Student Perspectives on Leaving School, Pathways, and Careers

The life you want

We asked students to respond to a series of statements about what might stop them having the life they want. The statements were based on existing careers and transition research and interactions with young people which have highlighted the kinds of barriers faced and perceived by young people preceding and during the transition from school (Boyd, McDowall, & Cooper, 2002; Vaughan, 2005; Vaughan & Boyd, 2004; Wyn & Dwyer, 1999).

Although we have a specific focus on careers and the transition from school for this report, we couched this question in terms of “life” rather than “career”. We did this because research has shown that young people think about career within the context of life more broadly (lifestyle, living arrangements, relationships) and identity, where work is not necessarily the major component (Vaughan et al., 2006) and that transition is not necessarily linear (learning then employment) despite policy assumptions to that effect (Dwyer, Smith, Tyler, & Wyn, 2003; te Riele, 2004). Therefore our statements are about study and training, employment, and skills and qualifications, but they are also about knowledge of options, knowledge of self (motivation, self-confidence, confusion, changes of heart), lifestyle (time, travel), personal circumstance (physical health, financial standing, geographical locations), and relationships (family, friendships, parenting).

Many of the statements refer to topics covered in previous questions, allowing us to make some comparisons for the purposes of analysis. For example, we asked students about finding a job through the statements about the best things about leaving school, the hardest/easiest things about leaving school, what a career is, as well as in this question about barriers to a desired life.

Figure 7: What might stop you having the life you want?

 

Few students thought any of the barriers were very likely, although students picked out “not having qualifications” (20 percent) and “not having skills” (18 percent) over the other very likely possibilities.

Generally, most students did not see significant barriers. Less than half cited any of the barriers as likely or very likely. Less than a third thought there was any likelihood for over two-thirds of the listed barriers. However, all of the barriers seen as likely or very likely by more than a third of students were directly about careers and pathways—not surprising given that these were also the sorts of things thought to be hardest in leaving school (and creating the most transition anxiety).

Students showed the most concern over “not having qualifications” (48 percent likelihood) and “not being able to find a job or too much competition for jobs” (49 percent likelihood).

The concern over what might happen in life without qualifications is most likely to reflect the esteem of qualifications as essential in today’s labour market, particularly for the technician and associated professional and professional occupational categories to which most students reported aspiring. Given that almost three-quarters of students expected to undertake some form of tertiary-level study in their first year of leaving school (72 percent) and just 7 percent did not intend any study, in keeping with their professional aspirations, it is not surprising that students picked out a lack of qualifications as the biggest barrier.

However, what is more surprising is students’ concern over “not being able to find a job”. While only about a quarter of students (27 percent) reported “finding a job” as one of the best things about leaving school (possibly because it involves new responsibilities, longer hours or work than school, and changed social relationships), just under two-thirds (62 percent) reported “finding a job” as being a very easy or easy thing in leaving school. It is possible that students’ concern over not finding a job is a reflection of the modern condition of youth transition anxiety discussed earlier in this report; if finding a job is relatively easy, yet someone cannot do it, what does that say about a person?

Barriers and aspirations

The following table shows perceived likely barriers and their associations with other variables. Although the greatest likelihood for barriers occurs for students with the lowest quartiles for focused and responsible, cognitive competency, total NCEA credits, social skills, and mother’s qualifications, two barriers are more likely for the highest quartiles. Students who have mothers with university-level qualifications are more likely than students who have mothers with no qualifications to see relationships/pregnancy/my own children as a barrier to the life they want.

Students who scored in the highest quartile for cognitive competency are more likely than students scoring in the lowest quartile to see feeling confused over which option to take as a barrier to the life they want. This is likely to be because students scoring highly for cognitive competency are also associated with a greater likelihood of attending university and therefore have a particularly wide range of possible post-school options.

Table 34: Likely barriers

	Barrier	Lowest quartile or category	Highest quartile or category
		% who thought barrier was likely or very likely
Mother’s qualifications	Travel distances	33 (none)	9 (university)
Focused and responsible		24	10
	Family commitments	15	1
Mother’s qualifications		14 (none)	4 (university)
Social skills		17	2
Social difficulties (reversed)		14	2
Cognitive competency	Health or disability	15	7
	Lack of motivation	35	13
	Not having qualifications	63	32
Mother’s qualifications		63 (none)	38 (university)
	Relationships	24 (none)	61 (university)
Focused and responsible	Travelling or going overseas	27	11
Cognitive competency	Feeling confused over which option to take	28	38
Total no. of Level 1 NCEA credits	Not having qualifications	60	35

There were also associations between barriers and subject clusters. Students taking non academic subjects, in particular vocational ones, were more likely to perceive barriers than students taking academic subjects. The following table shows the associations. As with the overall frequency data shown in the Likert graph, a sizeable proportion of students picked out “not having qualifications” but it was students taking vocational subjects who were most likely to perceive this as a barrier.

More academic (55 percent arts and 44 percent science) than non academic (42 percent contextual 30 percent vocational) students believed that a lack of motivation or going with the flow was unlikely/very unlikely to stop them from having the kind of life they want. The majority of academic students (76 percent arts and science) but only half of the non academic students (49 percent contextual and 56 percent vocational) believed that family commitments were unlikely/very unlikely to stop them from having the kind of life they want.

Table 35: Likely barriers associated with subject clusters

	Academic cluster		Non academic cluster
	% who thought barrier likely or very likely		% who thought barrier likely or very likely
Barrier	Arts	Science	Contextual	Vocational
Lack of family support	6	11	5	21
Health and disability	3	12	11	20
Relationships	8	16	29	28
Travel distances	16	11	13	34
Not having enough time	28	30	25	42
Not having qualifications	37	45	56	64

There were also variables statistically associated with barriers that students perceived to be unlikely. Most of these are the reverse of the quartile or group associations shown where barriers are likely. These are shown in the following table.

Table 36: Unlikely barriers and associations with other variables

	Barrier	Lowest quartile or category	Highest quartile       or category
		% who thought barrier unlikely or very unlikely
Risky behaviour (reversed)	Relationships	39	60
Social skills	Not having qualifications	18	39
Focused and responsible		14	47
	Lack of motivation	36	58
	Lack of family support	59	80
Cognitive competency		59	85
	Travel distances	35	54
	Family commitments	48	79
	Travelling or going overseas	38	61
Enjoyment of reading	Not having skills	36	49
	Health or disability	44	78
Total no. of Level 1 NCEA credits	Lack of family support	59	90

There were also associations between barriers and ethnicity. Päkehä/NZ European/Asian students were more often unlikely to perceive barriers than Mäori/Pasifika students. The following table shows the associations.

Table 37: Patterns of association between ethnicity and perceptions that barriers are unlikely to hinder desired lifestyle

Barrier	Päkehä/NZ European       /Asian	Mäori/Pasifika
	% who thought barrier unlikely or very unlikely
Lack of self-confidence	52	36
Not having skills	40	16
Family commitments	39	21
Not knowing what to do or what options to take	37	23
Not having qualifications	33	7

It is important to note that students’ perceptions of barriers they might face are related to the life they want. So, in some cases, barriers are perceived that might not otherwise be seen as barriers, depending on aspirations. For example, students with mothers with university-level qualifications are more likely to see “relationships/ pregnancy/my own children” as a barrier. However, since we have already seen that these students are also associated with a greater likelihood of not having a family or caring for family in the first year of leaving school and of studying full-time at university and intending to go into professional and technician or associated professional careers, these students may well have a sense of what to avoid, at least in the short term. Similarly, students scoring in the highest quartile for cognitive competency are more likely to think confusion over which options to take is a barrier but this is likely to be because these students are also associated with more school success and a greater range of study and employment options open to them. In other words, only the students with the most possibilities for their lives would perceive this confusion as a likely barrier to their having the life they want. This is a pattern of structural difference, rather than simply a question of individual choice.