Providing Education and Training for At Risk ... - Victoria University

It is likely that a significant group of young people will continue to leave school early.Their opportunities are greatly enhanced if it is possible for them to have access to postcompulsorysecondary education through re-entry programs which are designed to caterfor older students….older students who have spent a number of years away from schoolbefore re-entering are seen by their teachers as having a positive perspective on theimportance of education…Older students are more likely to have resources to supporttheir return to school, and also may have had time to develop an identifiable supportsystem through friends and family relationships. On the other hand, younger studentsreturning to school may be more likely to need the support of the school…[such as]assisting students in obtaining accommodation…a financial system within the localcommunity so that students could get a loan if their Austudy hadn’t come through…agrant was also set aside for the library to buy books…. Some young women face additionalconstraints… (44)Criteria for effective programs for young women have more recently been developed by Milne-Home et al (1996), of which child care, transport, housing and income support are key features.We cannot deal with those further here. But Wyn and Holden (1994) retrieve the main point oftheir earlier analysis by concluding that:the needs of re-entry students are no different from those of other students. Our evidencesuggests that the very issues that are important in developing a successful re-entry programare also crucial in developing a school environment in which all young women will feelthey can participate, and which therefore provide a positive alternative to leaving early(44).In the rest of this Review, it will be important to maintain that breadth of understanding of‘alienation’. A policy environment shaped by ‘returning to study’ initiatives requires centralconsideration of the ‘at-risk’ literature, as we have indicated, but the inference for programdesign from this literature is already before us. This inference is that the further education ofsuch ‘returning’ young people would be in fact impeded if what they saw schools were onabout was simply ‘more of the same’ - what they had already failed to achieve when they wereyounger.But Barr and Parrett remind us that, as the Wisconsin researchers found, effective schools inthis field build up a ‘community of support’. Indeed, the running has not been left to schools.Communities themselves have come up with many initiatives, which are linked, or are linkable,with schools and other education providers. This is increasingly apparent in attempts to mapthe field under discussion.A massive, forensic mapping effort, examining approaches across Australia to ‘under-ageschool leaving’, published just last year (Brooks et al 1997. See Appendix to this Review forBrooks’ table of ‘main factors affecting effectiveness of initiatives) finds thatA number of large church and other non-government organisations are funded directlyby the Commonwealth or State/Territory governments to operate initiatives…. Theseorganisations may also operate independently of government to provide a range of relevantservices, including family support, parent education, out-of-home care, youth services,as well as educational support. Some organisations are invited into schools to conduct18