A university degree has historically signified academic pedigree.
But in 2023, how important is it… really?
Well, according to the latest Labour Market Update just released by Jobs and Skills Australia, it’s still pretty important.
In fact, the report found that more than 90 percent of employment growth has been in occupations requiring a post-secondary school qualification.
And more than half of the one million jobs expected to be created in coming years will require a degree.
Yep, as Universities Australia Chief Executive Catriona Jackson explained, universities are still key to educating the workers needed to fill present skills gaps in Australia’s labour market.
“University-educated workers span our entire economy, making it bigger and stronger than it otherwise would be,” Jackson said.
“Many industries would not be able to operate without them – from engineers and health professionals to lawyers, teachers and information technology specialists.”
Jackson said universities have always been key economic drivers which produce skilled workers, pioneer inventions, and drive new processes and knowledge.
“Many industries would not be able to operate without them,” she said.
“From engineers and health professionals to lawyers, teachers and information technology specialists.”
Now, this is pretty good news for the 78% of young Australians our research has found are keen to go to university after they finish school.
But it might also be the time to point out that according to our latest research only 71% of young Australians intending to go to university plan to use their ATAR for entry.
The remaining 29% of the 1062 young Australians we surveyed were using alternative, ‘non-traditional’ pathways to getting into university, such as pathway/bridging/enabling/sub-bachelor courses, VET qualifications (which includes TAFE) or undergrad certificates.
That translates to a pretty significant number of young Australians who are getting into their degree in a variety of other ways and suggests alternative post-school pathways are more viable than ever.
So given that a university degree still holds a lot of importance for teenagers today, the question parents can ask is which of these different ways can my child get into the degree they want.
