thus, lifelong learners. Understanding the patterns of re-engagement with education and the reasons why some people choose to re-engage whereas others do not contributes to current policy debates about how education prepares Australians for life.

This research report examines the provision of higher education degrees and courses in regional Victorian campuses. It reveals the spatial inequity against regional and rural youth in Victoria due to the scarce availability of university options to study compared to their urban counterparts.

Within each report, each case study is a snapshot of an actual research project currently being conducted in the YRC. Our researchers are sharing their experiences and offering their advice for conducting social research in an increasingly complex and diverse societal environment. The practices presented in this series of research reports reflect the innovative and contemporary research methodologies and methods undertaken by YRC staff and students. Some of the methods illustrated here are traditional but employed in new ways; while other methodologies and methods depart from conventional research practices to cover more innovative practices to investigate and understand the multidimensional ways of being young in the twenty-first century.

Within each report, each case study is a snapshot of an actual research project currently being conducted in the YRC. Our researchers are sharing their experiences and offering their advice for conducting social research in an increasingly complex and diverse societal environment. The practices presented in this series of research reports reflect the innovative and contemporary research methodologies and methods undertaken by YRC staff and students. Some of the methods illustrated here are traditional but employed in new ways; while other methodologies and methods depart from conventional research practices to cover more innovative practices to investigate and understand the multidimensional ways of being young in the twenty-first century.

The distribution of school funding has been a controversial topic for decades particularly since the Australian Government introduced a new funding model for private schools in the late 1990s. Recent research shows that changes in the funding of private schools have encouraged growth in the number of private schools allowing parents with the financial means to select from an increasing range of options for their children. For this article, I conduct analyses of data from the 2003 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth project to examine differences in the outcomes of students according to the type of school attended. The results presented in this article show that students with highly educated parents were more likely than other students to attend independent schools. After controlling for the level of economic, social and cultural status of the school population, type of school attended was not associated with academic achievement, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment tests. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant association between type of school attended and employment status, occupation or earnings at age 24, net of level of educational attainment.

Within each report, each case study is a snapshot of an actual research project currently being conducted in the YRC. Our researchers are sharing their experiences and offering their advice for conducting social research in an increasingly complex and diverse societal environment. The practices presented in this series of research reports reflect the innovative and contemporary research methodologies and methods undertaken by YRC staff and students. Some of the methods illustrated here are traditional but employed in new ways; while other methodologies and methods depart from conventional research practices to cover more innovative practices to investigate and understand the multidimensional ways of being young in the twenty-first century.

This research report focuses on Life Patterns Cohort 1 participants who left secondary school in 1991 amidst deep social, labour and economic restructuring of Australian society. Amidst this backdrop, we draw on existing quantitative and qualitative data from the Life Patterns Project to examine the educational, employment and personal factors which generate the need to upskill or re-train over the life course. Our aim is to examine why some participants, despite already having a post-secondary school qualification, re-engaged in education and training and thus became lifelong learners.

This study has built up a unique picture of the reality of the lives of two generations. The Life Patterns program: - Follows two generations of Australians - one that left secondary school in 1991 (corresponding to the popular notion of ‘Gen X’) and another that left secondary school in 2006 (corresponding to the popular notion of ‘Gen Y’ or the ‘Millennials’). - Explores the pathways through different areas of life taken by Australian young people. - Provides a unique picture, very different from the stereotypes of smooth transitions from education to work, or of the narcissistic or complacent generation often described in public discourse. - Allows for insights to be drawn that feed into policy advice and also into public debate. - Was designed to follow patterns in young people’s lives over time in order to gain more than a static glimpse.

Differences in levels of academic achievement according to socio‐economic status (SES), and parental education in particular, have been a persistent feature of Australian education systems. Young people with highly educated parents are more likely than their peers with low‐educated parents to attain high levels of achievement at school. Students with low levels of achievement are less likely than their high achieving peers to complete Year 12 and are more likely to experience negative post‐school outcomes. The SES of the neighbourhood, and in particular, the school attended, has also been found to have an effect on levels of both academic achievement and attainment. For this paper, we conduct analyses of National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy test scores for four cohorts of secondary school students attending government schools in the Australian Capital Territory to examine the associations between parental education, school attended and levels of educational achievement. Our findings show that students with university‐educated parents achieve at much higher levels than their peers with low‐educated parents and that attending a school with a higher proportion of students from educationally disadvantaged families has a negative effect on educational achievement.

Background: Within surgery the debate about the place of evidence-based medicine (EBM) has focused on the nature and compatibility of EBM with surgical practice with an inevitable polarization of opinion. However, EBM techniques are being embedded into undergraduate medical curricula and surgical training programs across Australia. The Monash University Department of Surgery at Monash Medical Centre implemented a pilot study to explore current knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of practising surgeons towards EBM techniques. Method(s): Descriptive survey of surgeons based in a tertiary care environment. Result(s): The results from the surgeons surveyed suggest that (i) they believe that EBM marginalizes patient involvement in decision-making; (ii) they believe that EBM-generated knowledge is useful and is commonly used in daily clinical decision-making - however, not using EBM does not adversely affect their daily clinical decision-making; (iii) they have high confidence in their own judgement compared with low confidence in clinical practice guidelines and other sources of evidence; and (iv) journal summaries of the latest research related to a subject are the most useful resources in clinical practice above clinical practice guidelines. Conclusion(s): The importance of incorporating concepts of the 'culture' of surgery as an important factor in understanding and developing new ways to mobilize Australian surgeons to adopt EBM into their practice is discussed. © 2007 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

In the health workforce, competition between the professions for recognition and professional status has long been seen as an impediment to the development of interprofessional teams (Light, 1988; O‘Reilly, 2000). Entrenched professional hierarchies have tended to favour some professional groups leading to professional growth and significant financial and status rewards, while others have experienced lower status and perceived or indeed real lack of recognition (Salhani & Coulter, 2009). The pattern of jostling for supremacy begins as soon as a student steps into his/her professional training program and appears to be well developed by the time the new health professional reaches the workplace. How then can educators in the health professions motivate students to see beyond their own professional boundaries, and develop collaborative ways of valuing and working with others outside their own professional groups: to negotiate ways of power sharing rather than power struggling (Salhani & Coulter, 2009)? This chapter will explore the mobilizing aspects of competition as a driver to motivate health sciences students to learn with and about one another in an interprofessional team structure. It will draw on student feedback and reflection on participation in an interprofessional team competition where groups of students representing up to nine health professions compete against one another for a prize and public recognition. The literature around teams, competition and social learning theories will be used to provide a multifaceted lens in which to explore the student experience.

Reform of the healthcare workforce has become a central component of Government health policy initiatives across many of the Anglophone nations in recent years (Willis, 1983; Nancarrow and Borthwick, 2005; Allsop, 2006; Coburn, 2006). Innovative steps to ensure a healthcare workforce that is 'fit for purpose' are necessary to successfully address a looming crisis in healthcare provision (Boyce, 2008; Cameron and Masterson, 2003; Sibbald, Shen et al., 2004). In this chapter we explore health workforce reform from the perspective of the sociology of the professions and the inherent difficulties that the jurisdictional, boundary and competitive positions that underpin the notion of profession posits for implementing authentic interprofessional education and practice. By examining key features of the international workforce reform agenda together with the motivations of professions that are revealed from a sociological analysis, we show that the division of labour in healthcare is in a state of intense and dynamic change. These changes create a new challenge for interprofessional education and practice through an increased complexity of the health workforce arising from shifting boundaries, new roles and new types of workers.