NCJ Number
210077
Journal
Youth & Society Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Dated: June 2005 Pages: 471-503
Date Published
June 2005
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This study identified the ways in which careers were being imagined by a group of Australian youth and the overlapping and interconnected career-related contingencies that influence the practical aspects of vocational decisionmaking.
Abstract
Data were obtained from a series of qualitative studies of boys from seven government and private schools in the southeast corridor of metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. Two of the studies involved evaluations in 1999 and 2000 of an industry-specific, cross-sectoral vocational education and training (VET) in Schools Program, the Family of Trades Building and Construction VET in Schools Program. A study in 2000 followed the 1999 cohort and explored their concepts of career decisionmaking and work readiness by comparing the group that had left high school prior to their senior year (n=27) with those who completed high school (n=21). Subsequent studies that tracked both cohorts have added to the career-decisionmaking data. On average, the youth were surveyed twice a year between 1999 and 2003. The cohorts generally displayed a search for a vocation that they would remain in for the rest of their lives in a climate of job stability in interaction with a stable network of friends. They anticipated that this vocation would consist of enjoyable tasks that would bring them "a sense of accomplishment." These aspirations are in contrast to academic analyses of what will be required of the "new" worker, i.e., flexibility, short-term jobs, and a number of vocational changes in the course of a person's working life, requiring the periodic development of new knowledge, skills, and adjustment to a new working environment. It remains to be seen whether over the long term the job market will still provide opportunities for the kind of vocational lifestyle these young men seek. 39 references