Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Education and Training, I present the committee’s report entitled Adolescent overload? Report of the inquiry into combining school and work: supporting successful youth transitions, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

Australian secondary students are facing more pressure than ever as they attempt to excel in their studies, participate in sporting and recreational activities and maintain an active social life. For an increasing number of young people there is an added dimension which is placing further pressure on their lives—the part-time job.

The proportion of school students in employment has increased significantly in the past two decades. Today there are over 260,000 young Australians combining school and work. Despite the rise in student workers, the impact of competing demands on young people’s lives is not well known. The committee was therefore tasked with examining the impact of combined study and work on successful youth transition. Above all else, the fundamental purpose of schools is to provide an education for their students. This view was shared by many students who were adamant that it should not fall to schools to accommodate their part-time work commitments. Nevertheless, the inquiry confirmed that achieving the right balance can be highly problematic for some young people. There are, we found, considerable positive benefits for young people who combine school and work. Not only were those who found the right balance rewarded with a range of social and economic benefits but their chances of a successful transition into further education, training or work were also significantly enhanced.

However, the nature of part-time work for school students has changed significantly. Extended trading hours in the retail sector and late night trading in the fast food industry prevail today and contribute to students working not only longer hours but also later hours than ever before. Student workers can be susceptible to exploitative working conditions because their part-time jobs are often their first experience of the workforce and they lack awareness of their rights and obligations, including pay and conditions. The vulnerability of students in the workplace highlights the need for adequate protections and a shared community responsibility by parents, employers and schools to ensure that students are protected against working excessively long hours and often very late or, indeed, very early hours.

While students’ part-time jobs do not necessarily reflect their career aspirations, young workers acquire a range of generic skills from their jobs that they clearly see as beneficial to their future employment. For many students, the acquisition of these skills is not formally documented anywhere. In considering mechanisms for students to record their employability skills, we were cautious not to place too much burden on employers with respect to additional reporting requirements, which would particularly affect smaller businesses. Nonetheless, it is important that young people are provided with opportunities to attain formal recognition of the skills attained not only through their part-time jobs but through the full range of activities undertaken beyond the classroom, including paid and unpaid work, community or volunteer activities and sporting and recreational activities, particularly when it is recognised how important these experiences can be for them in attaining employment and further education. Senior secondary certificates have been revised to incorporate increasing flexibility to accommodate greater numbers of students who may not be suited to traditional schooling models.

The inquiry was also presented with a broad range of programs and initiatives at the state and local levels which seek to provide flexibility in assisting students to combine school and work, including targeted programs for students at risk of disengaging with their education.

It is important to acknowledge that not all young people have equal access to the opportunity of participating in part-time work. However, it is also important that we see the evidence of the role of part-time work in the successful transition of young people and that we have policies and programs in place to support that process.

I want to thank my committee colleagues and my deputy chair, the member for Tangney, Mr Dennis Jensen, who is in the chamber with us, for their work. I particularly want to thank the secretariat. I will very quickly acknowledge the secretary, Glenn Worthington, the inquiry secretary, Justin Baker, the senior research officer, Ray Knight, who is with us today, and the members of the committee for their work on this report. (Time expired)

Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also wish to address the recommendations of the report entitled Adolescent overload? produced by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training. I would like to state at the outset that it must never be forgotten that the primary purpose of school is education. The recommendations in the report relate to students combining school and work. Lots of young Australians do this, but the committee wanted to ascertain what impact this had on their lives and, specifically, on their career development.

The first recommendation of the committee is most significant. It recommends that the government ensures that further research is done to examine particularly part-time employment and its impact on students’ academic performance and retention, including the motivations of students who work longer hours. A further recommendation is that community-volunteer work and working in a family business be included. This will ensure that all such activities are taken into account and that volunteer work is given the credit it deserves but often does not get because ‘if you don’t get paid, it’s not real work’.

Recommendations 3 to 6 cover employers and supervisors. The recommendations include giving employers and supervisors a code of practice by which they can assist students in documenting their acquired employability skills; establishing a national employer of choice for youth program to support and recognise good employers; giving students a tool kit of helpful information, which would be circulated throughout Australian secondary schools; and ensuring collaboration between jurisdictions to achieve harmonisation of existing state based legislation regarding the employment of young people as well as national consistency of regulatory measures. Other recommendations are for a national commissioner for children and young people; a national definition for what constitutes engagement in part-time senior secondary study and part-time work for statistical and reporting purposes; government engagement in research to quantify the number of students in part-time study and employment; cooperation of governments to ensure that structured workplace opportunities are available to all students participating in school based vocational education and training; evaluation of local programs targeting disadvantaged students; and more promotional material in schools about government income support benefits and services for students.

I commend this report as it tackles one of the social issues which rarely gets any publicity. Everyone has or knows kids who have jobs to get some extra money to buy the latest gadget, to socialise or even to save for a car—and that is fine. What we are addressing here, however, is not far from the sentiments expressed earlier today in relation to protecting and cherishing our children. A significant proportion of students with part-time jobs, estimated to be around 10 per cent, are working to meet personal living expenses, to pay for their education or to supplement their family income. This is vastly different from doing a few hours at Maccas for extra spending money. This is working to survive and this involves children. We do not want to be here in years to come, apologising again for failing to support children who, for whatever reason, fall through the cracks in our welfare system.

One Queensland girl helps buy food for her family with her wages. Another girl, typical of the many who have left home, cannot survive without working because she does not get any assistance from Centrelink as she is under 18 and her parents earn over $60,000 per annum. There was a South Australian student who worked over 30 hours a week in years 11 and 12 to support herself because she obtained no family support whatsoever.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allocated for statements on this report has expired. Does the member for Cunningham wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated on a future occasion?

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In accordance with standing order 39, the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. Does the member for Cunningham wish to move a motion to refer the matter to the Main Committee?

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate.

Question agreed to.