Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges [1 ed.] 9781624172687, 9781624172670

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Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives

Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD

EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

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CULTURAL INFLUENCES, GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES

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Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD

EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

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CULTURAL INFLUENCES, GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES

PAVEL JELINEK EDITOR

New York

Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

Copyright © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com NOTICE TO THE READER The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Any parts of this book based on government reports are so indicated and copyright is claimed for those parts to the extent applicable to compilations of such works.

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Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. Additional color graphics may be available in the e-book version of this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Education in Australia : cultural influences, global perspectives and social challenges / editor, Pavel Jelinek. pages cm Includes index.

ISBN:  (eBook)

1. College graduates--Employment--Australia. 2. Students, Foreign--Employment--Australia. I. Jelinek, Pavel, 1968- II. Li, Ian W. Overeducation in the Australian graduate labour market. HD6278.A9E38 2013 331.11'4450994--dc23 2012042095

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Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

CONTENTS Preface Chapter 1

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Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

vii Overeducation in the Australian Graduate Labor Market: The Roles of Immigrant Status and Language Background Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller

1

Overseas Workers and the Role of Professional Associations G. Davis

39

Case Studies of Disadvantaged Students’ Reading Motivation: Avoiding a Deficit Perspective Clarence Ng and Brendan Bartlett

79

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Australia, Education and Health Literacy Jacqueline Boyle, Bronwyn Fredericks and Helena Teede

Index

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115

Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

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PREFACE In this book, the authors discuss the cultural influences, global perspectives and social challenges of education in Australia. Topics include overeducation in the Australian graduate labor market; overseas workers and the role of professional associations in Australia; case studies of disadvantaged students' reading motivations; and the education and health literacy of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. Chapter 1 – Strong growth in the number of international students engaged in tertiary education in Australia has been observed in recent years. Specifically, statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that overseas student numbers in Australia have grown ten-fold from 1985 to 2005. Furthermore, a substantial number (of approximately one-third in 2004) of overseas students remain in Australia after graduation on skilled migration visa schemes. It would, therefore, be of interest to examine the labor market outcomes of international graduates, particularly with a focus on whether international graduates are able to secure jobs which are appropriate for their level of education. This study uses data from the Graduate Destination Surveys 1999-2009 to explore the roles of immigrant status and language background in the Australian graduate labor market. These surveys contain information on the graduates’ labor market and other outcomes approximately four months after graduation, and cover around 60 percent of all graduates in Australia. Graduates who do not have Australian residency status, or come from a nonEnglish-speaking background, are found to be more likely to be employed in jobs that do not require the higher qualifications attained. Furthermore, individuals who possess educational qualifications in surplus of that required in their jobs are found to experience earnings penalties. Therefore, migrant status and English-speaking background are found to be associated with large disparities in graduate earnings. The implications of these findings for the

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Pavel Jelinek

design of effective policy, in both the education sector and the labor market, are explored. Chapter 2 – Australia is currently experiencing a period of unprecedented industrial growth, fuelled by the groth in mining, resources and construction sectors. With global projects within the resource sectors increasing and a sustained growth in infrastructure projects, many overseas projects are reporting the same skills shortages as those in demand across Australia, thus international demand for skilled labour is increasing; coupled with the mobility of skilled labour and professionals. However, the supply of skilled labour is declining in many countries as workforces age and where the number of apprentice and student commencements entering the highdemand occupations is not matching attrition. Skilled migration has historically been an integral part of alleviating skills shortages both within Federal and State level migration systems targeting occupations experiencing skills shortages. Changes by the Australian Department of Immigration during 2010 to the migration occupation lists reduced the number of occupations listed. Migration to Australia has then been further impacted by the high Australian Dollar against key currencies from major migrant countries, such as the United States and United Kingdom, and the series of internationally reported unfavourable climatic events (such as the 2011 floods, bushfires and cyclones). There are a number of visa options for overseas workers coming to Australia including temporary working visa (such as subclass 457 visas), regional sponsored migration scheme, employer nomination scheme, and enterprise migration agreements. Whilst workers may gain a visa on the basis of their educational attainment and professional or trade qualifications, many immigrants experience delays and additional costs upon arrival to Australia to have their overseas qualifications recognised and, in many cases, an additional or bridging-qualification is required. This is particularly the case for skilled tradesman, where licence requirements vary between countries and even the different States within Australia, further limiting the movement of skilled personnel. This 'recognition‘ often prevents migrant professionals working in their industry or working at a level which corresponds to their previous employment within their country of origin until formal recognition has been obtained. In some cases, these professionals do not regain their professional standing and recognition. This paper presents two case studies on different occupations (engineers and electricians/electrical fitter mechanics) outlining the requirements and complexities experienced by overseas qualified trade and professionals when moving to Australia and the role of professional bodies and industry associations in expediting the recognition of overseas

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Preface

ix

qualifications, facilitating educational requirements and moving towards an international framework of recognising professionals. Professional membership of an Institute or industry association demonstrates ability, skill level and experience, distinguishing candidates from their peers with some professions evolving to using membership as a ‘requirement’ to practice. Whilst a licence to practice (such as an electrical work licence) acknowledges the holder’s ability to perform the work outlined by the licence category and competence to work safely. The opportunities this presents to correlate the needs for a suitably qualified workforce within Australia, coupled with the increasing mobility of labour, will be discussed. Chapter 3 – Given the critical role of reading to academic success, the authors explore here the issue of underachievement in reading from a motivational perspective based on case studies of selected Year 5 students drawn from a low SES school in Queensland. The authors intention in this chapter is to focus on research we have conducted to help understand why the selected disadvantaged students disengaged from reading. The extant research on reading engagement has provided an empirical foundation for the current research predominately from a cognitive perspective, highlighting the important role of various critical cognitive variables such as self-efficacy and expectancy of success in the reading process. Simply attributing the low levels of motivation and achievement in reading to the lack of self-efficacy does not provide a full picture of why these students disengage from reading. Using a person-in-context perspective, this chapter draws on case studies derived from a longitudinal project on reading engagement among disadvantaged students to illustrate significant interactive effects of contextual influences on disadvantaged students’ reading behaviours in school. Based on the data and evidence derived from repeated interviews and observations, the authors have provided detailed accounts of these students' lived reading experiences and an evidence-based understanding of why these students engaged and disengaged from reading from multiple lenses. The results highlight the need for teachers to scrutinize their classroom reading practices critically in order to re-engage readers from diverse disadvantaged backgrounds. Chapter 4 – Health literacy is a vital tool to build health knowledge and enable empowerment in health decision making at a community and individual level. There are different views of what constitutes health literacy with the most inclusive addressing broadly the skills and competencies required “to seek out, comprehend, evaluate, and use health information and concepts to make informed choices, reduce health risks, and increase quality of life”. Poor health literacy has been shown to impact health seeking behaviour, access and

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awareness to preventive health campaigns and adherence with treatment. Populations at risk of poor health have lower health literacy and this is compounded by lower socioeconomic status, lower education levels and, where language and cultural differences exist, these disparities may be magnified.

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In: Education in Australia Editor: Pavel Jelinek

ISBN: 978-1-62417-267-0 © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

OVEREDUCATION IN THE AUSTRALIAN GRADUATE LABOR MARKET: THE ROLES OF IMMIGRANT STATUS AND LANGUAGE BACKGROUND *

Ian W. Li1 and Paul W. Miller2 1 Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia 2 School of Economics and Finance, Curtin University, Australia

ABSTRACT Strong growth in the number of international students engaged in tertiary education in Australia has been observed in recent years. Specifically, statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that overseas student numbers in Australia have grown ten-fold from 1985 to 2005. Furthermore, a substantial number (of approximately onethird in 2004) of overseas students remain in Australia after graduation on skilled migration visa schemes. It would, therefore, be of interest to examine the labor market outcomes of international graduates, particularly with a focus on whether international graduates are able to secure jobs which are appropriate for their level of education. This study uses data from the Graduate Destination Surveys 1999-2009 to explore *

The authors are grateful to Graduate Careers Australia for data provision. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and should not be attributed to Graduate Careers Australia.

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Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller the roles of immigrant status and language background in the Australian graduate labor market. These surveys contain information on the graduates’ labor market and other outcomes approximately four months after graduation, and cover around 60 percent of all graduates in Australia. Graduates who do not have Australian residency status, or come from a non-English-speaking background, are found to be more likely to be employed in jobs that do not require the higher qualifications attained. Furthermore, individuals who possess educational qualifications in surplus of that required in their jobs are found to experience earnings penalties. Therefore, migrant status and English-speaking background are found to be associated with large disparities in graduate earnings. The implications of these findings for the design of effective policy, in both the education sector and the labor market, are explored.

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1. INTRODUCTION There has been a global increase in higher education attainment over the past few decades. Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2011), for example, indicate strong growth in higher education attainment rates across all member countries. At the same time there has been a trend of the internationalization of higher education, in that larger numbers of students have chosen to pursue their higher education qualifications overseas. Healy (2008) reported a 30 percent increase between 2000 and 2003 in the number of international students engaged in on-shore higher education. This trend of increasingly internationalized higher education attainment is highly pertinent to Australia for a number of reasons. First, in the 2010-11 financial year education services accounted for the largest share of Australia’s service export income (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2011). Second, figures from the ABS (2007) indicate that Australia accounts for six percent of all tertiary students enrolled outside of their country of residence, and that Australia was the fifth largest destination for international students in 2004. Third, the ABS (2007) reported that in 2005 international students accounted for around 18 percent of all higher education students in Australia. Therefore, it is apparent that international students contribute substantially to Australia’s economy. In addition, international students play important non-monetary roles in the higher education sector. These include helping Australian institutions achieve a critical mass for the diversification of programs, as well as generating other positive externalities, such as cross-cultural interactions

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Overeducation in the Australian Graduate Labor Market

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(Volet and Ang 1998). International students, therefore, are an integral and positive part of both Australia’s economy and the higher education sector. A further issue that relates to international students in Australia is that of migration. In 2004, approximately one-third of the international students who completed their higher education qualification were approved for Australian permanent residency under skilled migration visa categories. While migration policy differs from time to time when different political parties form government, the current shift in policy in Australia is likely to lead to increases in the number of international students who remain in Australia after their studies. The Australian (2012) newspaper reported that, starting in 2013, skilled migration policy is set to take a wider and more inclusive approach, and allow all international graduates to remain in Australia with a work visa for two to four years. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to examine the labor market outcomes of these international students. The analysis will be undertaken with a focus on whether the skills of foreign students who work in the Australian labor market are fully utilized. In other words, do these graduates enter jobs that actually use their qualifications, or are they relegated to jobs which are below the standard usually associated with workers possessing higher education qualifications? It is also of interest to ask how much worse off the graduates are, in terms of earnings, if they end up in such lower-level jobs. The extent of the match between the qualification possessed and the skill requirements of the occupation of employment, as well the earnings penalty associated with a job placement that does not appear to effectively utilize a worker’s qualification, are issues covered by the over-education, required education, under-education (or ORU) model of labor market outcomes. This model has provided the conceptual framework for a large number of studies in the recent labor economics and economics of education literatures. It will be used in the current study. The remainder of this study is organized in the following manner. Section 2 reviews the ORU literature, with a focus on studies that examine ORU issues relating to migrants. Section 3 describes the data and the methodology used in the analysis. Section 4 discusses the results. Section 5 concludes.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW Traditional human capital studies have only supply-side perspectives in mind. The view of the labor market in such research is that individuals

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undertake schooling and higher education in order to enhance their future earnings capacity, and all workers can secure employment in jobs that effectively utilize their skills. This approach is conventionally linked to Becker (1975) and Mincer (1974), and it has provided the theoretical basis for a plethora of empirical rate of return studies. In these analyses the natural logarithm of a worker’s earnings ( ln Yi ) is related to his or her actual educational attainment ( EiA ) and the other personal and job-related characteristics (Xi) that are generally held to affect earnings, such as labor market experience, gender, and ethnicity. This may be expressed as:

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ln Yi   0  1 EiA   2 X i   i ,

(1)

where i is a random error term that captures the various other influences on earnings that cannot be measured by the researcher. When equation (1) is estimated using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) or an equivalent statistical approach, the estimate of the coefficient on the actual educational attainment variable is an estimate of the rate of return on the acquisition of an extra year of education. Studies adopting this approach generally show that the investment in education is a very profitable one, with rates of return well in excess of that achievable on investments of an equivalent risk class (Psacharopoulos and Patrinos 2004). In contrast to this one-dimensional, supply-oriented view, the ORU approach attempts to introduce demand-side considerations into the models used to assess the economic returns to the investment in education. Following Duncan and Hoffman (1981)1 it does this by defining a level of education that is usual for the occupation in which the individual works (ER).2 Three approaches have been utilized in the measurement of this usual or required level of education. These are the i) job analysis; ii) realized matches; and iii) worker self-assessment approaches. The first two approaches are objective 1

Duncan and Hoffman (1981) provided an empirically tractable way of assessing the impact of over-education and under-education on labor market outcomes. The genesis of the approach, however, extends back to Freeman (1976), who argued that there had been a decline in the economic return to a college degree in the US because the increase in the supply of college graduates had not been met by a corresponding increase in demand. 2 In the early development of this model, the level of education that was usual for the occupation was generally termed the ‘required’ level. Later, in recognition of the fact that many workers gain employment in occupations with a usual level of education above their actual level of education, the terminology has often been changed to ‘usual’, ‘reference’, or ‘standard’ level of education. All terms are taken to mean the same thing in this paper.

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Overeducation in the Australian Graduate Labor Market

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assessments, while the worker self-assessment approach requires the subjective assessment of ORU status by the individual. Specifically, the job analysis method uses a job dictionary to indicate benchmark levels of education required to successfully work in a job, and the attained level of education is then compared against this benchmark to define a worker’s ORU status. The realized matches approach, also known as the empirical approach, defines a worker’s ORU status by looking at mean or modal levels of education within an occupation or job, and individuals who have levels of education above or below the mean or modal level of education are considered over-educated or under-educated, as the case may be.3 The worker selfassessment method involves asking workers whether they use the skills learned for their highest qualification in their current employment, or asking the workers to indicate the level of education required for adequate performance in their job. The choice of measurement method is typically dictated by the data available (Hartog 2000). Given the value of education that is usual or required for a worker’s occupation, each worker may be categorized as either under-educated, overeducated, or correctly matched to the educational requirements of their job. This is done as follows: A worker is under-educated if: 

The actual level of education ( EiA ) < the required level of education in the worker’s occupation ( EiR ), with the years of under-education being EiU  EiR  EiA ;

A worker is over-educated if: 

The actual level of education ( EiA ) > the required level of education in the worker’s occupation ( EiR ), with the years of over-education being EiO  EiA  EiR ;

and a worker is correctly matched to the education standard of their occupation if: 3

In studies where education is measured in years rather than levels, thresholds can also be incorporated into the assessment of ORU status. A common threshold is when the actual years of education is one standard deviation away from the mean years of education in the occupation of employment.

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Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller EiA = EiR .

Hence, a worker’s actual level of education ( EiA ) is viewed as comprising the level of education required in their occupation of employment ( EiR ) and the extent of the mismatch between EiA and EiR as recorded in the two mismatch variables, EiO and EiU . This allows the model of earnings presented in equation (1) to be expressed as: ln Yi  0  1 EiO  2 EiR  3 EiU  4 X i  i

(2)

Estimation of this model by OLS yields estimates of three important parameters, namely, the economic return on an extra year of correctly matched education ( 2 ), the economic return to a year of education which is surplus to the usual educational standard in the occupation of employment (1 ), and of

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3 , which is the earnings penalty associated with years of under-education. It is apparent that equation (2) incorporates additional information into the analysis compared to equation (1), in particular the information on the educational requirements of the occupation of employment and on whether the worker’s skills are matched to these requirements. Accordingly, estimates of equation (2) explain more of the variation in workers’ earnings than equation (1), as measured by the coefficient of variation (R2). To this extent, the ORU approach of equation (2) appears to add value to the standard approach that is represented by equation (1). There are, however, a number of methodological issues that arise in the estimation of models of earnings determination like that of equation (2). The first of these relates to the way education is measured. This has been done in several ways (see McGuinness 2006). The most common approach is based on continuous measures of education, such as years of schooling. The years of surplus and deficit schooling are then distinguished from the years of education that are usual for the worker’s occupation, and each of these schooling concepts are entered into the estimating equation. This permits quantification of the returns to correctly matched and years of surplus education, as well as the earnings effect associated with each year of undereducation, as discussed above. For example, the approach would provide evidence such as that reported by Chiswick and Miller (2008), that the return to years of required education for native-born male workers in the US labor

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market is 15.4 percent, the return to years of surplus education is only 5.7 percent, and the earnings effect associated with years of under-education is 6.7 percent. An alternative approach to the specification of the education variables is based on the use of dichotomous measures for either or both of the educationjob match or mismatches. Verdugo and Verdugo (1989), for instance, entered dichotomous variables recording the education-job mismatch status of each worker into an estimating equation that included the worker’s actual years of schooling. McGuinness and Bennett (2007) use the same type of specification. The focus of this approach is on the estimated coefficients of the mismatch variables, which measure the average impact on earnings of being in a job that has a required level of education that diverges from the worker’s actual level of education. For example, in the Verdugo and Verdugo (1989) study, the return to an actual year of education was reported to be 7.2 percent. Workers who were found to be over-educated earned 13 percent less than their correctly matched peers, and workers who were under-educated earned 9.6 percent more than their correctly matched peers. Note that this approach assigns the same earnings effect to all mismatched workers (of a penalty of 13 percent for all the over-educated in Verdugo and Verdugo (1989), and a premium of 9.6 percent for all the under-educated in the same study), regardless of both the extent of the education-occupation mismatch and the level of education required in the occupation of employment. An extension of this methodology was proposed by Vahey (2000), and involves the use of multiple indicators of over-education and under-education status at each required level of education. Specifically, in Vahey’s (2000) study, six levels of schooling were distinguished (below high school, some high school, completed high school, college/vocational school, bachelor’s degree, higher degree). The required levels of education for the occupations of employment were categorized using the same six levels of schooling. A total of 36 dichotomous variables reflecting these education-job match statuses could therefore be formed. So, for example, for a job that requires a high school diploma, different over-education variables could be formed for those who were slightly over-educated with a college/vocational school education, those who were moderately over-educated with a bachelor’s degree, and those more highly over-educated with a higher degree. Thus, the more detailed specification of the estimating equation proposed by Vahey (2000) enables an assessment of the effects on earnings of different extents of education-job mismatch at each level of required education.

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A second methodological issue that has been canvassed in relation to the estimation of equation (2) and its variants is the role of the ability of the worker. This matter is also an issue of concern in relation to the estimation of equation (1), though it seems that the literature has reached a consensus on this, with Patrinos et al. (2006: 4), for example, stating “While theoretically schooling cannot be taken as exogenous in Mincer equations, empirical results suggest that the extent of the bias may be small”. In order to appreciate the impact that ability could have in the ORU model it is useful to outline how the mismatch between a worker’s actual level of education and the level of education required in their job may come about. It could come about simply because there are not enough jobs at the particular skill level, forcing the worker into a job that does not match their level of qualification. But mismatch can also arise even if the number of jobs requiring a particular level of education is equal to the number of workers with that level of education. Education-occupation mismatch can arise in this situation because of frictions in the labor market, including those associated with the spatial distribution of jobs, that mean that a worker cannot readily locate a job that matches their level of education. Over-education can also arise in this situation because a worker chooses a lower-level job for which they are currently over-qualified, knowing that it is part of a career path to a correctly matched, higher-level position. Finally, over-education and under-education can arise because the matching of workers and jobs is on the basis of multiple indicators (e.g., ability, motivation, job market experience), and so workers observed as having too little (much) education for a job may simply have too much (little) of these other indicators. To the extent that ability is one of these other indicators, it would be expected that the under-educated would have relatively high levels of ability, whereas the over-educated would have relatively low levels of ability. Chiswick and Miller (2008) draw upon differentials in the levels of ability of workers in the under-educated and over-educated categories in their application of the ORU model to the earnings of native-born and foreign-born workers in the US labor market. Studies which have followed individuals over time using longitudinal data have reported that omitted ‘fixed’ factors, such as ability, account for a portion of the typical ORU earnings effects, though the distinctive earnings effects typical of ORU studies remain as prominent features of the results obtained from the fixed effects specification (see Dockery and Miller 2012). There is now a vast number of empirical studies using models based on equation (2), covering various countries and time periods. Overviews of studies of this type can be found in Hartog (2000), McGuinness (2006) and

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Miller (2007). The former two studies discuss findings from the international literature, while the latter study surveys the Australian literature. Three consistent findings have emerged from these studies (Hartog 2000, McGuinness 2006). First, the returns to required amounts of education are higher than the returns to attained levels of education. The difference in this regard is often as high as 50 percent. This can be attributed to the fact that the return to an extra year of education mainly captures the effect of the human capital added through the education program, whereas the return to a required year of education captures both the effects associated with the additional human capital, and the mobility to an occupation where efficient use can be made of the increased skill levels. Second, returns to over-education tend to be positive, but are less than the returns to matched or required levels of education. The returns to surplus amounts of education are typically one-half to two-thirds of the returns to required or matched amounts of education. This return can be viewed as the return to the acquisition of human capital skills per se. The difference between the return to a year of required education and a year of education that is surplus to the requirements of the job is the payoff to the job mobility to an occupation that matches the worker’s level of education. Both human capital skills and job mobility attract considerable economic rewards in modern labor markets. Third, under-educated workers, that is, workers with a level of education below that of most of their immediate co-workers, have been observed to earn less than their correctly matched co-workers. To this extent they incur an earnings penalty due to their under-educated status. However, the undereducated have been reported to have higher earnings than workers with the same level of education who work in occupations that are appropriate for that level of education. This earnings premium for the under-educated has been attributed to the presence of the unobserved factors, such as innate ability or motivation, which were noted above (Chiswick and Miller 2008). The relatively favorable earnings position of under-educated workers compared with workers with the same level of education who are correctly matched to the skill requirements of their jobs shows up clearly in the Verdugo and Verdugo (1989) dummy variable specification: as documented earlier, Verdugo and Verdugo (1989) reported that under-educated workers are associated with an earnings premium of 9.6 percent. This clarity of the exposition of the relative earnings positions of the various matched and mismatched groups of workers appears to be an advantage of the Verdugo and

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Verdugo (1989) approach. This carries over to the richer Vahey (2000) specification. These patterns in the earnings effects associated with ORU status have been argued to show that earnings are more closely linked to the occupation of employment than they are to the actual education level of the individual worker. Nevertheless, they certainly also show that both demand-side and supply-side considerations are important determinants of labor market outcomes. Importantly, the ORU earnings effects estimated under each of the various approaches to the measurement of the required level of education that were discussed above yield highly consistent estimates (Hartog 2000, McGuinness 2006). For example, Li and Miller (2013) found that the ORU earnings effects estimated from alternative models which utilized the job analysis and realized matches approaches were consistent in sign, and differed minimally in terms of magnitude. A meta-analysis by Groot and van den Brink (2000) covering 25 international studies reported no substantial difference in estimated earnings effects across the various definitions of education-job mismatch. Patterns in the ORU effects like those described above have also been reported in studies looking at various sub-groups of the workforce. For example, the relative effects on earnings of required years of education, years of over-education and years of under-education have been shown to hold for both males and females (Kiker, Santos and de Oliveira 1997), although some effects were stronger for one sex than for the other. They also hold for workers with higher education qualifications immediately following graduation, and they hold for these workers several years following graduation (Dolton and Vignoles 2000). There are also a small number of studies in the ORU literature that have examined the incidence, and impacts on earnings, of education-job mismatch among foreign-born workers. Usually these studies have a comparative perspective, where the benchmark group is native-born workers. In some studies, however, the sample analyzed has been restricted to only foreign-born workers. It is generally reported that immigrants are much more likely to be educationally mismatched to their jobs. The effects of ORU status on earnings differ between the foreign born and the native born (Chiswick and Miller 2008, 2009, Green, Kler and Leeves 2007, Nielsen 2011). Specifically, in studies that examine both the foreign born and the native born, such as the analyses for the US by Chiswick and Miller (2008, 2009) and for Australia by Chiswick and Miller (2010), the return to years of required education is similar for the foreign born and the native born. This pattern

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presumably is associated with earnings being linked to jobs, and the returns to years of required education picking up this aspect of the labor market. In contrast, foreign-born workers with years of education that are surplus to the requirements of the jobs in which they work are generally associated with lower returns on their surplus skills than their native-born counterparts. This differential is likely to be linked to the less-than-perfect international transferability of the human capital skills that these workers accumulated in their country of origin. Foreign-born workers who are under-educated are reported to have smaller reductions in earnings associated with each year of under-education. This favorable outcome relative to the native born appears to be associated with these foreign-born workers having relatively high levels of unobserved ability due to positive self-selection in migration. The importance to over-education status of the country in which an immigrant’s human capital skills were accumulated has been explored by Nielson (2011). This study, for Denmark, reports that immigrants who obtained their education before they migrated had a higher incidence of overeducation, relative to both the native born and immigrants who were educated in Denmark. Over-education status was also found to be a more persistent phenomenon (specifically, where an over-educated worker was similarly overeducated five years later) for immigrants with foreign education than it was for either immigrants with Danish education or native-born Danes. Foreigneducated immigrants experienced lower returns to years of required education than the two comparison groups in Nielson’s (2011) study. They also experienced lower returns to years of over-education. However, the earnings penalty attached to years of under-education was smaller for immigrants with foreign education (-2.5 percent per year of under-education) than it was for native Danes (-3.6 percent penalty) and immigrants with Danish education (5.3 percent penalty). Immigrants with a foreign education in Denmark, therefore, have a pattern of earnings effects associated with the ORU education variables that is broadly consistent with those reported for the US by Chiswick and Miller (2008). Presumably this pattern is also accounted for by the less-than-perfect international transferability of origin-country human capital mentioned above, and the unobserved factors linked to their selfselection in migration, that apparently account for the patterns in the US data. Among the studies that have examined samples containing only foreignborn workers, the studies by Kler (2006) and by Green, Kler and Leeves (2007) are particularly relevant, as they cover the Australian labor market that is the focus of the research reported below. Kler’s (2006) study also is, in line with the analyses below, restricted to the graduate labor market, and the data

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set in Green et al. (2007) is dominated by graduates. Kler (2006) shows that immigrants from English-speaking countries had the lowest incidence of overeducation, at 16 percent. In contrast, Asian immigrants had the highest incidence of over-education, at 50 percent, while immigrants from the other non-English-speaking countries had an intermediate incidence of overeducation of around 40 percent. The multivariate analyses undertaken by Kler (2006) showed that visa category, along with personal (English language use, marital status, gender) and pre-immigration employment (tenure and type of job) characteristics were statistically significant determinants of the probability of being over-educated. The returns to both required and surplus years of education differed for the three groups of immigrants, though in each instance the return to required years of education exceeded the return to years of overeducation. The finding that the return to required years of education varies among the immigrants according to region of origin may be due to the small sample sizes in this study. The research by Green, Kler and Leeves (2007), which used different sub-samples from the same data source as Kler (2006) (in particular, all males rather than a combined sample of male and female graduates), as well as different models and estimation techniques, reports similar findings, though this later study is characterized by more uniform patterns in the returns to years of required education for immigrants from English-speaking countries, Asia and the other non-English-speaking countries.

3. DATA AND METHODOLOGY Data The study draws on data from the 1999 to 2009 waves of the Australian Graduate Destination Survey (GDS). The GDS is an annual census of all graduates from Australian universities who have fulfilled the requirements for the award of a qualification, and covers a diverse range of information on their personal, schooling and employment characteristics. An invitation to complete the GDS questionnaire is mailed out to the graduates approximately four months after the completion of their studies, and graduates generally have the option of either filling out the survey on a physical copy, or online. Nonrespondents are followed up with emails or phone calls, at the discretion of the survey manager of the individual institution of study.

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The response rates for the 1999-2009 GDS are reasonably high, and range from 61 to 66 percent. Further, a study of non-response to the GDS by Guthrie and Johnson (1997) concludes that the dataset is representative of the Australian graduate labor market. Thus, the GDS dataset can be considered to be an appropriate and attractive dataset for the study of the Australian graduate labor market. The GDS 1999-2009 had a total of 1,176,250 respondents. As the estimation models include variables relating to salary, institute of study, level of qualification, age, tenure, double-degree, occupation, sector of employment, industry of employment, length of employment contract, hours of work, mode of study, language background, residency status, gender, and self-employment status, graduates with missing information pertaining to these characteristics were excluded from the sample. Further, the sample was restricted to graduates who were employed in Australia at the time of the survey. The final sample consists of 569,325 observations. Further details on the GDS can be found at ABS (2004) and Birch, Li and Miller (2009).

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Definition of ORU In this study, ORU status will be defined according to the ‘job analysis’ approach.4 This approach looks at the attained level of qualification, and compares this to the level of qualification prescribed by a job dictionary for the occupation of employment. Where an individual has attained a higher level of qualification than that prescribed by the job dictionary for his or her occupation, this individual is considered to be over-educated. Where a lower level of qualification than that required for the occupation has been attained, the individual is considered under-educated. Situations where the level of qualification attained and that required for the occupation of employment are the same are situations where the individual is considered to be correctly matched. The particular set of job requirements used in the current study to assess ORU status comprises the levels of qualifications prescribed by the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO). The detailed five digit occupational classification from the ASCO is used for this purpose.

4

As already noted above, in related research examining over-education and the gender wage gap, alternative definitions of educational mismatch, namely, the ‘job analysis’ and ‘realized matches’ approaches, were used. It was found that the earnings effects of ORU varied minimally across these alternative approaches. For more details, refer to Li and Miller (2013).

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Estimation Models The analysis of the probability of educational mismatch will focus only on the over-educated relative to the correctly matched. This is due to the low proportion, of less than one percent, of the under-educated in the sample (documented below). Kler (2006) and Green et al. (2007) likewise focus only on the over-educated. The determinants of overeducation will be estimated using a logit model. This can be expressed as:

ORUi*   X i   i , where ORU * is a latent index representing the propensity of individual i to be over-educated, X denotes the set of characteristics hypothesized to have impacts on the propensity to be over-educated, and  is a vector of parameters to be estimated. ORU * is not observed. Rather, the binary indicator variable DO is measured, where this is related to the latent index as follows:

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DiO  1 where ORU i*  0 DiO  0 where ORU i*  0 . The determinants of the probability of being over-educated rather than correctly matched to the education requirements of the job are then estimated using the binary logit model:

 Pr

DiO  1 X i  

e X i . 1  e X i

(3)

The model used in the estimation of the ORU earnings effects for the graduate population follows the Vahey (2000) approach, and can be written as:

ln Yi  1 X i  2 DiO  3 DiR  4 DiU   i ,

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(4)

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where Y represents the hourly wage, used in the analysis in natural logarithmic format, X represents a vector of characteristics correlated with earnings, and D R , DO and DU in this instance refer to vectors of dummy variables indicating the educational requirements for jobs where the worker is R categorized as correctly matched ( D ) , and the extent of any over-education

( DO ) or under-education ( DU ) . The variables included in X cover the graduates’ gender, English-speaking background, residency status5, mode of enrolment, further study status, university group, broad field of study, selfemployment status, length of employment, industry of employment, sector of employment, year of graduation and labor market experience. The model contains the age of the graduate and the years of tenure in the present job as proxies for experience, with both proxies entered into the estimating equation in quadratic form.

4. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

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Incidence of ORU Information on the incidence of being over-educated, under-educated and of being correctly matched to the educational requirements of the occupation of employment for the graduates in the GDS is presented in Table 1. In addition to the incidence of the various ORU states for all workers, information for sub-samples of Australian, non-Australian, English-speaking background (ESB) and non-English-speaking background (NESB) graduates is also presented. Note that several of these samples are over-lapping, with the Australian and non-Australian sub-samples forming one mutually exclusive partition of the data, and the English-speaking background and non-Englishspeaking background groups forming another mutually exclusive partition of the data. The far greater number of non-English-speaking background graduates compared to the non-Australian group is a reflection of the diverse origins of prior waves of immigrants to Australia. The figures in Table 1 indicate the following. First, for all graduates the incidence of over-education in the Australian graduate labor market is quite 5

The residency status variable distinguishes graduates who are Australian residents from those who are not Australian residents. An Australian resident is an Australian citizen, a holder of a permanent visa, or a holder of a protected special category visa.

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high, at around 63 percent. The high incidence of over-education compared to many other studies in the ORU literature is a reflection of the focus here on the higher educated segment of the labor market, and within this particular education segment, the focus on recent graduates. The 63 percent rate of overeducation is reasonably comparable to the study of Australian graduates by Kler (2005), using a different dataset. Second, the incidences of under-education are low, at under one percent for all workers, as well as for the residency status and language background sub-groups. Under-education, therefore, appears to be a rare occurrence in the Australian graduate labor market. This is, once again, attributable to the focus on the higher educated in this study. Third, there are marked differences in ORU statuses between the two residency groups. Graduates with Australian residency status have an incidence of over-education of around 62 percent. In contrast, graduates who were not Australian residents are much more likely to be classified as being over-educated, with 79 percent of them falling into this category. Fourth, the incidence of over-education amongst graduates with a nonEnglish-speaking background (NESB), at 67 percent, is higher than the corresponding figure of 62 percent for English-speaking background (ESB) graduates. The incidence of over-education is as high as 82 percent where graduates do not have Australian residency status and are of a non-Englishspeaking background (not reported in Table 1). Table 1. ORU Status by Residency Groups ORU Status All graduates Aust. Not Aust. NESB ESB Over-educated 62.59 61.81 79.13 67.19 61.62 CorrectlyMatched 36.96 37.73 20.76 32.62 37.87 Under-educated 0.45 0.47 0.11 0.19 0.51 Observations 569,325 543,592 25,733 98,930 470,395 Notes: Figures in columns may not sum to 100 due to rounding; NESB = non-Englishspeaking background; ESB = English-speaking background.

Hence, this preliminary examination of the data suggests that foreign students who remain in Australia are not as readily absorbed into the graduate labor market as their Australian counterparts. This problem is exacerbated where the foreign students are from a non-English-speaking background. Moreover, these findings relate only to those students who have gained employment. It is likely that foreign graduates will have greater difficulty than

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Australian graduates in actually securing any type of employment, let alone employment that matches their qualifications. Büchel and van Ham (2003, p.491) report that “…workers with characteristics associated with a generally low employment probability run a higher risk of overeducation than others”. Of course these descriptive statistics could mask the effects of other factors, such as the types of courses that the foreign students enrolled in. The multivariate analyses that follow permit standardization for these and other confounding influences on the incidence of over-education.

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Residency Status and Determinants of ORU Status As noted above, owing to the small numbers involved, under-educated workers are not considered in this multivariate examination of the determinants of ORU status. The logit model of the probability of workers being over-educated rather than being correctly matched to the educational requirements of the occupation of employment outlined in equation (3) was estimated for all employed graduates (other than the under-educated), and for samples disaggregated by residency status. The results are presented in Table 2. Panels (i), (iii) and (v) of Table 2 presents the estimated coefficients that record the impact of the explanatory variables on the log of the odds ratio of being over-educated relative to being correctly matched. Panels (ii), (iv) and (vi) present the marginal effects computed from these estimates that show the effect of the explanatory variable on the probability of being over-educated. A positive signed coefficient or marginal effect shows that the variable increases the likelihood of being over-educated rather than being correctly matched, and to that extent is an indication of less successful absorption into the Australian graduate labor market. Most of the estimates in Table 2 are statistically significant, at the one percent level. The discussion of the results in Table 2 will focus on those relating to residency status, and the differences in the estimates obtained for graduates who are Australian residents and those who are not Australian residents. In the first instance, attention is drawn to the estimated effects in panels (i) and (ii), for the full sample, for graduates with a non-English-speaking background and those who did not have Australian residency status. Graduates belonging to either of these two groups are more likely to be over-educated, by three and 13 percentage points, respectively, than the comparison groups of graduates with an English-speaking background and Australian residents.

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Table 2. Selected Results from the Logit Model of Over-education All graduates (i) (ii) Logit Marginal Variables Coefficient Effect female 0.046*** 0.008*** (6.484) (6.486) age 0.141*** 0.025*** (53.922) (54.462) agesq/100 -0.145*** -0.026*** (39.992) (40.218) NESB 0.181*** 0.033*** (20.257) (20.282) not Australian 0.706*** 0.127*** resident (38.814) (38.971) double degree -0.616*** -0.111*** (56.424) (57.030) part-time studies0.532*** 0.096*** (61.545) (62.424) further study 0.183*** 0.033*** (21.437) (21.469) natural and 0.446*** 0.080*** physical sciences (27.553) (27.628) information -0.571*** -0.103*** technology (37.249) (37.449) engineering -0.397*** -0.071*** (25.096) (25.161) architecture -0.504*** -0.091*** (22.593) (22.640) agriculture and 0.130*** 0.023*** environment (5.262) (5.263) nursing -1.270*** -0.228*** (76.698) (77.993) medicine -0.542*** -0.097*** (39.018) (39.229) education -0.240*** -0.043*** (16.165) (16.182) society and 0.259*** 0.047*** culture (21.717) (21.769) creative arts -0.035** -0.006** and others (2.373) (2.374) (13.615) (13.620) private sector 0.136*** 0.024*** (16.526) (16.543) short-term 0.256*** 0.046***

Australian resident (iii) (iv) Logit Marginal Coefficient Effect 0.045*** 0.008*** (6.281) (6.282) 0.135*** 0.025*** (50.777) (51.257) -0.137*** -0.025*** (37.286) (37.482) 0.174*** 0.032*** (18.883) (18.906) (a) (a)

not Australian resident (v) (vi) Logit Marginal Coefficient Effect 0.058 0.007 (1.459) (1.460) 0.466*** 0.054*** (11.114) (11.304) -0.005*** -0.064*** (8.192) (8.277) 0.233*** 0.027*** (5.665) (5.662) (a) (a)

-0.622*** (55.911) 0.553*** (63.423) 0.189*** (21.773) 0.465***

-0.113*** (56.527) 0.101*** (64.414) 0.034*** (21.806) 0.085***

-0.419*** (6.178) 0.137** (1.991) 0.004 (0.076) 0.027

-0.049*** (6.197) 0.016** (1.993) 0.000 (0.076) 0.003

(28.275) -0.635*** (39.156) -0.403*** (24.684) -0.474*** (20.805) 0.134*** (5.394) -1.205*** (72.105) -0.487*** (34.612) -0.221*** (14.648) 0.274***

(28.356) -0.116*** (39.400) -0.073*** (24.749) -0.086*** (20.845) 0.024*** (5.395) -0.219*** (73.224) -0.089*** (34.778) -0.040*** (14.661) 0.050***

(0.293) -0.179*** (3.019) -0.264*** (3.698) -1.130*** (10.542) 0.608** (2.031) -3.539*** (28.705) -2.012*** (26.596) -0.259** (2.214) -0.064

(0.293) -0.021*** (3.021) -0.031*** (3.702) -0.131*** (10.606) 0.070** (2.031) -0.410*** (30.838) -0.233*** (27.815) -0.030** (2.215) -0.007

(22.720) -0.009

(22.779) -0.002

(0.653) -0.697***

(0.653) -0.081***

(0.619) (13.649) 0.132*** (15.809) 0.244***

(0.619) (13.655) 0.024*** (15.824) 0.044***

(8.448) (1.682) 0.229*** (4.389) 0.518***

(8.486) (1.682) 0.026*** (4.404) 0.060***

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Table 2. (Continued)

Variables employment tenure tenuresq/100 Observations Pseudo R2

All graduates (i) (ii) Logit Marginal Coefficient Effect (35.412) (35.511) 0.152*** 0.027*** (63.960) (65.040) -0.499*** -0.090*** (44.187) (44.529) 566,758 0.1879

Australian resident (iii) (iv) Logit Marginal Coefficient Effect (33.003) (33.088) 0.150*** 0.027*** (62.952) (64.019) -0.491*** -0.089*** (43.437) (43.773) 541,053 0.1847

not Australian resident (v) (vi) Logit Marginal Coefficient Effect (13.498) (13.572) 0.238*** 0.028*** (9.942) (10.029) -1.098*** -0.127*** (6.667) (6.691) 25,705 0.2725

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Notes: Robust ‘t’-statistics are presented in parentheses. *, ** and *** indicate significance at the ten, five and one percent levels, respectively. (a) denotes ‘not applicable’.

These differentials are only two to four percentage points lower than the unadjusted proportions presented in Table 1. Hence, the Table 2 results show that making allowance for the various other personal, employment type, study and degree type variables included in the logit model has a very minor effect on the chances that the graduates considered here will be over-educated. Consequently, Australian residency status remains as a very important determinant of over-education status, while coming from a non-Englishspeaking background accounts for a more modest increased likelihood of being over-educated. It is for this reason that the analyses are conducted on the samples partitioned according to Australian residency status (with a statistical control for English-speaking background) and not disaggregated by the English-speaking background factor that has the much more minor influence on the over-education outcome. There are a number of differences in the determinants of over-education for the graduates who are, and who are not, Australian residents. The estimated effects of age and its squared term indicate that the likelihood of over-education increases at a decreasing rate with this proxy for labor market experience for both residency status groups. However, the magnitudes of the changes in the probability with age differ. Specifically, graduates without Australian residency status have larger estimated effects for age and age squared, in absolute terms. For example, evaluated at 25 years of age, the change in the probability of being over-educated with an extra year of age for graduates with Australian residency status is around 1.25 percentage points, whereas the change for graduates without Australian residency status is 2.2 percentage points. The age at which the partial effects change from being

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Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller

positive to negative also differs between the graduates who are Australian residents and those who do not hold Australian residency status. Specifically, this occurs at around 50 years of age for Australian residents, and at around 42 years of age for non-Australian residents. The positive effect of age on the likelihood of being over-educated, and the difference between Australian residents and non-residents in this regard, could be linked to the presence in the data set of graduates who completed post-graduate studies, as these graduates are automatically categorized as being over-educated when the job analysis approach to the measurement of ORU status is used with the ASCO job scales.6 Thus, the logit model was estimated on samples restricted to undergraduates. In this model, age was shown to have a minor negative effect on the probability of being overeducated for most Australian resident undergraduates, and was a statistically insignificant determinant of the likelihood of undergraduates who were not Australian residents being over-educated. Therefore, accounting for the level of qualifications appears to narrow the difference in the impact of labor market experience on over-education status between graduates of different residency status. The increased probability of being over-educated associated with being from a non-English-speaking background rather than from an Englishspeaking background is similar for each of the residency groups, at around three percentage points. However, the effect of having a double degree differs between the two groups under consideration here. In particular, while completion of a double degree program is associated with a lower probability of over-education for both groups (relative to those from single degree programs), the effect is much stronger for Australian graduates, at 11 percentage points. The corresponding estimated marginal effect is five percentage points for graduates who are not Australian residents. The estimated effects of two study characteristics, namely, studying parttime and engaging in further studies, are of markedly different magnitudes for the two groups of graduates. Specifically, these characteristics are more influential in determining the over-education status of Australian residents, with increased probabilities of ten and three percentage points, respectively, compared to the benchmark categories of full-time study and no further study. For non-Australian graduates, however, the effects are muted, at two

6

For example, around 38 percent of non-Australian graduates in the GDS sample have a masters degree by coursework, which is almost three-times as high as the corresponding statistic for Australian graduates, which is only 13 percent.

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percentage points for those who studied part-time, and a statistically insignificant impact in the case of further studies. The fields of study are important determinants of over-education status, as indicated by the large estimated marginal effects for some fields. Furthermore, the influence of the fields of study appears to differ for graduates of different residency status. Two general observations may be made regarding these differences. First, the sign of the estimated impacts of the fields of study are consistent for both groups of graduates. That is, there is no field of study which is associated with, say, an increased probability of over-education for Australian graduates but is associated with reduced probabilities of overeducation for non-Australian graduates, or vice versa. Second, the estimated effects do not tend to favor either group, and are advantageous for graduates from a certain residency background in some instances but not others. For example, Australian graduates from the field of Natural and Physical Sciences are more likely to be over-educated, by 8.5 percentage points, relative to Australian graduates in the benchmark field of study of Management and Commerce. The corresponding estimated marginal effect for non-Australian graduates in Natural and Physical Sciences is statistically insignificant. Large differences in the estimated effects for other fields of study, such as Information Technology, Medicine, Nursing and Creative Arts and Others are also evident. In the field of Medicine, for example, Australian graduates have reduced likelihoods of being over-educated, by nine percentage points. NonAustralian graduates in Medicine, however, have much larger reduced probabilities of being over-educated, by 23 percentage points. Non-Australian Nursing graduates have nearly double the reduced probability of being overeducated, by 41 percentage points, in comparison with Australian Nursing graduates who have an estimated reduced probability of 22 percentage points. Self-employment is associated with decreased probabilities of overeducation for both residency groups. The reduction in the probability of being over-educated, however, is stronger for Australian graduates, at five percentage points, than it is for non-Australian graduates, where the decrease in the probability of being over-educated is only two percentage points. The estimated impacts of other variables in the estimating model, such as sector of employment or employment length, are fairly consistent across the two residency groups. The estimates presented in Table 2 were used to partition the difference in the aggregate-level incidences of over-education between foreign students and Australian residents, of 17.1 percentage points in favor of Australian

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residents7, into two components. The first of these covers the part of the difference in the incidence of over-education for these two groups that is due to differences in the fields of study, enrolment type, age, gender and the other variables included in the model of Table 2. The second component covers the part of the difference in the incidence of over-education for the two groups that is due to differences in the way the variables included in the statistical model are linked to the incidence of over-education.8 Essentially the first part of this decomposition is obtained by substituting the values of the explanatory variables from the model for the non-resident graduates into the model estimated for residents, and thereby predicting what non-residents’ incidence of over-education would be if they were treated in the labor market in exactly the same way as Australian residents. Given this equal treatment, the difference between the mean of the predicted incidences of over-education computed for foreign students in this way and the actual incidence of overeducation for Australian residents must be due to different values of the explanatory variables.9 In other words, the first component of the difference is explained by the model. The second part of the difference, or what is left over after the first part of this decomposition has been quantified, is unexplained. This unexplained component is the part linked to different estimates of the effects in the model of over-education presented in Table 2. Table 3 lists the results from this analysis. These results show that onethird of the difference in the incidence of over-education between nonresidents and Australian residents is explained by different values of the explanatory variables included in the Table 2 model of over-education. Twothirds, or 11.5 percentage points, however, cannot be explained in this manner, and so is linked to residence status per se. This estimate is broadly the same as that obtained using the non-resident dummy variable in the results of Table 2, column (i). In summary, non-Australian graduates are more likely to be over-educated in comparison to their counterparts with Australian residency status. In addition, graduates with a non-English speaking background are more likely to be over-educated. 7

The figure of 17.1 percentage points differs from the difference in the incidence of overeducation of the two groups in Table 1 owing to the omission of the under-educated from the statistical analyses reported on in Table 2. 8 This is the Blinder (1973)/Oaxaca (1973) decomposition for linear models, which is a popular approach in the gender discrimination literature, applied to a logit model (see Farber 1990). 9 With the logit model, the average of the predicted incidences of over-education obtained using the estimated coefficients for a particular sample and the explanatory variables for the same sample will be the mean incidence of over-education for the sample.

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Table 3. Decomposition of Difference in Incidence of Over-education Between Australian Residents and non-Residents Results Explained Unexplained Raw Gap

Estimate -0.056 -0.115 -0.171

Percent 33 67 100

Thus, the combination of residency status and English speaking background could account for an increase in the probability of being overeducated of up to 16 percentage points. There are also differences in the way graduate characteristics impact on over-education status for graduates from different residency groups. In particular, it seems that the study type (part-time status as a student, undertaking further studies) and field of study impacts differ markedly for graduates from the two residency groups.

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ORU Model of Earnings The results from the estimation of the ORU model of earnings determination are presented in Table 4. The estimates for the variables in the sample of all employed graduates are presented in panel (i), while the estimates for the sub-samples of Australian resident graduates and nonAustralian resident graduates are presented in panels (ii) and (iii), respectively. Once again, the discussion will focus on the residency status and language background variables, and on differences in earnings effects between the two residency groups. The adjusted R2 for the estimation for the full sample is 0.188, indicating that the ORU model of earnings accounts for around 19 percent of the variation in graduate earnings around the mean. The adjusted R2s in the estimations for the samples disaggregated by residency status, however, differ appreciably. The ORU model of earnings appears to have greater explanatory power in accounting for variation in the earnings of Australian graduates, with an adjusted R2 of 0.194, than for non-Australian graduates, where the adjusted R2 is only 0.105. This difference appears to be linked, in large part, to the smaller role that the field of study has in the determination of the earnings of graduates who are not Australian residents.

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Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller Table 4. Estimates from the ORU Model of Earnings Determination

Variables Constant female age agesq/100 NESB not Australian resident double degree part-time studies further study

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natural and physical sciences

(i) All graduates 2.306*** (176.239) -0.048*** (29.156) 0.035*** (45.408) -0.040*** (36.875) -0.039*** (17.360) -0.202*** (33.709) 0.009*** (3.074) 0.086*** (43.580) 0.007*** (3.349) -0.076***

(20.415) -0.031*** (7.637) engineering -0.008** (1.998) architecture -0.098*** (17.589) agriculture and environment -0.138*** (27.387) nursing -0.113*** (28.150) medicine -0.028*** (8.165) education -0.062*** (16.740) society and culture -0.058*** (21.785) creative arts and others -0.117*** (28.521) self-employed 0.015*** (2.680) information technology

(ii) Australian resident 2.302*** (175.622) -0.046*** (28.195) 0.035*** (44.845) -0.039*** (36.370) -0.035*** (15.472) (a)

(iii) not-Aust. resident 2.455*** (24.401) -0.103*** (8.307) 0.037*** (6.484) -0.042*** (5.172) -0.074*** (5.800) (a)

0.014*** (5.053) 0.087*** (44.046) 0.016*** (7.645) -0.083***

-0.073*** (2.749) 0.064*** (3.825) -0.143*** (8.527) -0.023

(22.684) -0.035*** (8.705) -0.007* (1.815) -0.104*** (19.230) -0.141*** (28.475) -0.119*** (30.319) -0.034*** (9.939) -0.066*** (18.129) -0.064*** (24.617) -0.123*** (30.549) 0.023*** (4.205)

(0.849) -0.028 (1.627) -0.031 (1.288) -0.053 (1.238) -0.147** (2.151) -0.035 (0.919) -0.023 (0.820) -0.066 (1.596) 0.005 (0.162) -0.117*** (3.729) -0.127*** (3.337)

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Overeducation in the Australian Graduate Labor Market

Variables private sector short-term employment tenure tenuresq/100 oru_dip_cert oru_dip_dip oru_dip_bach oru_ascdeg_cert oru_ascdeg_dip oru_ascdeg_bach

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oru_bach_cert oru_bach_dip oru_hons_cert oru_hons_dip oru_hons_bach oru_gcert_cert oru_gcert_dip oru_gcert_bach oru_gdip_cert

(i) All graduates -0.054*** (25.779) -0.095*** (49.123) 0.015*** (30.529) -0.040*** (17.559) -0.215*** (10.633) -0.017 (1.494) 0.033*** (2.729) -0.185*** (9.421) -0.067*** (6.156) -0.019 (1.127) -0.156*** (55.632) -0.092*** (27.255) -0.101*** (14.558) -0.036*** (4.305) 0.028*** (7.852) -0.081*** (7.384) 0.016 (1.614) 0.118*** (32.712) -0.116*** (12.912)

(ii) Australian resident -0.055*** (26.759) -0.085*** (44.167) 0.015*** (31.074) -0.041*** (17.739) -0.205*** (10.276) -0.009 (0.806) 0.033*** (2.749) -0.177*** (9.675) -0.056*** (5.542) -0.014 (0.834) -0.155*** (56.676) -0.090*** (27.141) -0.099*** (14.666) -0.039*** (4.596) 0.028*** (7.999) -0.071*** (6.796) 0.022** (2.192) 0.121*** (33.417) -0.111*** (12.387)

25

(iii) not-Aust. resident -0.039** (2.026) -0.242*** (20.867) 0.009 (1.556) -0.029 (1.039) -0.449** (2.476) -0.059 (0.325) 0.051 (0.640) -0.429 (0.963) -1.357 (1.002) -0.325*** (4.243) -0.246*** (11.187) -0.169*** (5.685) -0.268*** (3.277) 0.060 (0.722) 0.040 (1.431) -0.240** (2.558) -0.063 (0.695) 0.159*** (3.333) -0.163*** (4.143)

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Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller Table 4. (Continued)

(i) (ii) (iii) All graduates Australian resident not-Aust. resident -0.007 -0.002 -0.069 (0.841) (0.277) (0.898) oru_gdip_bach 0.089*** 0.092*** 0.077** (31.680) (32.819) (2.423) oru_mast_cert -0.122*** -0.102*** -0.178*** (14.565) (11.220) (7.990) oru_mast_dip 0.066*** 0.084*** -0.047 (8.462) (10.656) (1.607) oru_mast_bach 0.184*** 0.190*** 0.049*** (64.556) (67.160) (2.690) oru_phd_cert 0.077*** 0.103*** -0.245* (3.273) (4.851) (1.689) oru_phd_dip 0.085*** 0.093*** -0.080 (4.092) (4.525) (0.682) oru_phd_bach 0.200*** 0.200*** 0.162*** (39.513) (39.451) (5.006) Observations 569,325 543,592 25,733 Adjusted R2 0.188 0.194 0.105 Notes: Absolute values of heteroskedasticity consistent ‘t’-statistics are presented in parentheses. *, ** and *** indicate significance at the ten, five and one percent levels, respectively. (a) indicates that the variable was not entered into the estimating equation.

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Variables oru_gdip_dip

The homogeneity in graduate starting salaries apparent for these foreign students could indicate that they are more spatially concentrated compared to Australian residents. A spatial concentration could also account, in part, for their relatively high probability of being over-educated (on this issue, see Büchel and van Ham (2003)) that was reported above. The estimates of the effects on earnings in panel (i) of being a graduate who is not an Australian resident or a graduate with a non-English-speaking background indicate that these attributes are associated with significantly lower earnings. Graduates who are from non-English-speaking backgrounds experience a modest earnings penalty of four percent, compared to their peers from English-speaking backgrounds. Graduates who do not have Australian residency status, however, experience a large 20 percent earnings disadvantage relative to their Australian peers. Thus, graduates who do not have Australian residency status, and who are from a non-English-speaking background, could potentially have earnings around one-quarter less than their English-speaking

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Overeducation in the Australian Graduate Labor Market

27

Australian counterparts. Notably in these analyses, as was the case with the model of the probability of being over-educated, it is the Australian residency status variable that is associated with more major differences in graduate labor market outcomes than the English-speaking background variable. The earnings penalty associated with not being an Australian resident is over four times as large as the standardized difference between the earnings of male and female graduates. Greater differences emerge in the comparison of the structure of earnings determination for the two residency groups, as compared to the analysis of differences in the determinants of over-education status in the preceding section. The estimated coefficient on the gender variable indicates that there is a modest gender wage gap of approximately five percent for the sample of all employed graduates, as well as for the graduates who are Australian residents. The gender wage gap for graduates who are not Australian residents, however, is twice that of their Australian resident counterparts, at ten percent. In other words, female non-resident graduates appear to incur a double disadvantage similar to that often associated with immigrant groups in the broader literature (Beach and Worswick 1993): that is, they incur relative earnings disadvantages associated with both their non-residency status and their gender. Economic disadvantages associated with economic minority status are often cumulative in this way. Non-Australian resident graduates are also worse off compared to their Australian resident counterparts when it comes to the earnings detriment associated with a non-English-speaking background, with the former experiencing an estimated seven percent earnings penalty compared to the latter’s 3.5 percent. Again, therefore, there is a double negative effect operating in the determination of outcomes in the Australian labor market. The earnings effects of labor market experience, as proxied by age and its squared term, however, do not vary across residency groups, with a modest increase in earnings with age being recorded for most graduates. These age effects, however, are weaker among older graduates than they are among their younger counterparts. A double degree confers a small earnings premium of around 1.5 percent for Australian resident graduates. The opposite effect, however, is observed for non-Australian resident graduates, who earn seven percent less than their counterparts who did not complete a double degree qualification. This effect is surprising, as it is difficult to immediately appreciate why having more skills (as represented by a double degree) could lead a graduate to be worse off in terms of earnings. The effect of a double degree on reducing the likelihood of

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Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller

over-education for non-residents, however, was less than one-half that found for Australian residents. These findings suggest, therefore, that there are compositional effects that are not captured in the models, such that the group of non-residents in the Australian labor market who possess double degrees differs in subtle ways from the Australian residents with double degrees. Included here could be the combination of the two programs within the double degrees, or differences in the component of the double degree that is the primary focus of the current employment.10 For example, an Australian resident with a double degree in arts and commerce may have employment in the higher earnings commerce field, whereas a non-Australian resident with the same degree could have employment in the lower earnings arts field. There are also differences observed between Australian residents and nonresidents in the case of graduates who undertake further studies or who are self-employed. Australian resident graduates who are engaged in further studies experience a modest earnings premium of two percent relative to their peers who are not engaged in further studies, whereas non-Australian resident graduates in further studies experience a sizable 14 percent earnings penalty relative to their peers who are not engaged in further studies. Similarly, Australian resident graduates who are self-employed experience a modest earnings premium of two percent relative to their salaried counterparts, while non-Australian resident graduates who are self-employed experience a 13 percent earnings deficit. There are also a number of differences in the earnings effects of the fields of study, for graduates of the two residency statuses considered here. Specifically, graduates with Australian residency, and who majored in the fields of Natural and Physical Sciences, Information Technology, Engineering, Architecture, Education, Nursing, Medicine, and Society and Culture, experienced lower earnings than the benchmark category of Management and Commerce graduates. Graduates without Australian residency status and who majored in these fields, however, are observed to have earnings that are statistically indistinguishable from those of the reference category. The estimated earnings effects for other fields, such as Agriculture and Environment and Creative Arts and Others, are comparable for the graduates from each of the residency groups.

10

The field of study recorded in the analysis is the ‘first’ field of study, as described by the respondent.

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ORU Earnings Effects Prior to reviewing the estimates associated with the DR , DO and DU variables in equation (4), three general points needed to be made about the presentation of the results in Table 4. First, the ORU variables are denoted by the oru preceding the names of the variables. Second, the middle portion of the variable name denotes the attained level of qualification. Third, the end portion of the variable name denotes the job level. Thus, oru_gcert_bach, for example, denotes graduates with a graduate certificate, and who are working in a bachelor’s pass degree level job. Reading down the list of oru variable names in Table 4 it will be observed that there are three required levels of qualification, namely certificate level jobs (cert), diploma level jobs (dip) and bachelor’s pass degree level jobs (bach). There are eight attained levels of qualifications, namely diploma (dip), associate degrees (ascdeg), bachelor’s pass degrees (bach), bachelor’s honors degree (hons), graduate certificates (gcert), graduate diplomas (gdip), masters degrees (masters) and higher degrees (PhD).11 Each of the earnings effects for the oru variables should be interpreted as capturing the effects on earnings of being in the particular attained level of education and required level of education group relative to a bachelor’s pass degree graduate who gains employment in a job that requires a bachelor’s pass degree. The earnings effects of the oru variables are presented in groups according to the attained level of education. Hence the first three coefficients, for oru_dip_cert, oru_dip_dip and oru_dip_bach, are for graduates who have a diploma qualification and work in, respectively, jobs that require a certificate (that is, they are over-educated), a diploma (that is, they are correctly matched to the educational requirements of their occupation of employment) and a bachelor’s pass degree (that is, they are under-educated). Subsequent groups of coefficients are for progressively higher levels of tertiary qualifications. Reading down the list of coefficients for each attained level of education reveals the effects on earnings of working in jobs that require progressively higher levels of education. For a particular required level of education, working down the table and inspecting the coefficients for the various attained levels of education, for example, oru_dip_bach, oru_ascdeg_bach, shows the payoff to the acquisition of the higher level of tertiary qualification recorded in the second part of the oru variable name. In this example, the payoff to the

11

See Appendix A for brief details on the levels of qualifications distinguished in this analysis.

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Ian W. Li and Paul W. Miller

acquisition of an associate degree relative to a diploma for all the workers who are employed in jobs that required a bachelor’s pass degree would be revealed. A number of general observations may be made regarding the estimated ORU earnings effects. First, examination of the groups of coefficients for each attained level of education reveals a general hierarchy in earnings, in that graduates earn more if they are in higher level jobs. That is, regardless of qualification level, graduates in bachelor’s pass degree level jobs earn more than those in diploma level jobs, who in turn earn more than those in certificate level jobs. Second, comparing the outcomes for graduates in jobs with a particular required level of education reveals a hierarchy of earnings in terms of qualification attained, where at each required level of education those with higher levels of qualifications generally experience greater earnings than those with a lower level of qualification. This is especially true for the graduates employed in diploma and bachelor’s pass degree level jobs. For graduates in certificate level jobs, estimated earnings penalties are reduced for higher qualifications attained up to the bachelor’s honors degree level. Thereafter, the earnings disadvantage, of around ten percentage points, is relatively constant, for all higher qualifications up to the PhD level. Third, and in addition to (and a combination of) the two points made above, there are negative earnings consequences associated with being overeducated. A pattern, of declining returns to education where over-education is present, can be observed with regards to the ORU earnings effects. These adverse earnings consequences of being over-educated are exacerbated when the negative earnings effect associated with not being of Australian residency status or being of a non-English-speaking background in the full sample, is taken into account. Fourth, the results in panels (ii) and (iii) of Table 4 indicate that there are differences in the way ORU affects the earnings of Australian residents and non-Australian residents. To further explore this issue, Wald tests of equality between the estimated ORU earnings effects for the two samples were performed, and the results of these tests are presented in Table 5. The results in Table 5 indicate that nine of the 23 estimated ORU coefficients differ statistically for the two residency groups. A few comments may be offered with regards to the ORU earnings effects which differ in a statistically significant way for the two residency groups.

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Table 5. Wald Tests of Statistical Equality of ORU Coefficients for the Australian Residents and non-Residents

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Variable χ2 Prob > χ2 Variable χ2 Diploma Graduate certificate oru_dip_cert 1.93 0.1644 oru_gcert_cert* 3.47 oru_dip_dip 0.12 0.7311 oru_gcert_dip 1.20 oru_dip_bach 0.02 0.8916 oru_gcert_bach 0.45 Associate degree Graduate diploma oru_ascdeg_cert 0.33 0.5653 oru_gdip_cert 2.15 oru_ascdeg_dip 0.91 0.3409 oru_gdip_dip 0.95 oru_ascdeg_ 17.47 0.0000 oru_gdip_bach 0.30 bach*** Bachelor’s pass Masters oru_bach_cert***19.53 0.0000 oru_mast_cert** 10.42 oru_bach_dip* 7.84 0.0051 oru_mast_dip*** 20.59 oru_bach_bach (a) (a) oru_mast_bach*** 64.76 Bachelor’s honors PhD oru_hons_cert** 4.61 0.0317 oru_phd_cert** 5.44 oru_hons_dip 1.35 0.2446 oru_phd_dip 2.10 oru_hons_bach 0.18 0.6688 oru_phd_bach 1.67 Notes: *, ** and *** denote significance at the ten, five and one respectively. (a) indicates non-applicability.

Prob > χ2 0.0626 0.2726 0.5016 0.1427 0.3304 0.5859

0.0012 0.0000 0.0000 0.0197 0.1470 0.1967 percent levels,

First, in all nine instances of statistically significant differences between the way a particular ORU status variable is linked to earnings for the two residency groups, non-resident graduates are worse off compared to Australian resident graduates, in that they experience larger ORU earnings penalties or smaller earnings premiums. Second, the magnitude of these differences can be quite large. For example, the earnings of Australian-resident associate degree graduates working in bachelor’s pass degree level jobs do not differ statistically from the earnings of their peers with a bachelor’s pass degree working in a bachelor’s pass degree level job. In contrast, non-resident graduates in the same ORU category earn 33 percent less than their correctly matched peers, of non-resident bachelor’s pass degree graduates in bachelor’s pass degree level jobs. This is particularly surprising, as graduates in this ORU category are considered under-educated, and would not be expected to experience such negative earnings effects. As discussed above, one of the reasons why graduates are in jobs that do not match their attained level of qualification is that the job matching process

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occurs along multiple lines, and graduates who are mismatched have different levels of factors which are unobserved by the researcher (but which are used in the job match process) compared to matched graduates. The general immigration literature (Chiswick and Miller 2008) has argued that there is positive self-selection in migration, such that under-educated immigrants have higher levels of these unobserved factors than the native born. From this viewpoint, the current set of analyses could simply indicate that the foreign students who remain in Australia following graduation are negatively self-selected. However, note that there are only small numbers of graduates in these atypical qualifications categories, and caution needs to be exercised in interpreting this result. Nevertheless, another example would be that of doctoral graduates who are over-educated in certificate level jobs. Relative to their respective reference categories of bachelor’s pass degree graduates in bachelor’s pass degree level jobs, graduates over-educated in this category and who are Australian residents earned ten percent more, while those not of Australian residency earned 25 percent less. There is, thus, a large difference in estimated ORU earnings effects for graduates in this category, of up to 35 percentage points. Thus, while ORU earnings effects are consistent across residency status in some categories, large differences can be found in other categories. Finally, consider the estimated coefficients for the graduates from the two residency groups who are employed in bachelor’s pass degree jobs. These show that non-resident graduates typically receive a smaller increase in earnings for higher levels of qualifications than Australian residents. In summary, foreign students who remain in Australia following graduation do not seem to attain the same increases in earnings to the various levels of qualifications as Australian residents. They generally appear to incur particularly severe earnings disadvantages when they are mismatched to the education requirements of their type of employment.

CONCLUSION Increasing numbers of foreign university students are choosing, and are being encouraged to choose, to remain in Australia following graduation. While the Australian labor market emerged from the global economic crisis in particularly good shape, with an unemployment rate of only around five percent, it still remains of interest to examine whether these foreign students

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are being successfully absorbed into the graduate labor market. This study has therefore addressed two key questions. First, do foreign students enter jobs generally held to be suitable for graduates with their level of qualification in the same proportion as Australian resident graduates? Second, do foreign students get the same pay as Australian residents in the various educationoccupation matched and mismatched categories identified in this analysis? With respect to the first question, the answer is a resounding no. The aggregate-level statistics show that the probability of a non-resident being over-educated in their occupation of employment is fully 17 percentage points higher than it is for Australian residents. Having a non-English-speaking background has the potential to widen this gap by up to five percentage points. The various statistical analyses undertaken, which attempted to ascertain whether this difference in labor market outcomes was simply due to other factors, such as different fields of study, enrolment type and age, showed that these attributes account for only around one-third of the overall higher probability of over-education among non-residents. In other words, our best assessment is that everything else being the same, non-residents have around a one-in-nine greater chance of having too much education for their current employment than their Australian resident counterparts. With respect to the second question, the answer is again no. Foreign students do not get the same increases in earnings for attaining higher levels of qualifications as Australian residents. Moreover, the penalties associated with being in some of the ORU states in the Vahey (2000) model of earnings determination used in this study, as well as the premiums for other states, indicate more unfavorable earnings positions for the foreign students than for Australian residents. These findings suggest, therefore, that the foreign students are not being absorbed into the Australian graduate labor market as readily or as successfully as Australian residents. It is important to emphasize that, given the importance often associated with English language skills in immigration research in Australia, the findings in the current study are not due to the nonEnglish-speaking background of many of the foreign students. It is simply due to their particular residency status. This is also evident from the analyses of the probability of overeducation and earnings: in both sets of analyses, estimated effects for residency status were much larger than those for English-speaking background. The various reasons suggested for why the foreign students may have a greater probability of being over-educated inform on directions that labor

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market policy could take. For example, if the disadvantage of non-residents is linked to their spatial concentration, then policies to encourage a broader geographical spread following graduation may have merit. Conditions could be attached to the visas granted to achieve this. The specified work under the Working Holiday Visa in Australia could provide a precedent here. Holders of a Working Holiday in Australia Visa, which are valid for 12 months, can apply for a second 12-months visa if at least three months of seasonal work has been undertaken in regional Australia. These policies need, however, to extend to considerations of the availability of housing in non-metropolitan areas, as well as the availability of amenities that cater for the backgrounds of the non-resident graduates. Another reason why foreign students may be more likely to be overeducated is that they lack the familiarity of the Australian labor market possessed by local students. While many foreign students study in Australia for the entire duration of their program (and in many cases they have attended high school in Australia), a large number complete the first year or more of study in their country of origin. These students would therefore be expected to have a more limited knowledge of expectations in the Australian labor market than local students. This suggests a role for more intense careers counseling at universities, and possibly even capstone units aimed at enhancing job readiness. The disadvantages of non-residents documented in this study could be linked to firms being reluctant to hire them owing to general uncertainty over the quality of their entire educational experience. Related to this, Nielson (2011) reported that while foreign-educated immigrants experienced quite considerable labor market disadvantages in Denmark, immigrants with a Danish education incurred much smaller disadvantages compared with native Danes. Nevertheless, the fact that the Danish-educated immigrants were disadvantaged is consistent with the findings for the Australian graduate labor market reported above. Perhaps this disadvantage is simply due to firms using earlier levels of education, which may have been in many cases accumulated overseas, in the job matching process. If this is the case, it suggests that universities need to reinforce their programs so that they supersede the information content of the earlier levels of study.

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Li, I. and Miller, P.W. (2013), “Gender Discrimination in the Australian Graduate Labour Market”, Australian Journal of Labour Economics, (forthcoming) McGuinness, S. (2006), “Overeducation in the Labour Market”, Journal of Economic Surveys, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 387-418 McGuinness, S. and Bennett, J. (2007), “Overeducation in the Graduate Labour Market: A Quantile Regression Approach”, Economics of Education Review, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 521-531 Miller, P.W. (2007), “Overeducation and Undereducation in Australia”, The Australian Economic Review, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 292-299 Mincer, J. (1974), Schooling, Experience and Earnings, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research Nielson, C.P. (2011), “Immigrant Over-education: Evidence from Denmark”, Journal of Population Economics, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 499-520 Oaxaca, R. (1973), “Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets”, International Economic Review, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 693-709 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2011), Education at a Glance 2011: Highlights. OECD Publishing. Available at: [10 November 2011] Patrinos, H.A., Ridao-Cano, C. and Sakellariou, C. (2006), “Estimating the Returns to Education: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Ability”, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4040 Psacharopoulos, G. and Patrinos, H.A. (2004), “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update”, Education Economics, vol. 12, no. 2, pp.111-134 The Australian (2012), Foreign Students’ Visa Win Fuels Jobs Row. Available at: [12 July 2012] Vahey, S.P. (2000), “The Great Canadian Training Robbery: Evidence on the Returns to Educational Mismatch”, Economics of Education Review, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 219-227 Verdugo, R.R. and Verdugo, N.T. (1989), “The Impact of Surplus Schooling on Earnings: Some Additional Findings”, The Journal of Human Resources, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 629-643 Volet, S.E. and Ang, G. (1998), “Culturally Mixed Groups on International Campuses: An Opportunity for Inter-Cultural Learning”, Higher Education Research and Development, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 5-23

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APPENDIX A Description of Levels of Qualifications Used in the Analysis

Education Level Description

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Certificate

Level in Australian Qualifications Framework 1-4

Certificates are vocation-type qualifications, which generally take from 0.5 to 2 years to complete. The expectations with respect to learning outcomes rise with the certificate type (Certificate I through to Certificate IV). Each of the certificates, however, comprises pre-university training. Diploma Typically take 1-2 years. 5 Associate degree Typically take two years. 6 Bachelor’s pass These vary in length, though they are 7 degree usually of 3-4 years duration. Bachelor’s The honours degree usually takes one year 8 honours degree following completion of a bachelor’s pass degree, though the honours degree can also be embedded in a longer (4-5 years) bachelor’s degree. Graduate diploma These usually take 1 year, and require an 8 undergraduate degree for entry. Graduate These usually take 1-2 years, and require 8 certificate an undergraduate degree for entry. Masters degree A masters degree generally takes 1-2 years 9 to complete. Doctoral degree The typical doctoral program usually is of 10 3-4 years of duration. Source: Authors’ compilation with reference to Australian Qualification Framework Council (2011).

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In: Education in Australia Editor: Pavel Jelinek

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Chapter 2

OVERSEAS WORKERS AND THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS G. Davis Dr. Georgina Davis and Associates, Bribie Island, QLD 4507, Australia

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ABSTRACT Australia is currently experiencing a period of unprecedented industrial growth, fuelled by the groth in mining, resources and construction sectors. With global projects within the resource sectors increasing and a sustained growth in infrastructure projects, many overseas projects are reporting the same skills shortages as those in demand across Australia, thus international demand for skilled labour is increasing; coupled with the mobility of skilled labour and professionals. However, the supply of skilled labour is declining in many countries as workforces age and where the number of apprentice and student commencements entering the high-demand occupations is not matching attrition. Skilled migration has historically been an integral part of alleviating skills shortages both within Federal and State level migration systems targeting occupations experiencing skills shortages. Changes by the Australian Department of Immigration during 2010 to the migration occupation lists reduced the number of occupations listed.



E-mail: [email protected].

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G. Davis Migration to Australia has then been further impacted by the high Australian Dollar against key currencies from major migrant countries, such as the United States and United Kingdom, and the series of internationally reported unfavourable climatic events (such as the 2011 floods, bushfires and cyclones). There are a number of visa options for overseas workers coming to Australia including temporary working visa (such as subclass 457 visas), regional sponsored migration scheme, employer nomination scheme, and enterprise migration agreements. Whilst workers may gain a visa on the basis of their educational attainment and professional or trade qualifications, many immigrants experience delays and additional costs upon arrival to Australia to have their overseas qualifications recognised and, in many cases, an additional or bridging-qualification is required. This is particularly the case for skilled tradesman, where licence requirements vary between countries and even the different States within Australia, further limiting the movement of skilled personnel. This 'recognition‘ often prevents migrant professionals working in their industry or working at a level which corresponds to their previous employment within their country of origin until formal recognition has been obtained. In some cases, these professionals do not regain their professional standing and recognition. This paper presents two case studies on different occupations (engineers and electricians/electrical fitter mechanics) outlining the requirements and complexities experienced by overseas qualified trade and professionals when moving to Australia and the role of professional bodies and industry associations in expediting the recognition of overseas qualifications, facilitating educational requirements and moving towards an international framework of recognising professionals. Professional membership of an Institute or industry association demonstrates ability, skill level and experience, distinguishing candidates from their peers with some professions evolving to using membership as a ‘requirement’ to practice. Whilst a licence to practice (such as an electrical work licence) acknowledges the holder’s ability to perform the work outlined by the licence category and competence to work safely. The opportunities this presents to correlate the needs for a suitably qualified workforce within Australia, coupled with the increasing mobility of labour, will be discussed.

Keywords: Australia, occupation, professional, overseas-qualified, industry association, labour mobility, trade recognition

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1. INTRODUCTION Whilst many countries are experiencing minerals and resource booms, others are seeing dramatic rises in GDP fuelled by increasing technological advancement. These ‘booms’ are creating an unprecedented demand for people and skills, in turn creating skills shortages which are being felt by companies through a corresponding upward pressure on salaries across critical skills and occupations, and an inability to fill critical roles. A skills shortage arises when there are insufficient employees with the willingness, availability and suitable qualifications (including experience) to satisfy the labour demands of employers under existing market conditions. Australia is currently experiencing its largest increase in resource extraction ever, and regional areas within resource and mining footprints are seeing unprecedented labour demand and worker migration. As economies in the world emerge from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and resource production and manufacturing begin to intensify, together with high growth rates, the demand for skills and skilled personnel is increasing. Additionally, rising labour mobility,with increasing demand and attraction for skilled labour in developing countries; and with many countries holding an aging demographic; the competition for a skilled workforce is increasing globally. At 1 July 2012, there were over 11.5 million (11,517,500) people employed within Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). The National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce report (2010), forecasted a demand for 65,000 new jobs in the Australian mining and energy sectors by 2015 for new projects, plus 45,000 jobs in construction [nearly all of which would be expected to be employed as non-resident, under fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) or drive-in-drive-out (DIDO) arrangements]. The report also anticipated that the resources sector could be in deficit by 36,000 trades people by 2015 (National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce 2010). However, this is widely believed to be an underestimation given that the employment data used on the modelling was based on on-site employee data and did not include ‘offroster’ employees. Additionally, these employment projections do not take into account significant State-based infrastructure projects including the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and homes from the 2011 floods and cyclone Yassi or the roll-out of the National Broadband Network (NBN) anticipated to create approximately 30,000 jobs in the Australian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector (Communications and Information Technology Training 2009).

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1.1. The Rising Demand for Labour Between June 2000 to June 2010, employment in Australia grew by an average of 207,000 new jobs every year and the average annual rate of growth of employment was 2.1 per cent. Population grew at 1.5 per cent in the same period. Twelve per cent of the growth in employment was due to increased labour force participation, mainly at the older ages, whilst 88 per cent of the growth in employment was due to population increase, mainly migration (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2012). Australia has an aging workforce who’s population has continued to age over the last 20 years (1991–2011) with the median age increasing from 32.4 years to 37.3 years. The proportion of persons aged 65 years and over increased from 11.3 per cent of the total population in 1991 to 13.8 per cent in 2011 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011). With the current pension age of 65 years and increasing life expectancy, the Federal Government has already implemented a structure for increasing the pension age to 67 years by July 2023 (Centrelink 2010). However, many of the more physical jobs, particularly in the technical and trades professions, will still experience lower retirement ages. Occupational detachment through the loss of skilled workers, particularly tradespersons to other occupations, together with the aging demographic are significant contributors to the high level of replacement demand seen across various industries such as construction and energy. These losses are further exacerbated by the increasing cancellation rate of apprenticeships and large numbers failing to complete their apprenticeships. Whilst globally, there is an aging demographic, some sectors and occupations are experiencing an older demographic above the norm, particularlyin the Australian utility sectors (Davis 2012). As such, these sectors are at particular risk, with a significant proportion of their workforce looking to retire within the next 15 years, therefore increasing demand and competition for the next generation of professionals (35-45 year olds).

2. AUSTRALIAN MIGRATION Migration in Australia is utilised as an essential component to ensuring sustained growth of the workforce and managing the risks posed by an aging demographic. The Australian Migration Program is comprised of two parts, skilled migration and family migration. Whilst family migration simply enables immediate family members to live closer to their kin, skilled migration

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is designed to permit migrants with the necessary skills sets required by the Australian labour market to work and reside within Australia. During 2010, there were significant changes to the skilled migration program in order to better meet the future skills requirements of Australia. Prior to February 2010, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship applied the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) to immigration applications. The MODL was rescinded on 8 February 2010 following a review which determined that the program had failed to effectively meet the skills needs of Australia. The review recommended a more targeted Skills Occupations List (SOL), which was announced in July 2010. The SOL includes fewer occupations than those in MODL but is aimed to deliver a General Skilled Migration program focused on high-value skills. The introduction of this SOL forms part of a package which reflects the Federal Government’s commitment to a labour market demand-driven Skilled Migration program. Changes to the skilled migration program during 2010 from the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) to a more targeted Skills Occupations List (SOL), coupled with other external factors, including the strong Australian Dollar, have seen the levels of skilled migration from selected countries fall.

South Africa Philippines United Kingdom China India 0

5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000

Figure 1. Top five citizenship countries for Australian migrants (source: Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2012).

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matched with the requisite occupation. In the many cases where employers hire for specific positions, either directly or through agencies, foreign workers will generally end up in jobs for which they are a good match. However, where workers act on their own initiative, they can end up in jobs for which they are over-qualified (Manpower 2010). During the financial year 2011-2012 (1 July-30 June), the Australian migration program outcome was 184,998 places with the skilled stream accounting for 68 per cent of this program.Of these 184,998 places, the largest source country of migrants was India, followed by China (Figure 1). It is noted that New Zealand citizens are not counted under the Australian migration program. India provided 23.7 per cent of the migration program for 2011-2012, which represented an increase from 19.4 per cent over the previous year (2010-2011) (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2011). This is in contrast from other countries such as the United Kingdom, where the proportion of migrants is steadily declining from a peak of 22.5 per cent in 2005-2006 to only 13.7 per cent during 2011-2012 (see Figure 1).

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2.1. Migrant Occupations Of the 2011-2012 skilled migrants, 'Professionals‘ [as classified under the Australia New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO)] formed the largest components of the Skill Stream (61.9 per cent), followed by Tradespersons and Related Workers (26.8 per cent) and Managers (6.2 per cent). It is noted that the classification of ‘Professional, Scientific and Technical Services’ increased by 49.2 per cent between February 2000 and May 2011, [of this category, 20 per cent are engineers] (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011a). Of the skills stream, over two-thirds (64 per cent) were male and two thirds held a university qualification (at Bachelor or higher-degree level) [Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2011]. This may be a contributing factor to the fact that the unemployment rate of skilled migrants is typically around five per cent (The Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2011) which is below the national unemployment rate for the same period of 5.7 per cent. Whilst the partners of skilled migrants were not selected on the basis of skill, they too typically have higher employment outcomes (in terms of

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employment levels and the nature of employment – see Table 1) than those selected through the family migrant scheme; perhaps as a result of professionals choosing other professions (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2011). This essentially benefits the Australian economy further. Table 1. Occupation by migrant type (skilled and partners of skilled stream migrants)

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Occupation

Skill Stream Migrants (per cent) 6 45 13 11 2 10

Manager and Administrators Professionals Associate Professionals Tradespersons Advanced Clerical Intermediate Clerical Sales and Service Workers Intermediate Production and 2 Transport Workers Elementary Clerical 6 Labourers and Related Workers 5 Source. Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2011.

Partners of Skill Stream Migrants (per cent) 6 27 11 5 3 23 5 13 7

The exception to the higher employment rates is the 'Skilled Graduate‘ category with almost half unable to secure skilled employment (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2011) and the nature and level of the employment unknown. Skilled migration has also contributed to off-setting the aging demographic. Skilled migration favours younger age groups, and it was only during 2011 that prospective migrants aged 40 years and over could apply for a visa.

2.2. The Mobility of Global Professionals There is no doubt that labour is becoming increasingly mobile, with those most skilled having the opportunity to live in their country of choice. The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada top the

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countries of choice for mobile professionals (Hydrogen Group 2012). Professionals report that the most common reason for seeking jobs overseas was to develop their careers with some 90 per cent believing that relocating for work accelerated their personal development, while 86 per cent believe that it improves their career prospects; a fact that is supported by industry, with 59 per cent of companies recognising the importance of international experience and actively seeking senior personnel with international experience. Whilst some sectors, such as energy, actively seek overseas experienced individuals (Hydrogen Group 2012). Global mobility of professionals is being driven by the over 30’s, however the demographics differ between men and women with only 15 per cent of women working overseas over the age of 40 years compared to 50 per cent of men (Hydrogen Group 2012). Those working overseas tend to be highly educated or skilled tradesmen. The top three occupational categories where foreign talent is most important to meeting skills shortages and popular talent shortages are engineers (11 per cent), labourers (eight per cent) and skilled manual trades (seven per cent) (Manpower Group 2011). Of the current mobile workforce, 35 per cent have a Masters Degree and five per cent have Doctorates, and eight per cent MBAs (see Figure 2). However, women working overseas do so earlier in their careers (only 15 per cent of women over 40 years old as compared to 50 per cent of men over 40 years old) (Hydrogen Consulting Group 2012).

Figure 2. Level of Educational Attainment by Globally Mobile Professionals (Hydrogen Group 2012).

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These trends are supported by figures from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (2011) which show that of the skills stream, over two-thirds (64 per cent) were male and two thirds held a university qualification (at Bachelor or higher-degree level). The Hydrogen Group report (2012)further suggests that only 18 per cent of professionals working overseas ever return to their birth country. There is an increasing trend of those working overseas to remain overseas – taking other assignments in other countries. That is a particular concern to Governments who may never see their domestic skills return, essentially leading to a permanent ‘brain drain’. Furthermore, the shortages of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) personnel may be attributed to the highly mobile nature of this workforce, seeing higher levels of national and international movement than other professions, with Australian researchers and industry professionals finding considerable opportunities outside Australia to develop their skills and careers. The Allen Consulting Group (2005) undertook a study on the international factors influencing the availability of Australian SET skills. The study concluded that “Australian SET skills are likely to be in high demand overseas for the foreseeable future” and “innovation is a key driver of economic growth, and human capital is critical to sustaining innovation. As Australia moves towards knowledge based economy, the supply and demand of science, engineering and technology skills is becoming more important than in the past” (pages v-1). Yet for 2012, the most mobile sectors are currently, energy, pharmaceutical, law, finance, and Human Resources (Hydrogen Consulting Group 2012) indicating a strong demand for occupations outside SET too. The level of growth in many ‘developing’ countries is rising quickly, outstripping the more traditional economies (Table 2). Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the monetary value of final goods and services produced in a country in a given period and provides an important indicator about the size of the economy and how an economy is performing. When GDP is growing, employment appears to be increasing as companies employ more workers. Table 2 shows the annual percentage GDP growth for selected regions and countries. Whilst GDP growth in many developed economies (Europe area, United Kingdom, United States and Australia) are below three per cent; developing economies such as China, India and Korea all show significant growth, even through the GFC period. This growth, coupled with the range

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and scope of projects, is increasingly attracting international labour as well as helping to retain intellectual capital. In order to attract these professionals, projects and work will need to be competitive in terms of opportunity for development and the level of interest the job or project can offer. Salary and living conditions (including a favourable climate) in a particular country also play a part in attracting the best personnel.

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Table 2. Selection of Regions and Countries Indicating Annual per cent Growth Rate in GDP (World Bank 2012) Annual (%) Growth Rate of GDP Region/ Country 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 World 4.047249 3.979156 1.437725 -2.30392 4.212971 Euro area 3.244559 2.99324 0.382074 -4.27772 1.949678 OECD members 2.945446 2.61768 0.076895 -4.01258 3.080153 Australia 3.081394 3.564178 3.832065 1.448372 2.256937 China 12.7 14.2 9.6 9.2 10.4 Colombia 6.697515 6.900628 3.546805 1.45192 4.307162 India 9.271832 9.817004 4.932375 9.10493 8.806404 Korea, Rep. 5.178685 5.105824 2.298376 0.3195 6.161843 Sierra Leone 7.280906 6.442019 5.534067 3.2 4.9485 Singapore 8.703237 8.774664 1.487003 -0.77005 14.47127 United Kingdom 2.607117 3.466163 -1.10286 -4.37334 2.092166 United States 2.67415 1.941763 -0.02051 -3.5 3 Note: Annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2000 U.S. dollars. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources.

The ‘pull’ of many of the traditional migration countries, such as the United States and Australia, to attract skilled professionals is in decline, as demonstrated by the main growth region for talent in 2011 was Africa

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followed by Asia; reflecting the high growth in GDP (Table 2) and project opportunities. Overseas investment in many of these competing countries is creating new employment opportunities. The next section identifies the role and benefits afforded by professional bodies and associations, and introduces the mechanisms for recognition of professional occupations; as well as the role of licencing bodies. The roles of these bodies are further discussed in terms of facilitating the mobility of skilled labour and the professional recognition of individuals.

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3. ROLES OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES AND LICENCING BODIES A professional body or industry association can be described as an organisation which represents the interests and development of a particular discipline or profession, and those individuals working or studying within that discipline or profession. In many cases, professional bodies and institutions represent the needs and development of individuals, in contrast to industry associations which typically represent the broader interest of an industry sector and will generally represent organisations as opposed to individuals. In some cases, a professional body will manage both of these functions, representing individuals (offering them professional recognition or certification), and also representing industry or corporate members (acting as a lobby group and providing Codes for Practice). Whilst there are numerous professional institutions/bodies worldwide representing an extensive range of job functions and activities, these associations vary in the levels of service and classes of membership offered to their members and the profession/industry that they represent. In the most sophisticated cases, these professional bodies facilitate personal development and advance professional recognition for their relative disciplines, job functions and members; and actively engage the profession and other stakeholders through a variety of activities (Davis 2010). It is essential that a professional institution is perceived as representing its member’s interests and will support and enhance the professionalism of the industry and the professional development of its members. This will attract members and the support of industry organisations who may themselves wish to become members (where possible) or who may provide support to individual employees who wish to become members (Davis 2010). This support may

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include time off work to attend professional events including conferences, specialised training, volunteer roles within the industry association and branch meetings; and in some cases, the payment of annual membership fees. Professional institutions and bodies tend to be governed by their members and, as such, reflect the requirements of the industry as perceived through its members, be those individuals, corporate organisations or a mixture of both (Davis 2010). Professional institutions also have a code of conduct by which its members are bound. Members (individuals or organisations) who act in violation of the code (where a complaint is investigated and upheld) may be subject to disciplinary actions which usually result in the removal of membership from the institute. In this way, these bodies are held to be selfregulated to a degree and it is this autonomy that is guarded and often the basis for professional autonomy (Davis 2010). Yet, there are limits to this autonomy and occupations that are highly regulated may be subject to external regulation and monitoring. So, just as the certification and monitoring of commercial pilots is managed by government departments, despite there being professional bodies, the handling of hazardous waste (e.g. radioactive, healthcare) is subject to external regulation through national and international legislation and formal agreements, despite instances where there is a professional institution (Davis 2010). Professional institutions set criteria for key competencies for individuals to achieve against classifications of membership. The one defining tool for awarding and retaining professional status across the various disciplines and institutions is continuing professional development (CPD). Membership grades which require a structured CPD framework to be completed on an annual basis by its full members or structured entry to a graduate membership grade need to be fully supported through the professional body awarding that membership. CPD is an essential requirement to retain Chartered membership grade in any institution. Bennett (2000) highlighted the ability of professional bodies and other associations in the self-regulation of industry sectors, helping to improve standards and competitiveness of both organisations and individuals. However, Bennett also highlighted the issues associated with a professional body trying to be as all-encompassing as possible which leads to professional standards being dumbed down and compromised down to the lowest common denominator. Higher expectations and requirements for an industry require suitably well qualified individuals who possess the relevant knowledge and skills upon entry to the profession but also throughout their careers. Professionals historically

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have been neutrally portrayed as ‘restricted’ or ‘extended’. However the change for professionals to now be ‘compliant’ is coupled with the expectation for many professions that CPD is now an expectation as opposed to an option (Hoyle, 1980) as is the membership of appropriate institutions and professional bodies (Davis 2010). This is now certainly the case for engineering professions, where only fully qualified and recognised (often referred to as Chartered) Engineers can legally ‘sign off’ key documents, and where Chartered status now requires a minimum of a master degree and numerous core competencies to be fulfilled during academic studies (Davis 2006; Davis 2010). Doney (1998) and Noon (1994) as cited by Wilson and Halpin (2006), both positively discuss the role of mandatory CPD for a sector with regards to raising the ‘standing of its professionals’ and ‘professional self-image’. In comparison Licencing Bodies issue licences to appropriately qualified and skilled individuals (and in some cases companies) and regulate practices against legislated outcomes. Licencing is mandated and it is illegal to undertake any licenced activities without the correct category of licence. Whilst in most cases, these licencing bodies are Government entities there is a growing number of mandated licences (and legislated) by industry associations. For example, the Australian Refrigerant Council has developed a Code of Practice and subsequent national licencing scheme for ‘refrigerant handling’. Many industry associations seek to raise the operating standards or minimum practices within their sector and a dominant method for doing this is the development of Codes of Practice, be them voluntary or mandatory (where licencing or compliance is regulated).

4. CASE STUDIES The following section presents two case studies. The first occupation (Engineering) is represented globally by different Professional Associations whilst the second occupation (Electrician) is a licenced skilled-trade. The section outlines the current factors impacting the workforce characteristics of these occupations within Australia such as migrant and domestic labour sources, and then discusses the roles of the various licencing and professional bodies with regards to migrant process.

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4.1. Engineers and Migration Processes The engineering occupations cover a broad set of roles, skills and industries. Whilst there are commonly accepted to be four main pillars of engineering, mechanical, electrical, civil and chemical (including process and resource engineering); there are a number of other disciplines including but not limited to aerospace, maritime, electronic, biomedical and environmental. Engineers Australia is the assessment authority appointed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to be responsible for assessing and ensuring the competence of migrant engineers to perform duties in Australia. This assessment is determined by the applicant’s overseas qualification and if they can be recognised as equivalent to Australian engineering qualifications and standards. Although it is noted that engineers who come to Australia on a temporary working visa (known as a 457 visa) do not have to have their qualifications assessed by an assessment authority providing that their employers accept the qualifications. Engineers Australia is the peak Australian body for the engineering profession which is responsible for setting the competency standards for engineers which must be aspired to by universities and education institutions training and educating engineers. Additionally, as the national professional association of engineers, they are responsible for the national accreditation of education programs for 'entry to practice‘ within the three engineering occupations (Table 3). Engineers across all three occupations are not recognised as fully-qualified for independent practice until they have undertaken a period of supervised practice, typically taking around 3-5 years to demonstrate the required standard for admission to the Status of Chartered Professional Engineer and entry onto the national registry. The practice standard operated by Engineers Australia are internationally benchmarked through the International Engineering Alliance (which is a system of accords (Washington, Sydney or Dublin Accords or an competency assessment process and agreement operated by national accreditation and professional registration bodies in more than 20 countries). For a Stage 1 Competency Assessment (for undergraduate qualifications), the assessment cost was AU$660 and the assessment period at 1 July 2012 was 5-6 weeks due to the high amount of applications received. International recognition is offered to applicants from participating countries which are cosignatories to the relevant international agreement on joint recognition, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong. A Stage 2 for

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professional recognition under any of the three occupational categories (Professional Engineer, Engineering Technologist or Engineering Associate) comprises of sixteen elements of Competence divided into four principal units (personal commitment, obligation to community, value in the workplace, and technical proficiency). Table 3. EducationalRequirements for Occupational Category (for Engineers in Australia) Occupation Category Professional Engineers

Engineering Technologists

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Engineering Associates

Requirements Must have completed an accredited four-year (full time equivalent) Bachelor or Masters Degree in Engineering. Must have completed an accredited three-year (full-time equivalent) bachelor degree in engineering technology. Must have completed a two-year (full-time equivalent) accredited associated degree in an engineering area, or a two-year (full-time equivalent) diploma or advanced diploma in an engineering area from university or TAFE college. These qualifications tend to be more specialist, with electrical and electronic engineering being the largest specialisation.

Applicants need to submit ‘Engineering Competency Claims’ for each of the 16 elements of competence. The cost for this service being AU$1617. Additional fees apply for annual membership, professional interview and Registration fee (on the National Register). Despite the verification processes of migrant engineers, Australia does not have a well-used or standardised registration process for professional engineers, particularly when compared to other countries which have chosen to have a formal registration scheme for engineers or to protect the use of the term such as in Germany, where engineers are addressed by their occupation. Whilst “Japan, Malaysia, Korea, the United States, China and Singapore have statutory registration for engineers” (National Engineering Registration Board 2011: p17), across Australia, only Queensland has a mandatory, statutory registration system for engineers.Formal registration systems assign value to a profession. A lack of formal recognition can pose a significant

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barrier to some professionals, particularly if migrating from a country where their occupation is viewed to be high status. Where the standing and support of an occupation is differentiated across countries, some professionals may choose to only go to countries which provide a similar level of recognition and support, particularly where the consequence of these factors is the level of available educational provisions and professional support; or where employment outcomes may be lower than in the country of origin.

4.1.1. Domestic Engineering Workforce In 2009, there were 356,500 individuals in the Australian engineering labour force (Engineers Australia 2011). There is a shortage of practicing engineers within Australia, with local graduates not meeting domestic demand and there are high levels of occupational detachment (Australian National Engineering Taskforce [ANET] 2012); together with the long-lead times associated with the training and accreditation of such professionals to act autonomously in the industry. Engineers Australia (2011) estimates that 20,000 engineers are required annually to meet current workforce demand, with domestic graduations providing less than half of this requirement; whilst ANET (2011) has determined that Australia needs to develop 70,000 experienced engineers by 2015.Skills shortages across most engineering disciplines have been identified as evidenced by their inclusion into the Skills Shortages List (Department of Education Employment and Workforce Relations 2011). The engineering profession also has an older demographic than the Australian labour force (Figure 3), mainly due to the previous generations of migrant engineers. However, it is noted that the current skilled migration system excludes those over 45 years, so the new migrant engineers are contributing to reducing the aging demographic profile of the occupation. As migration declines, the age profile for the engineering sector is likely to increase. Occupational detachment also appears to be significant, with only 57.2 per cent of the engineering labour force actually employed in engineering roles/occupations (Engineers Australia 2011). Currently, Australia only produces domestically half of the engineering graduates of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) average. From 2008 to 2010, there has been an increase in the number of students remaining in education to complete Year 12, with completion rates also increasing to 78 per cent which has assisted in the school population moving into Tertiary Education (ANET 2012).

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Figure 3. The Average Age of Australian Engineers (Engineers Australia 2011).

Despite this increase, the numbers of students studying maths and science has decreased to around 50 per cent with larger falls seen in chemistry and physics (ANET 2012). This move from tradition maths and science subjects is limiting the number of domestic students entering engineering courses at tertiary level. In 2009, there was an a substantial increase in the number of domestic students enrolled in engineering and related technology courses (8.1 per cent increase over 2008 levels and a 48 per cent increase over 2001 levels). The level of overseas commencements in engineering and related technology courses has doubled between 2001 and 2009, with 10,511 enrolling in 2009 (compared with 17,136 domestic enrolments in 2009). Evidence demonstrates that investment in student education is largely intuitive, that is occurring during times of high economic activity when the skills are needed. However, because training is a long-term investment, graduation occurs during times of low economic activity, when demand for the skill has dropped off. Professional bodies and industry associations have a key role in undertaking workforce planning through the strategic identification of supply and demand of future skills and occupations and advise both the industry and education sectors accordingly. Course completions also increased, be it marginally, from 8,351 in 2008 to 8,361 in 2009. This marginal growth represented increases in the completion of course work masters degrees and similar post-graduate course, but dramatic falls in the number of Doctorate and research masters degrees (30.8 per cent

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and 21.4 per cent respectively) [Engineers Australia 2011]. A significant proportion of the growth in completions of engineering and related technology courses since 2001 have been from overseas students who now account for 42.1 per cent of engineering completions (higher than the completions for domestic students). TAFE and Associate graduations have been increasing over the past five years, the completion rates significantly declined for 2008 to 2009. This is typical of a period of economic downturn, where the perceived need for training to supply industry workers is diminished. Conversely, during these periods of economic decline or uncertainty, commencements at tertiary education level increase. Thus, due to variance in graduate completion times compared with the commodity cycle, these students may be supplied to the industry at ill-timed points of the business cycle. There is a need to invest counter-intuitively, or pro-actively, in order to anticipate and develop the necessary skills so as to coincide with business requirements. This means investing strategically, and possibly ‘over-early’, in tertiary programs to improve graduate and skill outcomes for the industry. ANET (2011) noted that there was a relatively low interest in engineering careers by Australian school students, coupled with a low recognition of engineering and a lack of understanding of the engineering profession; further impacted by “a laissez-faire attitude to the regulation of the engineering practice”(page 8). The role of implementing strategies for improving the recognition and entry-level of high-school students into engineering studies, and ultimately the profession, is a critical role of the Industry Association and Professional Bodies, such as Engineers Australia. Between 2003-2008, there were over 65,000 graduates within the engineering and related technologies programs. Engineering industry bodies, such as Australian National Engineering Taskforce (ANET), the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia (APESMA) and Engineers Australia, report insufficient engineering students are graduating to replace skill losses due to retirement and to address industries’ increasing demand skills. Specifically, the following factors are contributing to the engineering skill shortage:  

Mismatches between the number and specialisations of engineering graduates and the identified needs of industry and the community; Insufficient supply of engineering graduates from Australian universities;

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

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

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Increasing and unsustainable patterns of reliance on internationally sourced skilled labour. The total intake of engineering professionals in permanent on-shore and off-shore programs in 2008 was estimated to equal approximately 75 per cent of total domestic graduates that year (and 80 per cent in 2007); Low completion rates for undergraduate engineering students (52 per cent male, 58 per cent female); and The length of lead time in producing specialised engineering graduates to meet specific supply shortfalls (Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia 2010).

Noting that these figures do not include growth in demand for skills. This skill gap is potentially larger when taking into consideration increasing skill demand from existing and emerging industries. While graduate completions in engineering and science has grown, Engineers Australia notes that “a discussion of skills formation couched only in terms of course commencements is incomplete” (Engineers Australia 2010). This is because graduations do not necessarily translate to engagement in the professional sector. Graduates from the TAFE and university sectors can be viewed as ‘non-practicing’ by industry, as current and relevant experience is particularly important to practicing engineering roles. Engineers outside industry do not typically keep abreast to new developments and practices, and may lose any professional certification if not meeting the requirements of professional accreditation. Since 2006, over 70 per cent of businesses reported experiencing engineering shortages. In the aftermath of the GFC in 2009 this figure declined to 53 per cent of businesses reporting engineering skills shortages. Consequently, whilst skill shortages have somewhat eased, they remain significant for half of businesses surveyed (Engineers Australia 2010). Although new commencements and completions have been positively rising over the past five years, this trend is still insufficient to meet the growing labour demand for engineers and therefore there is still a need for migrant skills.

4.1.2. The Role of Migrant Engineers To meet these skills shortages, the Australian Government has focused on immigration (Table 4), however with growing international demand and competition for these skilled professionals, this is unlikely to be sustainable into the future, particularly at historic rates.

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Presently, over 52 per cent of the Australian (engineering) labour force was born overseas (Engineers Australia 2011). This figure represents not only the focused immigration program and historic immigration trends but the significant number of overseas students commencing engineering studies in Australia and choosing to remain after Graduation. However, unemployment is higher amongst migrant engineers (at 4.3 per cent) as against 1.8 per cent for the Australian born workforce (Engineers Australia 2011). The number of permanent visas are increasing, with 2008-09 to 2009-10 seeing an increase of 29.1 per cent. Overall the annual rate of permanent migration for engineers has increased four-fold since 2001. Temporary visa grants for engineers increased rapidly up to 2007-08 peaking at 4580. The subsequent decline reflects the impacts of the global financial crisis and also rises in the Australia Dollar. Despite the decreases in temporary visas, Table 4 clearly shows that the annual migration of skilled engineers has been increasing at a much higher rates than the annual number of engineering graduates. There is concern that if levels of growth increase to pre-GFC levels then there will be increasing demand for engineers and the domestic commencements/enrolments cannot meet this demand. Therefore it is likely that the demand for temporary visas for engineers will be required, although this supply is declining due to increasing global competition. Problems for migrant engineers include employer doubts as to the appropriateness of their qualification; a lack of familiarity with the Australian context (with regards to regulatory policy, markets, costs, trends etc.), a lack of Australian-specific work experience, English proficiency, difficulties with the job application process due to unfamiliarity with job search mechanisms and a lack of local contacts; and cultural barriers including discrimination [see Booth et al., (2012), which found that job applicants with Chinese and Middle Eastern names would have to submit around 68 per cent more applications in order to receive the same number of callbacks as Anglo Saxon named candidates]. Whilst Engineers Australia identifies “a lack of communication skills is typically the greatest impediment to foreign engineers entering the workforce in Australia....and that their orientation programs address this skill” (as cited in ANET 2012: p50). There are a variety of orientation and support programs which have been developed for migrant engineers but there are no regulatory requirements or synergies between them. For example, Australia’s largest Council, Brisbane City Council in Queensland established the Multicultural Employment Infrastructure Program(MEIP) in 2008 following recommendation from the Lord Mayor’s Multicultural Employment Round Table.

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Table 4. Data for immigration and domestic graduation of students (Engineers Australia 2011) Year

Permanent Visas

Temporary 457 Visas

Total Immigration

Domestic Graduations Three year Bachelor degrees

Total

-

Domestic Graduations Four year Bachelor degrees (including double degrees) -

200001 200102 200203 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910

1271

-

-

1411

-

-

577

5266

5843

1898

-

-

552

4944

5496

2372

1250

3622

524

5103

5627

3532

1810

5342

517

5250

5767

3941

2970

6911

726

4553

5279

4120

3510

7630

811

5029

5840

4412

4580

8992

574

5061

5635

5198

4030

9228

633

5290

5923

6712

2408

9120

518

5384

5902

The aim of the program is to move from the paradigm of skilled migrant workers accepting unskilled positions, and ensuring that they find suitable employment and, where possible, increase their capacity to compete and win positions of an appropriate skill level. The initiative was created in response to higher unemployment levels amongst migrant workers. MEIP fills a gap in the job services network, working on a cross referral basis with Job Services Australia providers and provides HR consultants to assess the work-readiness and transferability of skills of individuals; including coaching and work preparation services (to produce resumes, cover letters etc.) MEIP also offers pre and post placement support to assist employers in providing work opportunities and work experience to migrant workers. Additionally, in 2011, Engineers Australia established the Overseas Qualified Engineers Committee. The committee members are comprised of

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key stakeholders including the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, local training and education providers and key industry players who also happen to be overseas qualified engineers. The purpose of the committee is to identify generic issues impacting overseas engineers and seek solutions; including the facilitation of networking events for overseas qualified engineers and overseas engineering students studying in Australia so that they can meet potential industry employers.

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4.2. The Electrical Trades and Migration Process This section explores the entry of migrant electrical workers to Australia, particularly those listed as electricians, otherwise known as systems electricians or as electrical fitter mechanics.Electricians typically, install, test, connect, commission, maintain and modify electrical equipment, wiring and control systems. This is a skilled occupation that has a level of skill commensurate with the qualifications and experience in Australia of Australian Quality Framework (AQF) Certificate III including at least two years of on-the-job training, or AQF Certificate IV (ANZSCO Skill Level 3). The Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) provides for the standardised collection, analysis, and dissemination of occupation data. ANZSCO was jointly developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Statistics New Zealand and replaces the former Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO). ANZSCO defines five skill levels in terms of formal education and training. Occupations at Skill Level 1 have a level of skill commensurate with a bachelor degree or higher qualification; or five years relevant experience. Occupations at Skill Level 2 are commensurate with an AQF Associated Degree, Advanced Diploma or Diploma; or three years relevant experience. Occupations at Skill Level 3 have a level of skill commensurate with Certificate IV or Certificate III with two years on-the-job training; or three years experience.Certificate III is generally recognised as being trades level in the building and construction industry (and includes engineers and electricians). As licence requirements vary for this occupation between each of the Australian States, this section will focus on the licence and immigration requirements for this occupation in Queensland, as the State has the most stringent requirements for licencing and although there is a national qualification for this occupation (generically, the Certificate III Electrotechnology Systems Electrician), the regulatory frameworks

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influencing licencing are different between the States. Although a move to a standardised licencing framework is underway, there is resistance to this by some States. In the interim, licenced electricians may only legally work in a State in which they hold a licence. Currently in Australia there is no professional body representing these skilled electrical workers. Whilst there are industry bodies representing Electrical Contractors (the Electrical Contractors Association in each state and the National Electrical Contractors Association) these bodies only represent corporations and companies (including sole-trader contractors), focusing on their legal duties. Individual electricians are generally not bound by any organisation or professional body, instead they are bound by the relevant legislation and the demarcation of their licence. A skilled migrant with a trade must apply to Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) to have their industry experience and qualifications from their country of origin recognized for equivalence and relevance. The outcome from this initial assessment is required prior to visa application under the skilled migrant process. This process can be lengthy and there is a fee for service with no guarantee of a positive assessment or subsequent visa. If the visa is granted, on entry to Australia the electrician must submit the initial TRA assessment (containing their industry experience and qualifications to the TRA again for an in-depth assessment of competence and qualification with reference to Australian qualifications, and submit the relevant fees). If successful, the applicant will be issued with an Australian Recognised Tradesman Certificate (ARTC). An ARTC is only available to permanent residency visa holders or temporary visa holders (excluding visa classes such as twelve-month working holiday visas). The TRA Local Trades Committee must be satisfied that the applicant has the skills and experience to perform electrical work. If the committee decides that there is insufficient evidence to support the work experience or qualification level, the TRA will stipulate a ‘trade test’ at a designated Registered Training Organisation. This test is payable by the applicant to TRA and at 1 July was AU$600 and scheduling of this test is subject toa minimum number of test subjects (typically groups of four). ARTC holders need to liaise with a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) which delivers the electrical training package in order to identify any skills gaps and to confirm competence with Australian Standards and installation practices, as dictated by the Electrical Safety Office (ESO) of Queensland. The RTO can then apply, with the relevant fee payable by the applicant, to the ESO on behalf of the application for a ‘training permit’. This

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training permit has a finite licence period of six-months, during which time the holder must gain competence in the relevant Australian Standards which relate to the trade area (electrical). This training permit is mandatory for any skilled migrant tradesman not holding an Australian qualification, and without it, it is illegal to conduct any electrical work whatsoever. If the RTO is unable to verify competence after six months, the applicant may request that the RTO submits a justification for an extension to the training permit and the associated application fee. Where competence is verified then certified copies of all relevant documentation (ARTC, Statement of Attainment, and fee) are required to be sent to the ESO for consideration for issuance of a licence to practice. Fees are also payable to the RTO for services including, but not limited to, educational provisions, interviews, official correspondence to ESO. Education provision may include a bridging course specific to the electrical practice in the State (for example, the Electrical Installation Testing and Inspection Course 39093QLD or, more commonly, successful completion of Verify Compliance and Functionality of General Electrical Installations UEENEEG005). This process is not clearly articulated to potential migrants. The process can be lengthy (minimum of six-months from arrival in Australia) and is costly. This process also means that a new skilled trades-migrant cannot commence employment in the electrical trades upon arrival (as it illegal to work without a training permit), despite their visa being granted based on their trade qualifications. Within this period of verification of competence in the electrical trade, migrants may be subject to lower paid working conditions than that of licence holders; and in some cases, may pursue alternative employment in another occupation, thus not fulfilling the objectives of the skilled migration process.

4.2.1. Domestic Electrical (Electrician) Workforce There is a high replacement demand across many sectors and the workforce risks are evident. Australia has an ageing workforce and this is particularly true of the electrotechnology and key construction trades. Occupational detachment through the loss of skilled workers, particularly tradespersons to other occupations, together with the ageing demographic are the significant contributors to the high level of replacement demand seen across the energy, telecommunications and construction industries amongst others. These losses are further exacerbated by the increasing cancellation rate of apprenticeships and large numbers failing to complete their apprenticeships.

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There has been a steady decline of electrotechnology apprentices over the past three years (2.3 per cent fall in 2010 from 2009), coupled with the number of new commencements for electrotechnology training programs falling by over 21 per cent in 2010 from the previous year. Completion numbers also fell by over 36 per cent from the previous year. Predictions indicate that there will be a major shortage of professionals and paraprofessionals in the engineering, electrotechnology and construction trades, estimating that the energy industry alone will need 20,000 extra apprentices over the next five years (Energy Skills Queensland 2010). For the past 20 years most OECD economies have witnessed an increased level of participation in senior secondary and university education but a declining percentage of students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In Australia there has been a general trend away from the study of science and mathematics in the senior years of secondary school including a decline at Higher Education and there has also been a decline in those studying science and mathematics at secondary school (Australian Council for Educational Research 2008). This decline at secondary school clearly impacts other subjects and career paths – particularly some of the trade occupations such as the electro-technology trades which require high levels of maths. Industry estimates indicate that the current rate of trades completions is insufficient to replace retiring workers, or to meet increasing labour demands. Master Builders Australia (MBA) reported 200,000 additional jobs would be required over the next decade (~100,000 over next five years) in the construction industry. Coincidently, over the next five years 80,000 workers are expected to retire, with only 40,000 new apprentices expected to replace these workers. This therefore predicts a potential skill gap of 140,000 workers between 2010-2015. A skills shortage arises when there are insufficient employees with the willingness, availability and suitable qualifications (including experience) to satisfy the labour demands of employers under existing market conditions. An occasional paper released in February 2011 titled ‘Skills Shortages in the Trades during Economic Downturns’ (National Vocational Education Research 2011) surmised that “There is no overwhelming or consistent evidence that persistent skills shortages exist in any of the trades. In the case of construction trades, there is very little evidence of persistent skills shortages, with sharp declines in employment, and high ratios of labour supply to labour demand. The

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automotive and engineering trades and the electrotechnology and telecommunication trades experienced a low unemployment-to-vacancy ratio for much of the 2000s, but sharp decreases in employment were recorded in both trades during the 1992 recession. Of the two, the evidence of persistent shortages is stronger for the electrotechnology and telecommunication trades, which recorded lower unemployment levels throughout most of the period”.

Previous research (Karmel and Mlotkowski 2008) has shown that trades apprenticeship numbers are highly sensitive to market conditions. The replenishment ratio for the electrical trades is particularly sensitive to the economic cycle (National Vocational Education Research 2011) and the privatisation of the Government Owned Corporations in the 1990’s saw the gross replenishment of electrical trades fall from 3.7 per cent in 1994 to 1.8 per cent in 1996 (Toner 2003, as cited in National Vocational Education Research 2011). Research has shown 40 per cent of entry-level tradespeople leaving their trades by the time they are 23 years old, with the rate of exits then decreasing with age. This is attributed to poor career choices in line with ‘natural labour movements’ rather than wage concerns (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations 2008). For the electrotechnology trades, the rate of non-completion is approximately one third of commencements. Improving completion rates, and the recruitment of apprentices of the right quality and fit, would mitigate the forecast skills shortages facing the construction and energy industries (Energy Skills Queensland 2009). Figure 4 shows an analysis of demand and supply for electrotechnology apprentices.Apprentice commencements were used as a proxy for skills demand,as recruiting an apprentice was assumed to address the future skills needs of the business. This is premised on businesses undertaking some form of workforce planning. Cancellations/ withdrawals from training have been adopted as a proxy to represent the shortfall in completion numbers and hence the occupational skill gap. The cumulative rate of non-completion could therefore approximate the total skills lost to the industry over time. The results of this analysis are illustrated in Figure 4. Skills gaps have a number of implications for the Australian economy. First and foremost, there is a lack of available workers with the requisite qualifications, skills and experience. This situation can create wage spirals and impacts project resource availability and project schedules (Richardson 2007).

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25,000 Demand 20,000

Supply

15,000

10,000

5,000

0 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09

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Figure 4. Cumulative Gap Analysis of Electrotechnology Trades 2001 to 2009 (Department of Education and Training 2010and Energy Skills Queensland 2010).

There has been a steady decline of electrotechnology apprentices over the past three years (2.3 per cent fall in 2010 from 2009), coupled with the number of new commencements for electrotechnology training programs falling by over 21 per cent in 2010 from the previous year. Completion numbers also fell by over 36 per cent from the previous year (Energy Skills Queensland 2010a). National Vocational Education Research (NCVER) data for the number of apprentices and trainees commencements, those in training and completions for the UEE Training Package (includes electricians/electrical fitter mechanics) in Queensland is presented in Table 5. Completions for UEE have increased steadily from 2006-2010, however there is a decline in the number of commencements and therefore those in-training would indicate that the number of students completing the package is to also decline over the next two years. Student outcomes for the training package are strong with over 80 per cent of the graduates completing training in 2009-2010 being in employment in their occupation or an occupation relevant to the training. This is expected as the UEE qualification reflects Certificate III as minimum level of trade, and the licenced outcome at this level being undertaken as an Apprenticeship in association with a suitable employer able to provide a suitable range and scope of work. Many of these apprentices will be kept on in the interim by the sponsoring organisation. Employment opportunities and wages, together with a high level of flexibility and choice, within the sector are currently strong for licenced individuals.

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Table 5. UEE Package - Apprentice and Trainee Commencements, in Training and Completions as at 30 September for Queensland (National Vocational Education Research 2011a)

Commencements In-Training Completions

2006 2,257 6,020 688

2007 2,582 7,201 936

2008 2,494 7,846 1,288

2009 1,667 7,240 1,684

2010 1,999 6,883 1,832

Table 6. Occupational destination and training relevance (for those employed after training) out of 1,509 responses (93 per cent) [National Vocational Education Research2011a] Parameter

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In same occupation as training course Working in different occupation group but training relevant to current job Working in different occupation group and training not relevant to current job Unknown

No. of respondents 1,044

Percentage

116

67.5 per cent 15.2 per cent 6.5 per cent

8

0.6 per cent

285

However, a proportion will find employment outside their trade (as indicated in Table 6).Unfortunately, it is not possible under the current data collection process to determine how many overseas students are undertaking Vocational Education and Training (VET) studies in the electrotechnology sector. Despite electricians still being on the SOL, the number of overseas/international students undertaking such studies has decreased dramatically since 2009 due to changes to student visa requirements and the strong Australian Dollar.

4.2.2. The Role of Migrant Electrical Workers The largest proportion of employed recent migrants was in the 'Professionals' occupation group (27 per cent). This was almost double the proportion employed in the next highest occupation group, 'Technicians and trades workers' at 14 per cent, which includes electricians (Figure 5). It is not possible to ascertain the proportion of overseas born electricians to the Australian born.

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The Department of Immigration and Citizenship Report 2011-2012 indicates that there have been significant increases with the numbers of primary visa applications lodged against the ‘sponsor industry grouping’ known as ‘Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services’. A breakdown within this utilities industry classification (for just electricity) is unavailable. The number of primary visa holders in Australia at 30 June 2012 was 91,050 and reflected an increase of 26.4 per cent in comparison with the same date in the previous year, with only 1.5 per cent of visas granted for the Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services Industry (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2012a).

Figure 5. Employed recent migrants by major occupation group (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010).

Table 7. Number of primary applications lodged on 2010-2011 and 20112012 for Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2012a)

Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services

2010-2011

2011-2012

Percentage change from 2010-2011

2011-2012 as percentage of total

710

1050

47.2

1.5

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Table 8. Number of primary applications lodged on 2010-2011 and 20112012 for Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2012a)

Electricians

2010-2011

2011-2012

130

280

Percentage change from 2010-2011 118.5

2011-2012 as percentage of total 1.7

The occupation ‘Electricians’ only appeared in the top fifteen nominated occupations for primary applications granted in 2011-12 to30 June 2012 in Western Australia (Table 8). This indicates that there is not a significant migration of electricians into Australia, despite the placement of the occupation on the SOL and skills shortages lists.

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5. DISCUSSION This review has highlighted a number of risks to the availability of skilled labour within Australia associated with an ageing workforce; poor domestic replacement-levels as a result in low commencements and completion rates for students and apprentices studying in critical occupations; and a decrease in the ability of Australia to attract and retain skilled professionals and trades personnel. There are a number of factors impacting upon overall training outcomes. The GFC has been a difficult economic time for business, and has likely contributed to the recent fall in the number of apprentice commencements in engineering and electrotechnology trades. This has added to skills shortages resulting from low apprenticeship completion rates. Although tertiary enrolments in engineering courses have shown recent increases, these increases are still insufficient to meet replacement levels let alone meet rising demand. Additionally, the availability of these students to the labour market is, at best, 4-6 years away and there is no guarantee of them entering the occupation upon graduation. The main reasons cited for not completing an apprenticeship or traineeship being job loss or redundancy (26.8 per cent), and voluntarily leaving an employer or occupation altogether (28.8 per cent) [National Vocational Education Research 2010]. Additionally, analysis of apprentice labour supply shows a growing gap compared to skills demand. The implication of these

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findings for the engineering and electrical industries will be an insufficient future supply of skills necessary to replace retiring workers, compounded by increasing demand for these trades skills and those lost to other forms of workforce attrition (injury, loss of interest in the area of skill and movement to other industry sectors). Clearly, engineering and electrotechnology apprentice completions, on current forecasts will be insufficient to meet the labour demand and skills needs of Australia. Though the rate of non-completion for many of the trades has long been an issue for the VET sector, there is an opportunity to address these rates. Improving the recruitment of apprentices with suitable aptitude and career aspirations would support improved completion rates and assist in mitigating the forecast skills. To achieve this, urgent action is required to ensure sustainable skills development. If immediate strategies are not implemented to increase apprentice intake and to ensure their completion, skill shortages, rather than improving, will increase. Professional bodies have a critical role in the promotion of their sector as a ‘career of first choice’ and the clear articulation of career pathways. It should be understood that commencements and completions in relevant qualifications (electrical or engineering) will not automatically translate to a labour pool for the industry. Apprentices completing training in these programs may choose to be employed in an industry other than electrical, leave their original trades altogether, or given the demand for their skills choose to migrate away from Australia. Where there is differentiation across countries with regard to the certification and opportunities afforded to professional individuals working within an occupation, this will limit the movement of recognised and accredited individuals. Countries which cannot offer skilled professionals the same recognition and status as enjoyed in their origin country will not be as attractive for migration. Just as a recognition process which is costly, or overly complex, or tardy can act as a barrier to the migration of skilled workers. There is an increasing role for Industry Associations in the transferability of skilled labour, ultimately facilitating the mobility of their members. Who decides the requirements for being classed as a ‘professional’ and what the basis is for that determination is fundamental to the process of recognition and also transferability of that standing. This question is fundamental in the design of standards for certification/accreditation and measuring competency and attainments against those criteria; as is the universal recognition of those certifications between different industry bodies and industry associations and particularly between countries. For example, in

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the first instance a judgement on the level of educational attainment must be made; how many years’ experience working in the industry is required; types of work and roles in certain disciplines/sectors also need to be decided. These determinations become more difficult where an Industry Association may be operating in different countries where education and the status of the occupation may be differentiated; and compounded where Industry Associations representing the same occupations/professionals, may be seeking formal agreement with regards to joint recognition of their professionals. In areas where professional standing has become already, or is moving towards a ‘licence to practice’(such as in the case of Engineers in a growing number of countries) these decisions are critical. The adoption of the migration approach to meeting skills shortages is unsustainable, particularly as Australia becomes less attractive for migrants. The process, especially the temporary immigration visas are also an expensive option for Australian employer organisations and these costs will rise with the new amendments to the tax rules associated with the ‘Living Away from Home Allowance’. With regards to sourcing an appropriate workforce under the current migration system (SOL), it is essential that individual companies are fully aware of their workforce requirements over both the short and longer term. This requires the identification of all current, planned and proposed projects and service delivery, including those early in the feasibility stage. The identification of workforce requirements early on allows a company to identify possible areas of priority job roles (such as the ‘mission critical’ and ‘hard to fill jobs’) and potential skills shortages, and to develop a range of strategies to assist in developing a sustainable and suitably skilled workforce for the duration of a project or service delivery. Strategies may include employing apprentices, introducing traineeships, developing and implementing specific training and education programs for upskilling existing staff, targeted recruitment of interstate and international migrants or setting up a best practice model for recruitment. Such strategies, alongside ‘work-life-balance’ opportunities for individuals, must be considered particularly by small to medium sized enterprises, who will be unable to compete with the remuneration packages being offered by large companies and particular sectors (such as the global resources and mining sectors). Failure to plan and implement effective workforce development strategies which address critical issues will severely impact Australia‘s future sustainability and growth. Whilst investment in misaligned workforce strategies will cost valuable resources for poor returns or benefits.

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It is essential that the engineering and electro-technology industries implement robust and timely workforce development strategies to ensure a sustainable and suitably-skilled workforce. Failure to plan and implement effective workforce development strategies which address critical issues will severely impact the industries future sustainability and growth. Workforce development strategies will need to include training and retraining; leading to an increased demand for the delivery of critical qualifications and skills sets. This activity could be undertaken by the appropriate professional bodies such as Engineers Australia, in the case of engineering; and by the appropriate Industry Skills Bodies or Skills Councils for the electrotechnology sector where practical. It is expected that there will be an increase in demand for flexible learning strategies including online learning at VET level, as the industry looks for appropriate delivery options particularly for existing staff where a loss of productivity cannot be maintained, or for facilitating regionally-based workforces. There are numerous competencies which can be easily delivered via the e-learning platform and there are several training providers currently developing courseware in this format. Training packages (qualifications and skills sets) must also meet industry and workers needs and maintain their currency; whilst funding for both new entrants (job seekers and trainees) and existing workers must be flexible so to allow for the provision of skills sets as well as complete qualifications. Apprentice completions in selected trades have more than doubled since 2005, however, recent declines in apprentice commencements in critical ‘construction’ related trades, signals a reduction in future apprentice completions. It is imperative to highlight that this reduction will coincide with the desired growth in Australia’s mining and resource industry, in addition to other significant projects occurring globally. Consequently, the current skills shortages will worsen as inadequate apprenticeship completions converge with increasing demand. Similar issues also face the engineering professions. In addressing these issues, the demand for overseas skilled occupations and professionals will increase. Further work must be undertaken to ensure that these skilled workers are appropriately supported to ensure that their transition into the Australian workforce is seamless. This will require more streamlined recognition of overseas qualifications and professional standing. Australianbased professional bodies therefore have a critical role in ensuring reciprocal agreements with other overseas bodies, whilst the recognition of overseas qualifications must be rationalised; without losing the integrity of a profession.

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This chapter concludes by discussing the development opportunities for a sector to self-regulate through professional standards and the improvement of educational and training support systems; and where the mandatory regulation may provide both opportunity and constraint.

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CONCLUSION There is a significant role for professional bodies to align requirements for the recognition of professionals particularly where there is a ‘requirements to practice‘. This will make the process of overseas recognition and transition easier and more transferable. Additionally, it will likely make membership more attractive to domestic professionals including those who do not have aspirations of migrating themselves, as it provides an additional level of recognition and acknowledgment of their skills and professional achievements. This is itself important with the increasing role of the ‘knowledge worker’ where an increasing number of professionals are being utilised on projects in other countries whilst continuing residence in their country of origin or current location. The advents of new technologies (from email to Skype) are creating new opportunities for the collaboration of professionals on projects and between countries. The recognition of the professional status of all individuals working on a particular project is a growing requirement for international companies who need to validate their products and services with clients, and in some cases, ensure regulatory standards are maintained and can be verified. It is also in the interest of professional bodies to streamline the recognition of migrant professionals. Unemployed workers, particularly those in trades and legislated occupations (such as airline pilots and engineers), quickly lose their currency outside employment. This also provides a workforce risk to an industry, particularly if those are multi-disciplinary (commonplace at the professional, para-professional and trade levels) as their skills have high transferability. A sector or even an occupation therefore risks occupational detachment as workers gain employment outside the sector or occupation they were trained in. This has undeniably been the case for engineers entering Australia, who often find themselves under-employed as they wait for recognition of their qualifications and professional status. The goal for Professional Bodies and Associations is to appraise how such arrangements could be strengthened and demonstrated through thorough overview of the current standing of professional memberships and their

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transference by all such bodies. The critical issue for Professional bodies is how to streamline processes whilst maintaining professional standards. Licencing bodies are not advice agencies with regards to occupational pathways or development of individuals. Their role is to regulate licenced individuals based on regulatory requirements. However, the assessment of that individual’s competencies against the legislation (and qualifications) is abdicated by the licencing body to external organisations, in the case for electricians, usually a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). By contrast, professional bodies typically have this expertise within, developed as part of the other services which they offer to individuals, such as continuing professional development. Licencing of trades is potentially a barrier for skilled migrant labour, not just to Australia but then between the States, restricting the free flow of skilled labour. Regulation is clear that competency is implicit in undertaking a professional task. However, electricians do not need a licence to practice in most other countries, where successful completion of the relevant qualification(s) and practical expertise (usually an apprenticeship) deems a person competent in undertaking that professional task. However, then the question is raised of how Australia would verify and maintain the standards of the occupation (in this case, electrical trade) without licencing. Other countries typically rely on individuals seeking membership with relevant professional bodies with ‘consumer outcome focuses’ which provide assurances of their members’ competencies, as is typical of professional bodies granting professional certification. The migration processes associated with the recognition of overseas qualifications and skills needs to be made transparent and clearly articulated. The double verification of trades qualifications for example (once as part of the visa application and then again as part of the qualification and skills verification) needs to be harmonised. The recognition of professionals is critical and will become more important as workforces increasingly mobilise, both physically and through technological gateways. There is also an increasing demand from individuals to be professionally recognised, fuelled by personal drivers, and recruitment process based on organisational needs (such as the reduction of risks, liability and insurance premiums). The increased ‘licence or requirement to practice’ approach is becoming more popular. Any mandatory certification for professionals would need to meet all qualifying criteria. Such an approach would assist industry regulators by allowing them to use certification as a condition of licencing professionals, operational and management staff. It

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could also act as a marketing tool for some professionals who can use their certification as a means of distinguishing themselves from less qualified individuals. Wilson and Halpin (2006), make the distinction between training and professional development that meets the needs of the sector as opposed to the profession. There is concern that where mandatory qualification is required, training opportunities are focused on attaining the qualification and ensuring ongoing compliance, as opposed to identifying and undertaking training and development which is beneficial to the individual and the organization; and during times of limited budgets and training opportunities, it will be less likely that any training activities extend beyond compliance (Davis 2010). In instances where there is industry resistance to adopt an accreditation system or where even certified individuals resist or fail to undertake ongoing professional development and to demonstrate that professional development, a sector may experience an increase in the number of practitioners who are poorly trained (Maehr et al., 2002). By comparison, professionals and practitioners who require a licence, are essentially regulated to maintain their competency. Overall, any licencing or professional certifications must adopt a global focus. Whilst engineers have a formal structure in place already, increasingly, other professional bodies are seeking agreements with counterpart organisations in other countries to recognise the certification and status of their members. Only through this process can professionals seeking or requiring certification easily transfer between countries and in the case of overseas knowledge workers, have their skills fully recognised.

REFERENCES Allen Consulting Group.(2005). International Factors Influencing the Availability of Australia’s Science, Engineering and Technology Skills. Report to the Department of Education, Science and Training. June 2005. Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia.(2009). Federal Government Support for the Australian National Engineering Taskforce. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). Characteristics of Recent Migrants, Australia November 2010, Catalogue Number 6250.0. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011). Australian Demographic Statistics.Catalogue Number 3101.0.December 2011.

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Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011a). Labour Force, Australia. Detailed, Catalogue Number 6291.0.55.003. May 2011. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Labour Force, Australia. Catalogue Number 6202.July 2012. Australian Council for Educational Research.(2008). Participation in Science, Mathematics and Technology in Australian Education.ACER Research Monograph 63, August 2008. Australian National Engineering Taskforce.(2011). Engineering Skills and Workforce Capacity. Scoping our Future: Addressing Australia’s Engineering Skills Shortage. Australian National Engineering Taskforce. (2012). Realising an Innovation Economy: A Practical Roadmap to Ease the Australian Engineering Skills Shortage. Ball, K., John, D. (2005). Apprentice and trainee completion rates. National Vocational Education Research, Adelaide. Bennett, R. (2000). The Logic of Membership of Sectoral Business Associations. Review of Social Economy. LVIII (1): 17-42. Booth, A., Leigh, A., Varganova, E. (2012). Does Ethnic Discrimination Vary Across Minority Groups: Evidence form a Field Experiment. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. 74 (4). 547-573. Centrelink. (2010). “Eligibility”. Age Pension. http://www.centrelink.gov.au/ internet.nsf/payments/age_eligible.htm. Accessed 1 August 2012. Communications and Information Technology Training. (2009) Telecommunication Workforce Skills and Employment for the Broadband (NBN) Rollout, Communications and Information Technology Training Limited. Davis, G. (2006). The Use of Case Studies for Integrating Sustainable Development into the Education of Engineers. World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education. UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education (UICEE), Monash University. Melbourne. 5 (1): 159-163. Davis, G. (2010). Professionalism Pays: Industry Associations and Continuing Professional Development for the Waste Management Sector. Waste Management.Ed. E.S. Kumar.In-Tech Press.Pp41-56. Davis, G. (2012). Formulating a VET Roadmap for the Waste and Recycling Sector: A Case Study from Queensland. In Press, Wastes Management.WM-11-1367.

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Department of Education Employment and Workforce Relations (2008). Exists from the Trades Final Report. Research into Attrition from the Trades. Australian Government, Canberra. Department of Education Employment and Workforce Relations. (2011). Skills Shortages List. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government, Canberra. www.deewr.gov.au/Employment/LMI/SkillShortages/Documents/SSL_A US.pdf. Accessed 1 August 2012. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. (2012a).Subclass 457 State/Territory Summary Report 2011‐12 to 30 June 2012. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. (2012). 2011-2012 Migration Program Report – Program Year to 30 June 2012. Australian Government, Canberra. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. (2011). How New Migrants Fare: Analysis of the Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants. Australian Government, Canberra. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. (2010). Changes to the Skilled Migration Program. Australian Government, Canberra. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. (2010a). “How will I be affected by the introduction of a new Skilled Occupations List”? Australian Government, Canberra. Doney, E. (1998). Developing Opinions: The Attitudes of ILS Staff to Continuing Professional Development. Library Management. 19 (8): 486491. Energy Skills Queensland. (2009). Energy Industry Skills Plan 2009-2012. Energy Skills Queensland, Brisbane. Energy Skills Queensland. (2009a). Paper 3: Skills Retention in the Electrotechnology Trades and the Electrical Trades in the Electricity Supply Industry in Queensland. Energy Skills Queensland, Brisbane. Energy Skills Queensland. (2010). Beyond the GFC: An Energy and Resources Led Economic Recovery and Industry’s Required Workforce Response. Energy Skills Queensland, Brisbane. Engineers Australia. (2010). Resourcing the Future National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce Discussion Paper. Engineers Australia. (2011). The Engineering Profession: A Statistical Overview. Eight Edition. 2011. Engineers Australia. (2012). Engineers Graduates Still Well Short of Meeting Demand. www.engineersaustralia.org.au/news/engineering. Accessed 30 June 2012.

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Hoyle, E. (1980). Professionalisation and de-professionalisation in education. World Yearbook of Education: The Professional Development of Teachers. (Eds Hoyle, E and Hydrogen Group. (2012). Global Professionals on the Move 2012. www.hydrogengroup.com. (Accessed 23 April 2012). Karmel, T., Misko, J. (2009). Apprenticeships and Traineeships in the Downturn. National Vocational Education Research.Report 27. Maehr, D., Thompson, B., Mattfeld, G., Montei, K., Haufler, J., Kerns, J., Ramakka, J. (2002). Directions in Professionalism and Certification in the Wildlife Society. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 30 (4): 1245-1252. Manpower. (2010). Resource the Future, National Resources Sector Taskforce Discussion Paper. March 2010. Manpower, Australia. Manpower Group. (2011). The Borderless Workforce 2011: Research Results. Milwaukee, WI, United States. Master Builders Australia. (2010). Submission to the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce on the Discussion Paper: Resourcing the Future. National Engineering Registration Board. (2011). The Regulation of Engineers: Finding the Right Approach for a National Economy. National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce.(2010) Resourcing the Future: National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce Report, Commonwealth of Australia, July 2010. National Vocational Education Research. (2010). Apprentice and Trainee Destinations. National Vocational Education Research, Adelaide. National Vocational Education Research. (2011). Occasional Paper: Skill Shortages in the Trades During Economic Downturns. National Vocational Education Research, Adelaide. National Vocational Education Research. (2011a). Occasional Paper: Preapprenticeships and their Impact on Apprenticeship Completion and Satisfaction. National Vocational Education Research, Adelaide. Noon, P. (1994). CPD: Professional Development-Continuing and Compulsory? Librarian Career Development. 2 (4): 4-8. Richardson, S. (2007). What is a Skills Shortage? National Vocational Education Research, Adelaide. Toner, P. (2003). Supply-side and demand-side explanations of declining apprentice training rates: a critical overview. Journal of Industrial Relations. 45 (4):457-484.

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Wilson, K.M., Halpin, E. (2006). Convergence and Professional Identity in the Academic Library. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. 38 (2): 79-91. World Bank. (2012). Data Sets. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG. (Accessed 23 April 2012).

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Chapter 3

CASE STUDIES OF DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS’ READING MOTIVATION: AVOIDING A DEFICIT PERSPECTIVE Clarence Ng and Brendan Bartlett

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Griffith University, Australia

ABSTRACT Given the critical role of reading to academic success, we explore here the issue of underachievement in reading from a motivational perspective based on case studies of selected Year 5 students drawn from a low SES school in Queensland. Our intention in this chapter is to focus on research we have conducted to help understand why the selected disadvantaged students disengaged from reading. The extant research on reading engagement has provided an empirical foundation for the current research predominately from a cognitive perspective, highlighting the important role of various critical cognitive variables such as self-efficacy and expectancy of success in the reading process. Simply attributing the low levels of motivation and achievement in reading to the lack of selfefficacy does not provide a full picture of why these students disengage from reading. Using a person-in-context perspective, this chapter draws on case studies derived from a longitudinal project on reading engagement among disadvantaged students to illustrate significant interactive effects of contextual influences on disadvantaged students’ reading behaviours in school. Based on the data and evidence derived from repeated interviews and observations, we have provided detailed

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Clarence Ng and Brendan Bartlett accounts of these students' lived reading experiences and an evidencebased understanding of why these students engaged and disengaged from reading from multiple lenses. The results highlight the need for teachers to scrutinize their classroom reading practices critically in order to reengage readers from diverse disadvantaged backgrounds.

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INTRODUCTION Schools in Australia are populated with students from diverse backgrounds. While much has been written about the issue of learning diversity, due research attention is urgently required to look into the problem that so many disadvantaged students in Australian schools are underachieving. This major social challenge has been revealed clearly in disadvantaged students’ relatively weak reading performances in national testing. In the previous two rounds of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), students from linguistically, culturally and economically disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionally represented among those who failed to meet the minimum reading benchmarks. Given the critical role of reading to academic success, we present in this chapter an exploration of students’ reading experiences from a motivational perspective. We have based this on case study research of selected Year 5 students drawn from schools situated in low-SES suburbs in Queensland1. Students’ motivation to read has been considered widely as a pervasive problem in schools (Gamble, Palmer, Codling, & Mazzoni, 1996). A plethora of studies has explored it from a cognitive perspective highlighting the significant roles that factors such as self-efficacy and goals for reading appear to play. Nevertheless, following such an individualistic perspective alone when considering disadvantaged students’ motivation to read – or lack thereof - may risk premature and incomplete conclusions about how engagement, focus and persistence issues originate and are energised differently within the different social and task-demand settings where children read. In addition, previous studies on reading motivation, used predominantly self-reports by survey for collecting data (e.g. Baker & Wigfield, 1999), and often they have failed to consider students’ motivation within a range of relevant contexts – and for these reasons, as Nolen (2007) rightly pointed out, may in fact be methodologically fraught. There are huge limitations in data 1

This study was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant Scheme – Grant No. DP110104289.

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collection methods for research with young children, who for example with surveys, may not interpret the meaning of items correctly, nor fully understand the task-requirements. Sweet, Guthrie and Ng (1998) observed that without proper acknowledgement of these limitations, recruiting disadvantaged students to complete self-report questionnaires will be misleading as indications of their self-efficacy, reading interest and mastery orientations and may at best simply reinforce classroom teachers’ pre-existing beliefs about students’ deficiencies in these cognitive areas. We consider that interacting influences within embedded contexts have a significant role in students’ reading engagement and disengagement. To illustrate the dynamic interplay of variables within embedded reading contexts, we will draw on case studies derived from a three-year longitudinal project on reading engagement among disadvantaged students. The selected studies showcased the significant interactive effects of contextual influences on disadvantaged students’ reading behaviours in school. Based on the data and evidence derived from repeated interviews and observations, we provide detailed accounts from multiple lenses of these students' lived reading experiences and our evidence-based understanding of why they variously engaged and disengaged from reading. The results highlight the importance of teachers’ critical scrutiny of their classroom reading practices if they are to move intentionally to monitor and re-engage those readers from diverse disadvantaged backgrounds who are occasional or habitual disengagers.

RESEARCH ON READING MOTIVATION Motivation is critical for reading engagement because reading itself is an effortful activity that has complex semiotic and meta features (Bartlett, 2010) and typically involves deep memory processing, decision-making, preferences, choices and commitment in the pursuit of meaning-making (cf. Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978; Wigfield, Guthrie, Tonks, & Perencevich, 2004) and coming to value the activity (Bartlett, 2012). According to Guthrie and Wigfield (2000), reading motivation can be defined as a construct of “personal goals, values, and beliefs with regard to the topics, processes, and outcomes of reading” (p. 405). This definition aligns consistently with major cognitive explanations of motivation including expectancy-value modelling, achievement goal theory, and self-efficacy research, which collectively highlight the importance of students’ expectation, valuing, purposes and self-concept in reading.

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Based on these diverse cognitive models, the important questions for assessing reading motivation include, to what extent one has and believes s/he has reading capability, thinks reading is important for a particular purpose and wants to achieve outcomes related to that purpose. Aligning with these cognitive models, reading motivation has been measured consistently with students’ ratings of corresponding cognitive variables. A quick scan on the established instruments for assessing motivation (e.g. Motivation to Read Profile by Gamble, Palmer, Codling and Mazzoni, 1996; Reader SelfPerception Scale by Henk and Melnick, 1995; Motivation for Reading Questionnaire by Baker & Wigfield, 1999) corroborates the view that conceptualizations of reading motivation over the past two decades have been driven mainly by a cognitive paradigm focusing exclusively on understanding the effects of significant cognitive variables such as self-efficacy, reading interest and autonomy control. For example, the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) contains a set of scales based on 11 dimensions of reading motivation (efficacy, challenge, curiosity, involvement, importance, recognition, grades, social competition, compliance, and work avoidance) which can be collapsed into cognitive variables of competence beliefs, extrinsic reasons and social purposes for reading adapted from major models of motivation (Klauda, 2009). Past studies have confirmed the importance of these cognitive variables in reading engagement and achievement. More specifically, students’ reading self-efficacy has been extensively researched. The general pattern in conclusions from such research is that efficacious students persist longer in reading difficult texts, expend more effort, read more and better (e.g. Chapman & Tunmer, 1995, Nes Ferrar, 2007; Schunk, 2003; Solheim, 2011; Taboada, Tonks, Wigfield, Guthrie, 2009). Students who have developed a keen interest in reading or who are intrinsically motivated to read for enjoyment and understanding often are found to have more engaged patterns of reading behaviours including a willingness to read challenging texts. In addition, their intrinsic motivation for reading is always positively related to reading (e.g. Baker & Wigfield, 1999; Guthrie et al., 1999; Taboada et al., 2009; Unrau & Schlackman, 2006) and contributes independently to reading comprehension at various levels, even after controlling for other significant factors such as past reading achievement levels (cf. Guthrie, Wigfield, Metsala, & Cox, 1999; Taboada et al., 2009). In addition, Guthrie and colleagues reported empirical evidence showing that students’ intrinsic motivation in Year 7 relates to later reading achievement levels in Year 8 and 9 (Gottfried, Fleming, and Gottfried, 2001; Wang & Guthrie, 2004). More recently, reading researchers have begun

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to explore the significance of mastery orientations on reading performance from an achievement goal perspective. Emerging results have shown that students who have focused on mastery orientations monitor their reading process, use effective comprehension strategies, and achieve deep levels of understanding and valuing of both outcomes and processes earned and used to improve their reading (Bartlett, 2012; Botsas & Padeliadu, 2003; Meece & Miller, 2001; Nolen, 2007). Given the significant impact of these motivational variables, reading researchers have begun to develop influential reading intervention programs for improving reading engagement and performance. For example, instructional interventions have been developed to promote mastery motivation (e.g. Miller & Meece, 1997) and reading interest (Wang & Guthrie, 2004). While these cognitive models have provided an empirical foundation for designing instructional interventions, for the greater part efforts thus far to transact such knowledge into effective practice have been neither consistently effective nor readily realized for students who are at risk of reading failure or who are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Certainly, more studies are needed to help us effect better transactions, especially among those students from at risk categories and different disadvantaged backgrounds.

NEGATIVE MOTIVATION OF DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS Thus, despite the rich empirical foundation for understanding and promoting reading engagement and achievement provided from cognitive studies on reading motivation, limited research has explored the issue of reading motivation among disadvantaged students. Few international studies yet have taken disadvantaged students as a specific focus. This means that we do not have a direct application from what empirical base exists that might be used to inform reformative practices to promote reading engagement and achievement where this is needed with such students. And, it is needed as classroom teachers who have worked with disadvantaged students will attest. In a pilot of this issue within a study of top-level structuring (Ng, Bartlett, Chester & Kersland, in press), teachers informed us that many such children are unmotivated and characterised by a low sense of self-efficacy, autonomy and interest in reading. Simply attributing the low levels of motivation and achievement in reading to the lack of self-efficacy does not provide a full picture as to why disadvantaged students disengage from reading (Sweet, Guthrie & Ng, 1998).

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In addition to a lack of positive motivation to read, we suspect that disadvantaged students may be influenced by negative forms of motivation such as high levels of anxiety about reading, effort retreat as a phenomenon once the children are set in a reading activity, and avoidance of engagement with reading where possible. Motivational research has focused not just on positive forms of motivation but also on its negative forms - such as avoidance. For example, current studies on achievement goals have begun to explore the impact of negative motivation derived from performanceavoidance and work-avoidance orientations that drive students away from learning as a result of personal concerns they have about their abilities and from a general unwillingness to spend extra effort once in a reading situation. In a recent study of reading motivation using both Caucasian and African American samples, Guthrie and colleagues (2009) found that both positive (intrinsic motivation) and negative (avoidance motivation) contributed uniquely to variance in reading comprehension and other reading variables. The finding that African Americans, one of the dominant groups of disadvantaged students in North America, were heavily influenced by avoidance motivation in their reading relates to the current discussion.

PERSON-IN-CONTEXT PERSPECTIVE Within Australia, different types of disadvantaged students populate our schools—students from NESB, low-SES, rural and remote, and indigenous and other ethnic backgrounds; each group and its individual members learn to read (and how to avoid reading) within different academic, cultural, socioeconomic and physical constraints/affordances. A plethora of literacy studies (e.g. Baker, 2003; Barone, 2006; Comber et al., 2002; Greene & Anyon, 2010; McCarthey, 1997; Rennie, 2006; Wyatt-Smith & Bridges, 2008b) has already highlighted various crippling issues such as discontinuity between home and school reading practice, the lack of economic and reading resources, and social support associated with disadvantaged students’ literacy learning. The likely implication is that many disadvantaged students often learn to read within a learning environment radically different from students from mainstream middle class families and schools. While acknowledging the importance of personal cognitions and the significant role of cognitive variables such as self-efficacy and goal setting and orientation as specific focal points, in the current study we were concerned about the development of these cognitive variables within the embedded

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contexts of learning surrounding disadvantaged students. Our contention was that research on reading with students from low SES and other disadvantaged backgrounds cannot rely solely on a cognitive perspective without seeking a thorough understanding of why and how these students have developed differences or deficiencies within embedded contexts. There is a need to acknowledge that the collective of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in any given grouped reading situation such as a whole-of-class centred classroom lesson is a set of individuals each of whom perceives, interprets, and interacts with relevant contextual influences in unique way. Therefore, their cognitive attributes when reading in that and other specific instances can be understood as emerging through constant participation in, and interpretation and appraisal of, reading situations and requirements in and out of school. This particular perspective was labelled in the current study as person-incontext, an attempt to capture the conceptualization of reading motivation extending beyond individual cognitive attributes to an emergent interaction between individual reading intention and social structures, forms and resources made available within specific reading situations. Disadvantaged students’ reading motivation (e.g. such as a lack of interest, generally) needs to be interpreted within specific interactive influences derived from immediate and related contexts such as the availability of favourite reading materials, students’ preferences of reading environment, and the influences of peers. Disadvantaged students are part of the embedded contexts and simultaneously are being affected by these particular contexts and contributing to the formation and development of them. We have not pioneered this specific research perspective. Its theoretical root can be traced back to Vygotsky and other sociocultural theorists who focused on the dynamic interaction between learners and their relevant learning contexts. More recently, motivational researchers (e.g. Järvelä, Volet & Järvenoja, 2010) have argued the importance of understanding the link between individual and social processes and the significance of situating motivation within specific learning contexts. Several studies have been conducted to explore the dynamic influences of reading context on motivation to read (e.g. Oldfather 2002; Nolen, 2007; Turner, 1995). In short, our perspective focuses on the connection between context and individual, highlighting the mutually-involved and reciprocally-related nature of reading motivation. The person-in-context perspective therefore rejects dichotomous treatment of individual and context; it also avoids the simplistic and deterministic assumption of context determinism. Consistent with this perspective, we used a mix-methods design in this research to construct case studies of readers from disadvantaged backgrounds in order to understand the

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lived reading experiences of these individuals within relevant (reading) contexts (Yin, 2009). We asked the following research question: How can students’ personal perceptions and contextual factors such as the reading practices of significant others, availability of reading materials, specific demands of a reading situation such as taking turns in reading in a group and the use of technology, combine to help us make sense of the students’ motivational characteristics?

METHODS

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Selected Cases Two Year 5 students from a low SES school were selected from a larger study that focuses on documenting and understanding reading engagement of disadvantaged students in low SES schools in Queensland. These students attended a primary school in a Brisbane suburb which was one of the poorest in Australia according to the census survey in 2005 (Australian Statistics Bureau, 2005). All the school’s students were from low SES family backgrounds. In total, this school had 600 students at the time of this study, a size within the average band of primary schools in Australia. In addition to its low SES characteristics, this school was selected because the average literacy performance of its students was substantially lower than the national average as measured in the past two consecutive rounds of national literacy testing. The students were selected for inclusion in the larger study from a population nominated by their teachers. The teachers had arrived at their nominations after rating these students in terms of their reading engagement behaviours, enjoyment, self-efficacy and motivational characteristics. The students included in the current report were rated as disengaged readers with low levels of reading interest, self-efficacy and effort expenditure in reading. In addition, these two students had achievement levels lower than average students in Australia in their previous national assessment results.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS The data set for each case contained longitudinal information collected over a year using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. This

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involved a series of interviews, observations, and a year-end, researcherassisted survey. Four rounds of face-to-face semi-structural interviews were conducted in school. The purpose of these interviews was to gather students’ descriptions and understandings of their reading experiences in school and at home (Interview 1), their reasons for engaging when reading (Interview 2), their beliefs and preferences about reading (Interview 3), and their perceptions of classroom support in reading (Interview 4). Each taped interview took about 15-20 minutes. We used pictures of engaged and disengaged readers in different reading situations (alone, in a group, with teachers, and parents) and contexts (in the classroom, using a computer, in the library) to encourage interviewees to share their reading experiences. We also showed them pictures of different types of reading materials including various kinds of books, magazines, newspapers and webpages. The four observations involved systematic scrutiny of the students’ reading engagement using a fixed-interval observation criterion of 10 seconds. The total collection for each systematic observation was 30 reports across 10 minutes. The observations covered students’ reading activity in individual quiet reading, group reading, reading using computer and reading in the library. In addition, field notes were taken about these students. Together with the observation data, this served as additional information to triangulate with interview findings. At the end of the academic year, the selected students rated their views of reading in their class. The survey was conducted on a one-to-one basis with the interviewer reading out each question to the students, checking the child’s understanding of the item and how to respond, and recording answers. These data provided us with emic information indicating students’ insider-views of their reading experiences in school. We also obtained the students’ reading achievement data as represented in their results in national literacy testing held in May and their end-of-year report cards and interviewed their teachers about perceptions of each child’s ongoing engagement and outcomes performances as a reader in school reading activities. Data derived from interviews, observations, and the end-of-year survey were combined to create individual profiles of these two disengaged-reader cases. Transcripts for these two students, were read and reread. Data drawn from interviews, observations, the survey and field notes were compared and contrasted. Reading in this study was defined as overt purposeful effort or activity used by the reader to participate in the reading of materials assigned to them or selected by themselves in a reading situation, whether in or out of school. Integrated composite portraits of two readers are presented below. All

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data sources were drawn on in an attempt to describe these students as completely as possible. Below, we first present a description of the general learning environment highlighting special features related to reading in the classes of these two students. We then present the consolidated reading profiles of two selected students, Peter and Jacob.

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RESULTS Peter and Jacob were Year 5 students in two different classes at the school. Both were aged 10. The two classes used an identical Year 5 literacy curriculum focusing specifically on enhancing literacy learning through personalised approaches with a view to improve students’ performance, especially as this would be represented in results on NAPLAN for Year 5 students. To meet the school’s goal to improve literacy achievements, two classes were spending a substantial amount of time, about 360 to 400 minutes every week, on literacy learning. Every morning these students spent about 15 minutes on spelling and vocabulary learning. This was followed by a 30-minute session on guided reading. During the guided-reading period, all students were required to read in groups of 4 to 8. These groups were overseen by teachers, teacher aids and parent volunteers. Students usually were required to complete comprehension worksheets designed by their teachers during the guided reading period. Another session of reading occurred daily at 11:30 after the morning break. Students were required to read on their own for about 15 minutes, an activity that was followed immediately by an hour of literacy learning. Both teachers advised that to a certain extent, the silent reading sessions were used to calm students down after the break. Our observation was that some students arrived late while some did not read at all during these silent reading periods. In contrast to the structured guided reading session, the silent reading periods were rather unstructured and it was normal for both teachers to spend most of the reading period handling discipline matters while trying to keep students engaged in their classroom learning activities. The two Year 5 classrooms were rather noisy for most of the time alongside the constant occurrences of behavioural problems in both. The learning about and through pace was rather slow and the level of expectations from both the teachers and students appeared to us to be low.

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CASE 1: PETER Peter’s Reading Practice at Home Peter did not read at home nor did he have any books of his own. Other reading materials such as newspapers and magazines were not readily available there. There was a small number of magazines he had found at home; however, he could not describe them and he considered them boring. Peter did not have a computer at home. He would visit the town library on some of the weekends to use a computer there for playing games and doing Mathletics (however he thought Mathletics was boring). Sometimes, he would go onto the Facebook. Peter’s family members did not read at home. Peter said that he had never seen his parents reading at home. Neither did his younger sister at the kindergarten read. His Year 2 brother only read only at school. But the family never talked to each other about any books they had read or thinking of reading.

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Peter’s Reading Practices in His Class Every week, Peter had reading lessons between Monday and Thursday for at least 15 minutes. In these lessons, Peter had the opportunities to read on his own, with other students in a group and/or listen to the teacher reading to the class. However, he did not like reading with the group. When shown a picture of disengaged readers in a group, he quickly recalled his own experience during guided reading activity in his class. He said that he was impatient about taking his turn to read and felt bored because he was required to “listen to people”. He would rather be the one reading out loud to the group than waiting and listening to other students. Another reason he disliked reading in group was because of distraction. Neither did he enjoy the time when his teacher read to the class. He said he felt bored when the teacher read, which based on our classroom obersvation may have been because the teacher did not read the books that Peter found interesting. Whatever the reason, Peter’s view was that he preferred reading on his own – an observation reflected in the following excerpt: Interviewer: You don't really like it? So which one is (pointing to pictures of showing different reading situations including group reading, Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

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teacher-led reading, silent individual reading), like, that you don't like the most, like you just really hate that to happen? Peter: When the teacher's reading to us. Interviewer: Oh, you really don't like that, when the teacher reads to you? And, do you know why? Can you say why you don't like that? Peter: I get bored listening to the teacher. Interviewer: You just get bored listening? Would you prefer to have the book in your hand to look at? Would that make a difference? Peter: Yes. Interviewer: Yes? You'd prefer that? So what... out of all of those things, then, that you can do in your classroom, what would be the... your most favourite, if you have one? Peter: Reading to yourself.

During the daily reading period, Peter understood that he was expected to read with his group. He was not allowed to talk but could ask for help from others. For most of the time he was permitted to read by himself. But sometimes the teacher asked all the groups to read out loud simultaneously which made the classroom very noisy. When he was asked to explain what the teacher usually did during the reading periods, he replied that he did not know. While Peter enjoyed reading alone in the class, he would rather read the Guinness Book of Records with friends in the library. This specific reading preference was confirmed in our systematic observations across his daily routine. In particular, when he read on his own in the library, Peter showed 100% engaged reading during the whole time of our close observation. This contrasted favourably with the about 33% of engagement we recorded during his silent reading on a book called Spy Sausage that his teacher had selected for him, and with the 50% during an observation of his performance in a reading group assigned by the teacher. In addition to this clear preference for reading materials in the library, our observation also showed that Peter was highly engaged when using a computer to read in class. He was recorded with 93% engagement when doing so. In the second interview, Peter explained to us that he liked working with the computer and believed he had never had any experience of disengagement when reading using a computer. He seldom read with the teacher on a one-to-one basis. Neither did Peter know what his teacher thought of his reading. When he needed help with reading, he usually turned to his friends. According to his responses to the year-end reading survey, he thought he seldom received encouragement or help from his teacher in reading. He thought his teacher did not encourage him

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to read more. He also thought that his teacher rarely made reading fun and hardly ever seldom shared reading with them. When asked what he liked about the reading periods, Peter indicated that he liked the chance of learning words and he thought “reading makes one smart”. However he disliked reading in the class because of the repetitiveness, difficulty and his boredom with this task. He said “everyday you have it, and it’s boring sometimes, and some books are too long”. The books that he found interesting were, “books that tell you how to do things” like books on science experiments. He labelled this type of books as “signs” books. In addition, he described as ‘cool’ what he called “facts book” such as the Guinness Book of Records. He also liked books on animals and sports magazines, especially football magazines that he could found in the school library. However, he explained that he found the books in his class mostly boring and did not feel like reading them. He also hated books that contained only pictures with no words. In response to the survey at the end of the year, he indicated that he had not come across books in class that he considered as “too hard”. Regarding his reading in the class over the year, he found the activity generally enjoyable and easy. He therefore rated himself high to the question on whether he considered himself a good reader. In the survey, he also thought his friends considered that their reading in the class was interesting. However, he did not intend to read more of the type of the reading material that he had been given in the class. In the first interview, Peter told us that he was reading in his class a story about a wombat that did not have food. He liked this kind of book because it told him “what they eat and how they live”. His teacher had chosen the book for him. He found the story interesting and would like to finish it. However, if he was given the choice, he would have taken the Guinness Book of Records, into class.

Peter’s Reading in Library Peter liked reading in the library. When asked why, he explained that it was because of the large space and the fact that he could read on the floor. He felt a sense of freedom when he read in the school library. His favourite book in the library was the Guinness Book of Records and he explained that this was because, “those people can do cool things”. In the second interview, when asked to relate his reading experience to a picture of a group of engaged readers sharing a book with each other, he quickly responded and identified

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the depiction with his own reading of the Guinness Book of Records with his friends in the library. The interview excerpt below captured his favourite moment. Our observation of his reading in the library confirmed that he enjoyed this sort of reading. Interviewer: What does that remind you of? (pointing to a picture of engaged readers sharing a book) Peter: Like they are reading a big book. Interviewer: Yeah they are reading a big book. It reminds me of when you told me about reading the Book of Records with your friends. And so is that what you are like when you do that? Peter: Yeah. Interviewer: Do you read any other books with your friends like that? Peter: No. Interviewer: So really mainly you go for the Book of Records?

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Peter’s Reading Self-Perceptions During the first interview, Peter considered himself as not a good reader for he thought some of the words he encountered were too difficult. This perceptual statement was not consistent with his response to the year-end survey where he rated himself as a good reader. He asked what he would do if he came across difficult words when reading his favourite Guinness Book of Records. He replied that he would work them out by looking at the pictures first. If it was too hard, he would avoid the difficult words by turning to the next page. Peter understood the importance of reading. We have repeated this question and explained to him that it was his view that we wanted to know. He responded affirmatively and indicated to us that he considered reading important. Peter quoted “he had nothing to do” and “there were cool things in it” as two reasons that he had for wanting to read his favourite Guinness Book of Records. Boredom was the main reason why he wanted to give up reading in class. During the second interview, when shown pictures of disengaged readers, Peter would explain their behaviours in terms of boredom, which to him, was mainly due to “boring books and uninteresting reading”. In addition to boredom, he also asserted tiredness and distraction to explain why he wanted to give up reading in the class. Further, if given the choice, he would choose the book to read rather than to be assigned one.

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His response to a picture showing a group of interested readers in the second interview reiterated autonomy in selecting reading materials as most important in Peter’s attributions for his positive reading motivation and engagement. He shared with us his constructed understanding that the picture of interested readers resulted because the people were reading an interesting book. To him, the Guinness Book of Records was always interesting, engaging and his favourite. He could find it – and these warm personal connections only in the library.

Peter’s Reading: Teacher’s Perspective

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In the initial assessment of students’ reading engagement, Peter’s teacher considered him a disengaged reader with low levels of interest, reading intention, and concentration. He said he had frequently observed Peter’s avoidance behaviours such as being slow to respond and searching for distraction. The teacher considered him as having an average level of confidence in reading as indicated below: Teacher (P): Peter looks lost and confused when he reads; often staring at a page with a vacant look, then turning the page and doing the same…Peter has no exposure to books at home. He does not read at home. Peter thinks reading is important but gives up easily when encounters difficult words. He prefers simple books in line with his reading age of 6 years.

Peter’s reading performance in the NAPLAN literacy test was substantially below the national average in reading and his scores on the other literacy assessment areas, including writing. He achieved at a Band 3 level of reading; the national average was Band 6. His teacher assessed Peter’s reading performance at year-end at C level, indicating an average result. The teacher considered Peter had a sound reading comprehension level, but commented that he, “would benefit from more independent reading and needs to start reading for detail” and that Peter had hesitated to participate in classroom discussions. There was no comment about Peter’s participation, affect and outcomes where the Guinness Book of Records was an integral part.

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CASE 2: JACOB Reading at Home

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Jacob lived with his parents and siblings, five older sisters and two older brothers. He was the youngest one. Jacob did not have books at home to read, but sometimes he would borrow books from the town library. When he did so, he did not talk with anyone in the family about the books he had read. Neither did anyone at home share their reading with him, other than his father showing him news about horse racing and rugby. Jacob had not seen his parents reading at home except for his father reading the Sunday and racing newspapers sometimes. Jacob did not recall seeing his brothers and sisters reading at home. The only encouragement for him to read was when he got bored and his father would ask him to read a book. Jacob would sometimes read the Sunday newspapers. Recently, Jacob’s father bought K-Zone magazines (about games, movies and music) for him. However, he would read them only when he felt bored. The following excerpt from the first interview shows the limited encouragement to read that he believed he received from his parents: Interviewer: Does anyone at home encourage you to read? Jacob: Yes. Interviewer: Who’s that? Jacob: My dad Interviewer: Your dad. How does he encourage you to read? Jacob: When I’m really bored, he tells me to get a book. Interviewer: Yeah, and what does he usually say to encourage you? Jacob: He says get a book cause it’s educational

Reading in Class Although there silent reading was scheduled from Mondays through Thursdays, Jacob told us that it happened only sometimes - and usually when the teacher needed to talk to another teacher. He also had the impression that his teacher would get mad at students when they were not reading in the class. His understanding of what to do during reading periods was that everyone must read and could not do other activities or chat with each other. During silent reading periods, he was allowed to read with friends in a group, but preferred reading by himself. Jacob said he felt bored when waiting

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for his turn in group reading. He also explained that he would concentrate when he was reading on his own. Interviewer: Do you prefer reading in a group or would you prefer reading by yourself? Jacob: Prefer reading by myself Interviewer: And why is that? Jacob: Because then I would get peace and quiet, and my friend will try and talk to me. Interviewer: Yeah, have you had a noisy classroom? Jacob: Yes.

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Jacob told us in the first interview that his teacher did not read with him, and seldom shared interesting reading with the class and rarely made reading interesting. Despite this, his view at the beginning of the year was that the teacher encouraged him to read. The bad experience he related in response to our prompt concerned interacting with a former teacher in Year 2 when he had hated reading. Interviewer: Have you ever been supposed to read and you didn’t want to and your teacher had to say anything to you or get mad with you or anything, has that ever happened? Jacob: Yes once, when I never knew how to read. Interviewer: So when you didn’t know how to read, what did your teacher do? Jacob: She yelled at me. I was like, no no, I don’t want to. Interviewer: Oh you don’t want to and what did you do then? So you said, no I don’t want to, what did you do then? Jacob: She made me read it. Interviewer: Oh she made you read it? How did she make you, did she sit with you or did she just say, go back to reading? Jacob: She said I’d get detention if I don’t. Interviewer: Oh you’ll get detention if you don’t read the book? Jacob: So she helped me read it and then I got used to it and used to it until … yeah.

In the interview towards, the end of the year, Jacob told us that his teacher sometimes read with him. He also had formed the perception that his teacher often praised and rewarded him and others when they improved their reading levels, correctly read difficult words, helped each other to read and chose challenging books to read. It seemed to us that Jacob’s reading interaction with

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his teacher had improved over the year. When asked if he had experienced some of the engaged reading situations depicted in pictures we showed him in the second interview, he related to us that he had experienced enjoyable reading when working as part of a reading group with the teacher. Jacob generally enjoyed reading in his class. He normally displayed a pattern of consistent engagement in his reading. According to our close observation during a group reading section, he was engaged 83% of time. When he was reading alone during the silent reading period, he again was engaged for the most of time (83%). However, when he read with the computer, he was engaged only 66% of time. Jacob enjoyed reading in the library. He would search for spy books and “Where's Wally?” Our observation of his reading in the library again showed a consistent pattern of engagement at 83%. Jacob liked reading about adventures and stories. He could re-tell the story of his favourite book about a mouse and sticks. He normally preferred fiction, but would read interesting factual books such as myth busters and books about animals. Jacob’s responses to the year-end survey showed that he was confident about reading, enjoyed reading, and found it fun and interesting. He thought reading was easy and that he always understood what he read. Jacob wanted to read more and liked challenging texts such as thick books with long words. However, he considered his friends as disengaged readers who were interested in games only and showed limited interest in reading. Most importantly, he considered these friends a distraction to his reading.

Reading Perceptions Jacob considered reading important and educational as he had been told by his teacher. He found reading in his class easy. He said, “I ah, ah, find it always easy cause I’ve been reading, I’ve been doing study for a long time”. He also considered himself a good reader and said that he found reading interesting; this positive attitude was shown also in the year-end survey. During the first interview, Jacob indicated that he liked and enjoyed reading; repeating this somewhat more strongly in the second interview when he told us that he loved it. He cited learning and enjoyment as reasons for this: Interviewer: So tell me one of the reasons you would want to read? Jacob: Because I like it and it’s fun and you could learn by it.

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He used similar reasons to explain why students disengaged from reading as he interpreted the pictures we showed him in the second interview. Enjoyment for reading, opportunity to learn and interesting reading materials were the three reasons he used to explain the readers’ engagement. We asked Jacob about giving up on reading, he explained that to do so would be mainly due to boredom and unavailability of interesting reading materials. In the first interview, Jacob shared information with us about guided reading in his class, saying he had been reading an animal book and found it boring because he had it for a long time. In addition, Jacob explained that he would give up reading when he was distracted or felt impatient, which happened usually when he was reading with others in a group. Being distracted and feeling impatient were also the reasons he used to explain why children disengaged from reading in response to the pictures we showed him during the second interview to explain why children disengaged from reading.

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Jacob’s Reading: Teacher’s Perspective In the initial assessment, Jacob’s teacher had rated him as an extremely disengaged reader who often showed signs of disengagement such as distraction and reluctance to read, effort retreat, and lack of self-regulation. The teacher believed that Jacob had low levels of interest, reading intention and sense of purpose in reading, but also high levels of anxiety about it. He commented, “Jacob is generally disinterested (in reading) unless the subject has to do with sport. He is easily distracted and calls out and distracts students around him. He flips through a book looking for something interesting, finds it, get really excited and has to share that with everybody around him. He loses focus after a short while. He has the reading ability of a 6 year-old” On NAPLAN, Jacob scored at the level of Band 4 in reading. This was substantially below the national average for his Year level (Band 6). His other literacy assessments were also below the national average. His year-end result in English was average with a C grade. His teacher commented that Jacob needed more independent reading.

DISCUSSION Students from low SES backgrounds often lack parental and resource support in reading at home (e.g. Baker, 2003; Barone, 2006; Comber et al.,

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2002; Greene & Anyon, 2010). Both Peter and Jacob had limited support and modelling from their parents and other family members in relation to the positives of reading and being a reader. Reading materials that interested the two boys were unavailable at home. Unsurprisingly, they did not read at home. This finding is consistent with previous research on the family literacy practices of disadvantaged students (e.g. Comber et al., 2002). The current study adds to this literature base by highlighting the contextual reasons that could explain low levels of reading motivation at home. These factors include limited encouragement from family members, absence of reading practice, and a lack of modelling and reading materials that interest the youth. Clearly, reading was not a valued practice shared among members of the families of the two young boys who were our cases. To both Peter and Jacob, their home was not a place of reading or for reading, which explained why they needed to visit the nearby town library when they wanted to read. In both cases, there is notable discrepancy between teachers’ assessment of the students’ reading and the students’ own perceptions. While the teachers labelled them as disengaged readers and average performers, Peter and Jacob provided a contrasting picture of their reading motivation and engagement and of their performance levels. We confirmed what both knew – that they were motivated to read in engaged ways and with positive outcomes in certain contexts with particular materials, while other contextual conditions inhibited their reading engagement and promoted negative evaluations of them as readers, holistically. For example, Peter was keen to read the Guinness Book of Records with friends in the library and Jacob was interested when reading adventure stories both in the library and in class. Further, using the computer provided additional stimuli to reading motivation for Peter. In terms of constraints on their reading motivation, both Peter and Jacob disliked reading in a group due mainly to the time that they needed to spend on waiting for their turn to read. They also talked about the problems of noisiness and distractibility in a reading group. Our observation confirmed that these students were more engaged in reading when they read alone compared to when they were reading in a group. Other disadvantaged students that we have included in the project also conveyed a similar message to us of the importance of a quiet and peaceful reading environment. Of course, this brings us to the significance of classroom management to how individual students respond as readers and learners. Our repeated classroom-visits and observations corroborated with responses that Peter and Jacob had given suggesting that the teachers in this class certainly needed help in classroom

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management in order to build sustainably peaceful and quiet environments for reading. Past research (e.g. Nolen, 2007; Turner, 1995) on reading motivation has demonstrated that teacher factors including instructional practice have major impact on students’ reading motivation. Nolen (2007) has reminded us that teachers will promote positive shifts in what their students know and do as readers when they support them in becoming aware of mastery and improvement orientations and in building such scaffolding into their personae as learners. In the current study, while both Peter and Jacob agreed that their respective teachers had helped them read and provided encouragement for reading, our observation was that the same teachers seemed not to have recognised the students’ reading motivation where it had presented as positive. Nor had they capitalised on the students’ own knowledge of their strengths to help them build on their evolving reading preferences and needs. Certainly, the levels of support were open to improvement, particularly in areas that would help students become more self-regulatory and agentive in relation to potentially transferrable contextual factors such as enjoyable books and productive technology. Previous research (e.g. Baker & Wigfield, 1999; Guthrie et al., 1999; Taboada et al., 2010) has established the relationship between reading motivation and achievement. Generally, strong reading motivation is related to high reading performance. Studies that compare and contrast high and low achieving readers provided clear evidence supporting this relationship (e.g. Guthrie et al., 2009). Nevertheless, the relationship does not always imply causal order between reading motivation and performance. It is possible for high achieving students to have low levels of interest in reading. It is equally possible for low achieving students to have strong motivation in reading, especially when materials are of personal interest. In this study, both Peter and Jacob can be classified as students in the latter group. Both developed positive reading interest in certain contexts with certain materials. Yet, they performed poorly in reading and other literacy assessment within and out of school on NAPLAN and teacher evaluations. What worries us is that teachers often form perceptions about students’ motivation mostly based on the students’ performances in classroom reading activities without critical evaluation of the extent to which their classroom reading practices are motivating from students’ own perspectives or thorough consideration of how they perform in other situations (Sweet, Guthrie & Ng, 1998). It is not difficult to attend selectively to information on the basis of a formed or forming perspective (Anderson & Pritchard, 1978). Teachers might

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do so by finding powerful evidence to support an intuitive view of students’ reading dispositions such as the students’ reading comprehension scores and grades in other literacy assessments to justify their perceptions or in the reverse of those circumstances to form lasting intuitions about student’s futures based on past and present assessments. If either is the case for Peter and Jacob, then important pedagogical opportunities may well be lost. Neither boy seemed to be disturbed by the disengaged reader identity that came through as depictions in some of the materials we presented and continued communicating with us over the year that they did have specific reading preferences and interests. Our concern is that these students may eventually accept the unmotivated or disengaged reader label attributed to them and decide to give up reading altogether, both in and out of school. In other words, these disadvantaged students may be victimised by classroom reading practices and teaching that have devalued or failed to take into account their reading abilities and interests in other reading situations and contexts. If we correct, then itis important for teachers to assess critically their pedagogical arrangements related to reading. The cases we described in this chapter beg us to examine thoroughly students’ reading preferences, needs and motivation from a person-in-context perspective with a view to more accurately identify, acknowledge, understand and utilize students’ situated interpretation of reading activities and tasks. The cases of Peter and Jacob also challenge us to reconsider the levels and varieties of pedagogical supports that teachers can offer to struggling readers. It is important that pedagogical arrangements in the class address specifically students’ reading interests, needs and preferences. In the cases of Peter and Jacob, these may include: allowing students to participate in selecting the classroom collections, assigning maximum amount of independent reading time, maintaining a quiet and comfortable reading environment (but not through an swarming emphasis on discipline), and increasing one-to-one support in form of sharing interest and information. The person-in-context perspective in this study reminds us to take professional responsibility to create a motivating learning environment by paying heed to the utility of students’ voices and perspectives. This study provided detailed descriptions of two students. To a great extent, both had similarities to the other disadvantaged students recruited for this project. However, we add two cautionary notes. First, the findings reported here are specific to these two students and should not be generalised to others from disadvantaged backgrounds who are presenting as disengaged readers. In addition, our presence in the classroom and close interaction with

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these two students particularly might have distorted the typical events and discourses of the contexts in which we worked. While we have endeavoured to overcome possible researcher effect by collecting multiple sources of data, there is need for continuing systematic study of the issues we have outlined.

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CONCLUSION In this chapter we have disputed the representation of disadvantaged students as unmotivated, uninterested and nonparticipatory readers whose depictions have been derived narrowly from assessing classroom reading performances. We questioned the reductionist assumption that disadvantaged students are cognitively deficient in their reading motivation attributes. Rather, we have used a person-in-context perspective to provide detailed description of two cases of disadvantaged students that reminds us despite general appearances, test results and contrary opinions from their teachers, that these students were motivated to read in contexts where they themselves had come to recognize and meet their needs, preferences and choices. To deal effectively with the challenge of narrowing achievement gaps in reading and other literacy performances between disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged groups in Australia and other developed countries (cf. Sirin, 2005), school teachers should begin to examine critically their classroom practices and to improve their understandings of disadvantaged students’ reading. In particular, there is a need to observe, understand, and interact with students in different reading contexts and to listen to their own accounts of themselves in “best practice” situations therein. We believe that doing this will help teachers – and students – develop a more accurate representation of the students’ growing sense of their needs, preferences and strengths in reading. In doing so, teachers will be better placed to develop a more complete and accurate understanding of students’ reading motivation by focusing on enabling conditions capable of enhancing students’ motivation to read. An important reminder is that disadvantaged students come from familial backgrounds that often lack economic and social supports enabling them to develop reading skills, interests and motivation. Both Peter and Jacob received minimum support from their parents and other family members in developing these critical attributes and abilities. This leaves teachers as the main gatekeepers guarding against the possibility that these students will develop crippling cognitive attributes that are likely to prevent them from meaningful engagement in reading in and out of school. An unmotivating reading

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environment inevitably begets unmotivated readers. Seeing disadvantaged youths’ reading problems as entrenchedbecause of unchangeably low SES or other prejudicial backgrounds or as resulting from perceived lack of certain cognitive and motivational attributes does not serve well either the youth as students, readers, learners and citizens nor those in the profession best placed to help them onto productive and successful pathways in each of these roles. Teachers are champions and the cause of interfering with a growing avoidance as a reader needs championing. Peter might tell us that there is space left to record the better vision and associated with this in in the Guinness Book of Records.

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REFERENCES Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006). Socio-economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA). Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/ Lookup/2033.0.55.001Main+Features 12006?OpenDocument. Accessed 18 March 2011. Anderson, R.C., & Pritchard, J.W. (1978). Recall of previously unrecallable information following a shift in perspective. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17, 1-12. Baker, L. (2003). The role of parents in motivating struggling readers. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19(1), 87-106. Baker, L., & Wigfield, A. (1999). Dimensions of Children's Motivation for Reading and Their Relations to Reading Activity and Reading Achievement. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(4), 452-477. Barone, D. M. (2006). Narrowing the literacy gap: What works in highpoverty schools. New York: Guildford Press. Bartlett, B. J. (2012). New perceptions, renewed orientation and positive valuing: The power in children's learning about how ideas connect. In P. Schober, J. Zelger, & M. Raich, (Eds.): GABEK V. Werte in Organisationen und Gesellschaft. Values in Organizations and Society (pp. 353-372). Innsbruck: Studien Verlag. Bartlett, B. J. (2010). Learning about written language, literacy and meaning: A metalinguistic gift. In M. Raich, P. Schober & J. Zelger (Eds.) Linguistic Structures, Theory and Practice (pp. 47-64). Innsbruck: Studien Verlag.

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Botsas, G., & Padeliadu, S. (2003). Goal orientation and reading comprehension strategy use among students with and without reading difficulties. International Journal of Educational Research, 39, 477-495. Chapman, J. W., & Tunmer, W. E. (1995). Development of young children's self-concepts: An examination of emerging sub-components and their relationship with reading achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(1), 154-167. Comber, B., Badger, L., Barnett, J., Nixon, H., & Pitt, J. (2002). Literacy after the early years: A longitudinal study. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 25(2), 9-23. Gamble, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazzoni, S. A. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 49, 518-533. Gottfried, A. E., Fleming, J. S., & Gottfried, A. W. (2001). Continuity of academic intrinsic motivation from childhood through late adolescence: A longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 3-13. Greene, A., & Anyon, J. (2010). Urban school reform, family support, and student achievement. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 26(3), 223-236. Guthrie, J. T., Coddington, C. S., & Wigfield, A. (2009). Profiles of reading motivation among African American and Caucasian students. Journal of Literacy Research, 41, 317-353. Guthrie, J. T., Hoa, A. L. W., Wigfield, A., Tonks, S. M., Humenick, N. M., & Littles, E. (2007). Reading motivation and reading comprehension growth in the later elementary years. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 32, 282-313. Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 403-422). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Guthrie, J. T., Wigfield, A., Metsala, J. L., & Cox, K. E. (1999). Motivational and cognitive predictors of text comprehension and reading amount. Scientific Studies of Reading, 3, 231-256. Henk, W. A., & Melnick, S. A. (1995). The Reader Self-Perception Scale (RSPS): A new tool for measuring how children feel about themselves as readers. The Reading Teacher, 48(6), 470-482. Järvelä, S., Volet, S., & Järvenoja, H. (2010). Research on motivation in collaborative learning: Moving beyond the cognitive–situative divide and combining individual and social processes. Educational Psychologist, 45(1), 15-27. Kintsch, W., & van Dijk, T. A. (1978). Toward a model of text comprehension and production. Psychological Review, 85, 363-394.

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Klauda, S. L. (2009). The role of parents in adolescents’ reading motivation and activity. Educational Psychology Review, 21(4), 325-363. McCarthey, S. I. (1997). Connecting home and school literacy practices in classrooms with diverse populations. Journal of Literacy Research, 29, 145-182. Meece, J. L., & Miller, S. D. (2001). A longitudinal analysis of elementary school students’ achievement goals in literacy activities. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 454-480. Miller, S. D., & Meece, J. L. (1997). Enhancing elementary students' motivation to read and write: A classroom intervention study. Journal of Educational Research, 97, 286-300. Ng, C., Bartlett, B. J., Chester, I., & Kersland, S. (in press). Improving reading performance for economically-disadvantaged students: Combining strategy instruction and motivational support. Reading Psychology. Nes Ferrara, S. (2007). Reading fluency and self-efficacy: A case study. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 52(3), 215-231. Nolen, S. B. (2007). Young children's motivation to read and write: Development in social contexts. Cognition and Instruction, 25(2), 219270. Oldfather, P. (2002). Students' experiences when not initially motivated for literacy learning. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 18, 231-256. Rennie, J. (2006). Meeting kids at the school gate: The literacy and numeracy practices of a remote indigenous community. Australian Educational Researcher, 33(3), 123-142. Schunk, D. H. (2003). Self-efficacy for reading and writing: Influence of modeling, goal setting, and self-evaluation. . Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19, 159-172. Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: Ametaanalytic review of research. Review of Educational Research, 75, 417– 453. Solheim, O. J. (2011). The impact of reading self-efficacy and task value on reading comprehension scores in different item formats. Reading Psychology, 32(1), 1-27. Sweet, A. P., Guthrie, J. T., & Ng, M. M. (1998). Teacher perceptions and student reading motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(2), 210-223.

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Taboada, A., Tonks, S., Wigfield, A., & Guthrie, J. (2009). Effects of motivational and cognitive variables on reading comprehension. . Reading and Writing, 22, 85-106. Turner, J. C. (1995). The influence of classroom contexts on young children's motivation for literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(3), 410-441. Unrau, N., & Schlackman, J. (2006). Motivation and its relationship with reading achievement in an urban middle school. Journal of Educational Research, 100, 81-101. Wang, J. H., & Guthrie, J. T. (2004). Modeling the effects of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amount of reading, and past reading achievement on text comprehension between U.S. and Chinese students. Reading Research Quarterly, 39, 162-186. Wigfield, A., Guthrie, J. T., Tonks, S., & Perencevich, K. C. (2004). Children's motivation for reading: Domain specificity and instructional influences. Journal of Educational Research, 97, 299-311. Wyatt-Smith, C.M., & Bridges, S. (2008). Meeting in the middle assessment, pedagogy, learning and students at educational disadvantage. Final Evaluation Report for the Department of Education, Science and Training on Literacy and Numeracy in the Middle years of Schooling. Canberra: DEEWR. Yin, R. (2009) Case Study Research: Design and Methods.(4th Edn.) Sage: Los Angeles.

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In: Education in Australia Editor: Pavel Jelinek

ISBN: 978-1-62417-267-0 © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 4

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA, EDUCATION AND HEALTH LITERACY Jacqueline Boyle1, Bronwyn Fredericks2 and Helena Teede1 Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

1

Monash Applied Research Stream School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Clayton 2 Central Queensland University Australia, Bruce Highway Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

Health literacy is a vital tool to build health knowledge and enable empowerment in health decision making at a community and individual level. There are different views of what constitutes health literacy with the most inclusive addressing broadly the skills and competencies required “to seek out, comprehend, evaluate, and use health information and concepts to make informed choices, reduce health risks, and increase quality of life” (Zarcadoolas 2005). Poor health literacy has been shown to impact health seeking behaviour, access and awareness to preventive health campaigns and adherence with treatment. Populations at risk of poor health have lower health literacy and this is compounded by lower socioeconomic status, lower education levels and, where language and cultural differences exist, these disparities may be magnified (Shaw 2008).

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In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience shorter life expectancy and a higher burden of disease across a range of health problems, than other Australians (ABS 2011). This is particularly evident in national health priority areas including mental health (social and emotional wellbeing) and chronic disease such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and renal disease. The contributing causes are broad but a significant proportion of the disease burden is due to established, preventable risk factors. A report in 2003 estimated that “if Indigenous Australians experienced the same burden rates as the total Australian population due to 11 selected risk factors (tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, high body mass, inadequate physical activity, low intake of fruit and vegetables, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, unsafe sex, child sexual abuse and intimate partner violence), 29% of the total Indigenous Australian burden of disease could be avoided” (Vos 2003). A range of factors, including individual and community behaviour, influenced by socioeconomic determinants of health, social norms and cultural concepts contribute to these risks. Indigenous Australians access a range of health services and health systems including government funded state or territory run health services, private health services and also community-controlled health services. Community-controlled health services are comprehensive primary health care services owned and operated by Indigenous people. They normally have a board of management or directors elected from the community and generally there are a range of non-Indigenous and Indigenous staff, including Indigenous community health workers. The work carried our may include one on one consultations between the General Practitioner, nurse and health worker and patient, health promotion activities and work considered to be public health. Comprehensive health literacy must include components of both public and clinical health approaches (Pleasant and Kuruvilla 2008). The public health approach is broader and relates to public health interventions such as the campaigns to QUIT smoking or the prevention of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and health promotion at a community level e.g. messages through schools and health organisations about diet and exercise. The clinical approach relates to health care providers engaging and communicating effectively to individuals around their health care instructions, what tests to have, how to take medication as instructed and any follow up actions required. Health literacy must address both community and individual understanding and engagement with the health system in order to achieve change. Health literacy is related to fundamental literacy and numeracy (Zarcadoolas 2005) and poor literacy among Indigenous Australians is due to a

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number of factors including participation in schooling, language, educational experiences and numerous other factors. School attendance might be irregular due to a range of factors and these along with students educational experiences can lead to poor educational outcomes for Indigenous young people along with poor literacy and numeracy (Bradley et.al. 2007; De Plevitz 2007; Gray and Beresford 2008). A case study in the Northern Territory found that whilst formal schooling and ‘learning’ is regarded as important for a number of reasons including: fulfilling cultural obligations such as looking after family, negotiating bureaucracy (eg. welfare, government departments, banks and the legal system), education was not part of the “core business” of the Indigenous world. Contrary to Western concepts, learning was not viewed as an ‘investment’ in an individual journey to further education and/or employment “nor as a means of accumulating ‘human capital’ for a future purpose” that may benefit an individual or community (Kral and Falk 2004). Given the role of education in providing the building blocks for literacy, schooling is vital to improving health literacy in disadvantaged communities. A review of funding arrangements for schooling was commissioned by the Australian government and found a number of individual factors lead to disadvantage in educational outcomes (Gonski 2011).These included: remote or rural residence, speaking a first language other than English, low socioeconomic status, disability and developmental vulnerability on entering school. Indigenous children are more likely to experience each of these individual factors: they are over-represented in the lowest socioeconomic quartiles of PISA’s(program for international student assessment) index of economic, social and cultural status, are more likely to live in remote or very remote areas, in remote areas have high rates of middle ear disease with associated hearing loss and 22% will speak a language other than English at home. Additionally it has been shown that children experiencing multiple factors of disadvantage are at the highest risk of poor performance in schools (Gonski 2011). Standard English is the official language of Australia. While many Indigenous people speak Standard English some Indigenous people may speak English as a Second Language (ESL) and many might also speak Aboriginal English (Eades 1981). Aboriginal Australian languages encompass a holistic world view and in areas where there has been some language loss, there are programs for language reclamation (Amery 1995; Dorian 1990; Jade 1998; Matharu 2007). Radio and television has been used for this purpose (Meadow 1994) and with other multiple forms of technology (Buchtmann 2000). This is not to say that everything is well in the area of language acquisition. Hannan

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(2009) explained that learners of English as a Second Language have impoverished understandings of both their first and second language. This impoverishment can lead to poor literacy and numeracy in adulthood providing barriers to health literacy. This then combines with other social determinants that influence the health of the individual and the health of the community. For Indigenous Australians, poor literacy does impact on the individual, family including extended family and the community in a multitude of ways. There are also tensions with some of this in that, in order to work towards solutions for ill health, community governance and undertake vocational training and education or a university based education, English literacy is required to not just undertake the training and education and succeed but to function within the systems. At the same time undertaking English literacy might be taking away from the time needed to maintain or reclaim one’s own Indigenous language with the lessening number of speakers. For Indigenous people, decisions about training and education are important in regards to goals and aspirations of communities, but so too are issues around cultural maintenance. Indigenous people should not be in a situation where these goals or aspirations are pitted against one another. It is without doubt that in Australia at least, economic and health outcomes are part of a trend towards higher inequality in education outcomes (ABS 2011). What we can ascertain is that adult literacy is “a major factor affecting the participation of Indigenous people in primary health care delivery and management”(Kral and Falk 2004). Whilst poor literacy provides challenges in the development of health literacy it does not preclude it. Simple translation of words into local language, whether into an Indigenous language or Aboriginal English, or simplified pictorial images, are usually not sufficient to improve knowledge and to empower people as it does not change literacy or health literacy. Many English words do not have a direct translation to an Indigenous language and simplified images out of context often rely on assumed background knowledge (Vass 2011). Indigenous languages too can lose meanings when converted to English (Eades 1981). The enhancement of health literacy however can be achieved through community engagement and working with a model which includes multiple understandings of health; those of both the dominant culture and of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture (Kral and Falk 2004, Vass 2011). Other enhancements can be achieved through the development of resources in Indigenous languages, the use of face to face education and DVD, interactive programs and innovative use of technology (Vass 2011). Changing models of communication may also be appropriate. For example, a study of knowledge in the Northern Territory

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around screening for foetal anomalies found little knowledge of the tests available. Women said they should know about them but as it is so complex it should be something that is taught in schools and in the community and not left to the clinical interaction between a doctor and woman when she attends for her antenatal appointment (Kildea 2012). Addressing cultural concepts of health within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups is also vital in improving health literacy. Newfong in the National Aboriginal Health Strategy (NAHS1989) states that “In Aboriginal society there was no word, term or expression for ‘health’ as it is understood as in western society” and “almost defies translation” with the nearest term probably being “life is health is life”. From an Aboriginal perspective of one’s life and world, it is difficult to comprehend that one can section off or dissect one element of one’s life as ‘health’. Health in essence is everything about life, all aspects of a person’s life including wellbeing, land, environment, physical body, community, relationships, ceremony and law. It does not include a biomedical model of disease. This is still current today and it is this that must also be included within health literacy praxis and theory. That is, nonIndigenous health practitioners need to be developing an understanding of other ways of knowing about health and health praxis. A comprehensive approach through public and clinical health interactions at community and individual levels is required for health literacy. Moreover, it must include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander constructs of health along with western biomedical approaches. This is the only way to truly empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals and communities and to develop more informed advocates and decision makers across personal, social and environmental health. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprise less than 3% of the total population and the proportion varies greatly across jurisdictions (ABS 2011). Whilst some 75% or the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in urban or peri-urban areas they are much more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to live in remote or very remote areas (ABS 2011). This presents a challenge in developing models of health literacy that can be applied across a range of geographic and lifestyle circumstances. For example, access to a range of health promotion is limited in remote areas and access to the internet is also limited and at times sporadic. Innovative approaches are required to reach people in these areas. More research is needed in these innovative approaches to inform on how best to deal with challenges around poor general literacy and health literacy levels as

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well as the need for resources applicable to a range of settings and health service accessibility. New initiatives include a national television channel designed to inform people living in rural and remote areas on health issues with content specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. An innovative technology that has been used across several jurisdictions involves interactive information sessions loaded through an intranet system and explored through a “touch screen kiosk” called HITnet (heuristic interactive technology). The information modules are often developed and filmed in the local community. Indigenous people in Australia have the poorest health of any other group. Burden of disease in areas of major public health burden, is amplified in the Indigenous community. To address this health burden requires both active prevention, as well as optimal treatment for established conditions. Health literacy needs to consider both preventative health practices as well as treatment of identified conditions. While we know that poor health literacy does impact health seeking behaviour, access and awareness to preventive health campaigns and adherence with treatment, we seek and advocate solutions to improving health literacy, which are culturally appropriate and also support Indigeniety. We recognise the need to do both; otherwise gains in one area may be countered by lost ground in other areas with overall adverse consequences for Indigenous people and Australians as a whole. To do otherwise, produces a more unwell, inequitable Australian society.

REFERENCES ABS, Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011). Census 2011. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Amery, R.(1995). It’s ours to Keep and Call our Own: Reclamation of the Nunga Languages in the Adelaide region, South Australia. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 113: 63-82. Bradley, S., Draca, M., Green, C. and Leeves, G. (2007). The Magnitude of Educational Disadvantage on Indigenous Minority Groups in Australia. Journal of Population Economics, 20(3): 547-569. Buchtmann, L. (2000). Digital Songlines: The use of Modern Communication Technology by an Aboriginal Community in Remote Australia. Prometheus, 18(1): 59-74.

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De Plevitz, L. (2007). Systemic Racism: the Hidden Barrier to educational Success for Indigenous School Students. Australian Journal of Education, 5(1): 54-71. Dorian, N. (1990). Small Languages and Small Language Communities: News, Notes and Comments10. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 95: 143-148. Dunn, M. (2001). Aboriginal Literacy: Reading the tracks. The Reading Teacher, 54(7): 698-688. Eades, D. (1981). That’s Our Way of Talking, Aborigines in Southeast Queensland. Social Alternatives, 2(2): 11-14. Gonski, Review of Funding for Schooling—Final Report.December (2011). Expert panel David Gonski AC, Chair, Ken Boston AO, Kathryn Greiner AO, Carmen Lawrence, Bill Scales AO, Peter Tannock AM. Australian Government. Gray, J. and Beresford, Q. (2008). A Formidable Challenge: Australia’s Quest for Equality in Indigenous Education. Australian Journal of Education, 52(2): 197-223. Hannan, M. (2009). Righting wrongs and Writing rights into Language Policy in Australia. Tamara Journal, 8(8.2): 245-258. Jade, S. (1998). The Fourth R: Reconciliation and the Maintenance of Indigenous Language in Urban Secondary Schools. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 26(1): 8-11. Kildea, S., Rumbold, A., Wild, K., Boyle, J., Lawurrpa Maypilama, E., Wallace, E., Barclay, L. (2012) Fetal anomaly screening for remote dwelling Aboriginal women in the Northern Territory. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Vol 48, Supp 1. Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand, 17th Annual Congress, 18-21st March 2012. Kral, I. and Falk, I. (2004). What is all that learning for? Indigenous adult English literacy practices, training, community capacity and health. Adelaide: Commonwealth of Australia. Published by NCVER. Matharu, K. (2007). Viability of Aboriginal Language Revitalisation in New South Wales. The International Journal of the Humanities, 5(2): 157-162. Meadows, M. (1994). At the Cultural Frontier, in Shultz ,J. (ed). Not Just Another Business, Journalists, Citizens and the Media. Australia: Pluto Press, pp.131-147. National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party (1989). A National Aboriginal Health Strategy, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

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Pleasant A and Kuruvilla S. (2008). A tale of two health literacies: public health and clinical approaches to health literacy. Health Promotion International, 32(2): 153-159. Shaw SJ, Huebner C, Armin J, Orzech K and Vivian J. (2009). The Role of Culture in Health Literacy and Chronic Disease Screening and Management, Journal of Immigration and Minority Health. 11(6):531. Vass, Aa; Mitchell, A; Dhurrkay, Y Health Literacy and Australian Indigenous Peoples: An Analysis of the Role of Language and Worldview Health Promotion Journal of Australia Volume 22 Issue 1 (Apr 2011). Vos T, Barker B, Stanley L, Lopez AO. 2007. The burden of disease and injury in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 2003. School of Population Health, University of Queensland. Zarcadoolas, C., Pleasant, A. and Greer, D. (2005). Understanding health literacy: an expanded model. Health Promotion International, 20, 195– 203.

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INDEX

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A academic success, ix, 79, 80 access, x, 107, 108, 111, 112 accessibility, 112 accounting, 20, 23, 44 accreditation, 52, 54, 57, 69, 74 adolescents, 104 adult literacy, 110 adulthood, 110 aerospace, 52 Africa, 48 African Americans, 84 age, viii, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 27, 33, 39, 42, 45, 46, 54, 64, 75, 93 agencies, 44, 73 agriculture, 18, 24 annual rate, 42, 58 anxiety, 84, 97 aptitude, 69 articulation, 69 Asia, 12, 49 assessment, 5, 7, 33, 52, 61, 73, 86, 93, 97, 98, 99, 105, 109 assets, 48 authority, 52 autonomy, 50, 82, 83, 93 avoidance, 82, 84, 93, 102 awareness, x, 107, 112

B banks, 109 barriers, 58, 110 base, 83, 98 benchmarks, 80 benefits, 45, 49, 70 bias, 8 boredom, 91, 92, 97 brain, 47 brain drain, 47 breakdown, 67 Broadband, 41, 75 brothers, 94 building blocks, 109 bureaucracy, 109 business cycle, 56 businesses, 57, 64 C campaigns, x, 107, 108, 112 candidates, ix, 40, 58 cardiovascular disease, 108 career prospects, 46 case study(s), vii, viii, ix, 40, 51, 79, 80, 81, 85, 104, 109 category a, ix, 31, 32, 40 Census, 112 certificate, 29, 30, 31, 32, 38

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Index

certification, 49, 50, 57, 69, 73, 74 challenges, vii, 110, 111 chemical, 52 childhood, 103 children, 80, 81, 83, 84, 97, 102, 103, 104, 105, 109 China, 44, 47, 48, 53 cholesterol, 108 citizens, 44, 102 citizenship, 43 City, 58 clarity, 9 classes, 49, 61, 88 classification, 13, 44, 67 classroom, ix, 80, 81, 83, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90, 93, 95, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104, 105 classroom management, 98 classroom teacher(s), 81, 83 clients, 72 climate, 48 coefficient of variation, 6 cognitive models, 82, 83 cognitive perspective, ix, 79, 80, 85 cognitive variables, ix, 79, 82, 84, 105 collaboration, 72 Colombia, 48 commerce, 28 commercial, 50 commodity, 56 communication, 58, 110 communication skills, 58 community(s), ix, 53, 56, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113 competition, 41, 42, 57, 82 competitiveness, 50 compilation, 38 compliance, 51, 74, 82 comprehension, 83, 88, 103, 105 computer, 87, 89, 90, 96, 98 conceptualization, 85 Congress, 113 consensus, 8 construction, viii, 39, 41, 42, 60, 62, 63, 64, 71 cost, 52, 53, 70

counseling, 34 country of origin, viii, 11, 34, 40, 54, 61, 72 course work, 55 covering, 8, 10 cultural differences, x, 107 cultural influence, vii culture, 18, 24, 110 currency, 48, 71, 72 curriculum, 88 cyclones, viii, 40 D data collection, 66, 81 data set, 12, 20, 86 decision makers, 111 decomposition, 22 deficiencies, 81, 85 deficit, 6, 28, 41 degradation, 48 Denmark, 11, 34, 37 Department of Education, 54, 64, 65, 74, 76, 105 depreciation, 48 depth, 61 detachment, 42, 54, 62, 72 detention, 95 determinism, 85 developed countries, 101 developing countries, 41 developing economies, 47 diabetes, 108 diet, 108 directors, 108 disability, 109 disadvantaged students, vii, ix, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 98, 100, 101, 104 disadvantaged youth, 102 discontinuity, 84 discrimination, 22, 58 distribution, 8 diversification, 2 diversity, 80 domestic demand, 54 drugs, 108

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Index

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E earnings, vii, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 economic activity, 55 economic crisis, 32 economic cycle, 64 economic downturn, 56 economic growth, 47 economics, 3 education, vii, x, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 52, 54, 55, 56, 60, 70, 77, 107, 109, 110 education sector, viii, 2, 55 educational attainment, viii, 4, 40 educational experience, 34, 109 educational qualifications, vii, 2 e-learning, 71 electricity, 67 elementary school, 104 elementary students, 104 empirical studies, 8 employees, 41, 49, 63 employers, 41, 44, 52, 59, 60, 63 employment, viii, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49, 54, 59, 62, 63, 65, 66, 72, 109 employment levels, 45 employment opportunities, 49 empowerment, ix, 107 encouragement, 90, 94, 98, 99 energy, 41, 42, 46, 47, 62, 64 engineering, 18, 24, 47, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 63, 64, 68, 69, 71, 76 environment(s), 18, 24, 85, 98, 99, 100, 102, 111 equality, 30 equipment, 60 ESO, 61, 62 ethnic background, 84 ethnicity, 4 Europe, 47

117

evidence, ix, 6, 61, 63, 79, 81, 82, 99, 100 exercise, 108 expertise, 73 exposure, 93 extraction, 41 extrinsic motivation, 105 F Facebook, 89 families, 84, 98 family literacy, 98 family members, 42, 89, 98, 101 family support, 103 Federal Government, 42, 43, 74 financial, 2, 44, 58 financial crisis, 58 flexibility, 65 floods, viii, 40, 41 food, 91 football, 91 force, 54 formal education, 60 formation, 57, 85 freedom, 91 funding, 71, 109 G GDP, 41, 47, 48, 49, 78 Germany, 53 global competition, 58 goal setting, 84, 104 goods and services, 47 governance, 110 grades, 50, 82, 100 grants, 58 Gross Domestic Product, 47 grouping, 67 growth, vii, viii, 1, 2, 39, 41, 42, 47, 48, 55, 57, 58, 70, 71, 103 growth rate, 41, 48

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Index

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H hazardous waste, 50 health, vii, ix, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114 health care, 108, 110 health information, ix, 107 health practitioners, 111 health problems, 108 health promotion, 108, 111 health risks, ix, 107 health services, 108 hearing loss, 109 heteroskedasticity, 26 high blood pressure, 108 high school, 7, 34 high school diploma, 7 higher education, 2, 3, 4, 10 homes, 41 homogeneity, 26 Hong Kong, 52 hourly wage, 15 housing, 34 human, 3, 9, 11, 47, 109 human capital, 3, 9, 11, 47, 109

information technology, 24 infrastructure, viii, 39, 41 injury, 69, 114 institutions, 2, 49, 50, 51, 52 instructional practice, 99 integrity, 71 intellectual capital, 48 international students, vii, 1, 2, 3, 66 internationalization, 2 intervention, 83, 104 intrinsic motivation, 82, 84, 103, 105 investment(s), 4, 49, 55, 70, 109 issues, 3, 6, 50, 60, 70, 71, 80, 84, 101, 110, 112 J Japan, 53 job matching, 31, 34 job mobility, 9 justification, 62 K kindergarten, 89 Korea, 47, 48, 53

I identification, 55, 70 identity, 100 images, 110 immigrants, viii, 10, 11, 12, 15, 32, 34, 40 immigration, 12, 32, 33, 43, 57, 58, 59, 60, 70 incidence, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22 income, 2 India, 44, 47, 48 individual students, 98 individuals, vii, 2, 3, 5, 8, 46, 49, 50, 51, 54, 59, 65, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 85, 86, 108, 111 industry(s), viii, 13, 15, 40, 42, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74 inequality, 110

L labor market(s), vii, 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 27, 28, 32, 33, 34 labour force, 42, 54, 58 labour market, 43, 68 language acquisition, 109 language skills, 33 languages, 109, 110 lead, 3, 27, 54, 57, 109, 110 learners, 85, 98, 99, 102, 110 learning, 38, 71, 80, 84, 85, 88, 91, 96, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 109, 113 learning environment, 84, 88, 100 learning outcomes, 38 legislation, 50, 61, 73

Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

Index level of education, vii, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 29, 30, 70 life expectancy, 42, 108 linear model, 22 literacy, vii, ix, 84, 86, 87, 88, 93, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114 living conditions, 48 local community, 112 longitudinal study, 103

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M magazines, 87, 89, 91, 94 magnitude, 10, 31 majority, 111 Malaysia, 53 management, 73, 99, 108, 110 manufacturing, 41 marital status, 12 marketing, 74 mass, 2, 108 materials, 85, 87, 89, 90, 93, 97, 98, 99, 100 mathematics, 63 matter, 8 measurement, 4, 10, 20 median, 42 medication, 108 medicine, 18, 24 membership, ix, 40, 49, 50, 51, 53, 72, 73 memory, 81 mental health, 108 messages, 108 meta-analysis, 10 methodology, 3, 7 metropolitan areas, 34 middle class, 84 Middle East, 58 migrants, 3, 43, 44, 45, 62, 66, 67, 70 migration, vii, viii, 1, 3, 11, 32, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 54, 58, 62, 68, 69, 70, 73 Migration to Australia, viii, 40 mission, 70 modelling, 41, 81, 98

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models, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 28, 82, 110, 111 modules, 112 motivation, ix, 8, 9, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 93, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105 multiple factors, 109 multiple lenses, ix, 80, 81 music, 94 N natural resources, 48 negotiating, 109 networking, 60 New South Wales, 113 New Zealand, 44, 60, 113 next generation, 42 non-English-speaking background, vii, 2, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 27, 30, 33 North America, 84 nursing, 18, 24 O OECD, 37, 48, 54, 63 omission, 22 online learning, 71 on-the-job training, 60 opportunities, ix, 40, 47, 49, 59, 65, 69, 70, 72, 74, 89, 100 overeducation, vii, 14, 17, 33 overseas student numbers, vii, 1 P parents, 87, 89, 94, 98, 101, 102, 104 partition, 15, 21 pathways, 69, 73, 102 peace, 95 pedagogy, 105 penalties, vii, 2, 30, 31, 33 performers, 98 peri-urban, 111 permit, 17, 43, 61, 62 personal development, 46, 49

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Index

personal goals, 81 pharmaceutical, 47 physical activity, 108 physical sciences, 24 physics, 55 PISA, 109 platform, 71 playing, 89 policy, viii, 2, 3, 34, 58 political parties, 3 poor health, x, 107, 112 poor performance, 109 population, 14, 42, 54, 86, 108, 111 portraits, 87 Portugal, 36 positive externalities, 2 poverty, 102 praxis, 111 precedent, 34 preparation, 59 prevention, 108, 112 primary school, 86 private sector, 18, 25 probability, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 33 producers, 48 professional achievements, 72 professional development, 49, 50, 73, 74 professionalism, 49 professionals, viii, 39, 40, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 54, 57, 63, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 project, ix, 48, 49, 64, 70, 72, 79, 81, 98, 100 public health, 108, 112, 114 Q qualifications, vii, viii, 2, 3, 10, 13, 17, 20, 29, 30, 32, 33, 38, 40, 41, 52, 53, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 69, 71, 72, 73 quality of life, ix, 107 quantification, 6 quantitative research, 86 Queensland, ix, 53, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 75, 76, 79, 80, 86, 107, 113, 114

questionnaire, 12 R racing, 94 rate of return, 4 reading, vii, ix, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105 reading comprehension, 82, 84, 93, 100, 103, 104, 105 reading difficulties, 103 reading skills, 101 recall, 94 recession, 64 recognition, viii, 4, 40, 49, 52, 53, 54, 56, 69, 71, 72, 73, 82 recruiting, 64, 81 redundancy, 68 reform, 103 regulatory framework, 60 regulatory requirements, 58, 73 relevance, 61, 66 requirements, viii, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 29, 32, 40, 43, 50, 56, 57, 60, 66, 69, 70, 72, 81, 85 researchers, 47, 82, 83, 85 resistance, 61, 74 resource availability, 64 resource sectors, viii, 39 resources, viii, 39, 41, 70, 84, 85, 110, 112 response, 13, 59, 91, 92, 93, 95, 97 retirement, 42, 56 retirement age, 42 rewards, 9 rights, 113 risk(s), x, 4, 17, 42, 62, 68, 72, 73, 80, 83, 107, 108, 109 risk factors, 108 root, 85 rugby, 94 rules, 70

Education in Australia: Cultural Influences, Global Perspectives and Social Challenges : Cultural Influences, Global

Index

Copyright © 2013. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

S school, ix, 7, 54, 56, 63, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 108, 109, 111 schooling, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 109 science, 47, 55, 57, 63, 91 scope, 48, 65 second language, 110 self-assessment, 4 self-concept, 81, 103 self-efficacy, ix, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 104 self-employed, 24, 28 self-employment, 13, 15 self-image, 51 self-regulation, 50, 97 self-reports, 80 services, 2, 59, 62, 72, 73, 108 SES, ix, 79, 80, 84, 85, 86, 97, 102 sex, 10, 108 sexual abuse, 108 shape, 32 shortage, 41, 54, 56, 63 shortfall, 64 showing, 82, 89, 93, 94 siblings, 94 Sierra Leone, 48 signals, 71 signs, 91, 97 Singapore, 45, 48, 53 skill shortages, 57, 69 skilled migration visa schemes, vii, 1 skilled personnel, viii, 40, 41 skilled workers, 42, 43, 62, 69, 71 smoking, 108 social context, 104 social norms, 108 social structure, 85 social support, 84, 101 society, 18, 24, 111, 112 socioeconomic status, x, 107, 109 specialisation, 53 spelling, 88 spending, 88

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stakeholders, 49, 60 standard deviation, 5 standardization, 17 state(s), 15, 33, 61, 108, 111 statistics, vii, 1, 17, 19, 26, 33 strategy use, 103 structure, 27, 42, 74 structuring, 83 student achievement, 103 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), 108 surplus, vii, 2, 6, 9, 11, 12 sustainability, 70, 71 Sustainable Development, 75 T talent, 46, 48 taxes, 48 teachers, ix, 80, 81, 83, 86, 87, 88, 98, 99, 100, 101 techniques, 12 technological advancement, 41 technology(s), 18, 47, 53, 55, 56, 63, 71, 72, 86, 99, 109, 110, 112 telecommunications, 62 tensions, 110 tenure, 12, 13, 15, 19, 25 territory, 108 tertiary education, vii, 1, 56 testing, 80, 86, 87 time periods, 8 tobacco, 108 tracks, 113 trade, viii, 40, 51, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 72, 73 trainees, 65, 71 training, 38, 50, 52, 54, 55, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 77, 110, 113 training programs, 63, 65 transactions, 83 transference, 73 translation, 110, 111 treatment, x, 22, 85, 107, 112

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Index U

unemployment rate, 32, 44 UNESCO, 75 uniform, 12 United, viii, 36, 40, 44, 45, 47, 48, 52, 53, 77 United Kingdom, viii, 40, 44, 45, 47, 48, 52 United States, viii, 36, 40, 45, 47, 48, 52, 53, 77 universities, 12, 34, 52, 56 university education, 63 urban, 105, 111

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V variables, 6, 7, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 29, 81, 82, 83, 84 varieties, 100 vector, 14, 15 vegetables, 108 violence, 108 vision, 102 vocabulary, 88 vocational training, 110

vulnerability, 109 Vygotsky, 85 W wages, 65 Washington, 52 webpages, 87 welfare, 109 Western Australia, 1, 68 workers, vii, viii, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 30, 40, 44, 47, 56, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 66, 69, 71, 72, 74, 108 workforce, ix, 10, 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 51, 54, 55, 58, 62, 64, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72 working conditions, 62 workplace, 53 World Bank, 37, 48, 78 worldwide, 49 Y yield, 10 young people, 109

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