In our latest survey we asked young Australians:
“In all honesty, how do you view these post-school pathways?”
The toss up was between university… and the rest. Because that is essentially the dichotomy most high school leavers see their post-school options through.
Half (51%) of the young 1367 Gen Zs surveyed said they view university as ‘above’ TAFE, VET, apprenticeships & traineeships.
And when we filtered responses to school students alone, university favouritism stood a little higher at 54%.
On the flip side, 44% of Aussie youth consider said they consider university to be ‘equal’ to TAFE, VET, apprenticeships & traineeships.
Just 5% said they saw TAFE, VET, apprenticeships & traineeships as ‘above’ university study.
But what does it all mean?
Do these findings suggest ‘university snobbery’ and elitism?
Or do young Aussies’ current attitudes towards university compared with other post-school pathways just reflect how the university post-school pathway is more suited to the jobs most young people really want to do today?
Well, It’s likely a combination of the two.
“When I left high school after completing my HSC, there was always this overarching stigma that uni is the better option and if you went to TAFE, you basically weren’t going anywhere in life,” Bianca wrote for Year13 a little while back.
“It was instilled in us by our teachers, parents and our peers.”
Here’s the thing, we can’t deny that universities offer degrees in what society considers to be more ‘professional’ career paths (aka more prestigious) such as medicine, law, science and education.
And that sure could be the catalyst in sustaining historical ‘university snobbery’.
However, it’s also worth noting that a whopping 78% of the 1367 young Australians in this same survey told us they want to go to university. TAFE followed at 16%, then directly to employment (12%), apprenticeships (7%), private colleges/universities (5%) and traineeships (5%). Respondents were able to choose more than one option in case they plan to do multiple.
And it’s not necessarily due to the ‘prestige’ of getting a degree, but because the industries they most want to work in, such as health care and social assistance, professional, scientific, technical services, and education and training often require a university degree.
Now might also be the time to point out that according to our latest research, only 71% of young Australians used or plan to use their ATAR to get into university, meaning a staggering 29% were using alternative pathways to getting into university, such as pathway/bridging/enabling/sub-bachelor courses, VET qualifications (which includes TAFE) or undergrad certificates.
Could this be why 44% of Aussie youth flagged university to be ‘equal’ to TAFE, VET, apprenticeships & traineeships? Because they see the value in alternative post-school pathways in getting them to their dream career?
Potentially.
But ultimately, Bianca has some solid advice for both parents and young Aussies to consider.
“Pushing aside all the stats and figures around university and TAFE, look past the smokescreen and stigma behind both options. Figure out which is best for your future profession – what are their values, a degree or industry experience?”
