Sufficient education attainment for a decent standard of living in modern Australia

Emily Callander, Deborah Schofield, Rupendra Shrestha, Simon Kelly

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Education attainment will impact upon an individual’s capacity to engage in the labour force, their living standards and hence their poverty status. As such, education should be included in measures of poverty. However, it is not known what a sufficient level of education to have a decent standard of living is. Using the 2003 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers different levels of education attainment were tested for their association with labour force participation and income. Based upon this, it was concluded that Year 12 or higher is a sufficient level of education attainment for 15 to 64 year olds; and Year 10 or higher for people over the age of 65 years. This is in line with current government policies to improve Year 12 completion rates. Knowing what a ‘sufficient level of education attainment’ is, allows education to be included in multidimensional measures of poverty that view education as a key dimension of disadvantage.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7-20
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Social Inclusion
Volume3
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2012

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