Education and Skills

Australia’s trajectory as a modern developed nation depends on a highly skilled, educated and innovative population and workforce. Successive state and federal governments have reiterated this as a key outcome for policies relating to education, training and skills and migration policies. BCEC has a dedicated research program that seeks to further understand the skills and education needed to enhance WA’s economic trajectory and inequities that exist in the current education system that prevent Australians from accessing and achieving all they can.

A number of projects are currently underway at the Centre that focus on the WA education sector including understanding the future international demand for tertiary education in Western Australia and estimating the predictors of apprenticeship completions in WA. At a national level, BCEC researchers are assessing issues such as the efficiency of Australian schools, equal access to education, the labour market return of academic fraud, institutional differences in the earnings of higher education graduates and how socio-economic status influences university outcomes.

Related Publications

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University student debts and the cost-of-living crisis: What are the major parties offering to young Australians? Michael Dockery There is a broad consensus that the cost-of-living ‘crisis’ is the foremost issue on voters’ minds as we head toward the May 3 Federal election. Declining housing affordability is one key area in which household budgets are being stretched, whether... Read article 24 April 2025Federal Election 2025 insights  |  Policy Insights  |  Social Issues  |  Briefing Notes  |  Workforce and Skills Read More
Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world Michael Dockery, Alan Duncan, Astghik Mavisakalyan, Valentina Sanchez Arenas, Chris Twomey, Lili Loan Vu Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world, the eleventh report in the BCEC Focus on the States series, provides a comprehensive analysis of the priorities and perspectives of young Australians, offering key insights to shape future policy development.... Read article 13 March 2025Focus on The States Read More
Executive Summary: Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world Michael Dockery, Alan Duncan, Astghik Mavisakalyan, Valentina Sanchez Arenas, Chris Twomey, Lili Loan Vu This Executive Summary is a printable summary of the key findings and recommendations from the BCEC report, Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the priorities and perspectives of young Australians, offering... Read article 13 March 2025Focus on The States Read More
Presentation: Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world Astghik Mavisakalyan, Michael Dockery View the slides from Youth in Focus: Navigating wellbeing in a changing world report launch, presented by Professor Astghik Mavisakalyan and Professor Mike Dockery on March 13 at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. About the report The eleventh report in... Read article 13 March 2025Presentations Read More
Top-performing girls are more impactful peer role models than boys, teachers say Sofoklis Goulas, Rigissa Megalokonomou, Panagiotis Sotirakopoulos We examine teachers’ perceptions toward top-performing students and their role model influence on others in an online survey-based experiment. We randomly expose teachers to profiles of top-performing students and inquire whether they consider the profiled top performers to be influential... Read article 6 February 2025Journal Articles Read More
Dare to Venture: Startups and the innovation ecosystem in Western Australia Alex Buckland, Abebe Hailemariam, Daniel Kiely, Angelica Munoz, Panagiotis Sotirakopoulos Dare to Venture: Startups and the innovation ecosystem in Western Australia, the eighteenth report in the BCEC Focus on WA series, seeks to better understand the startup and innovation ecosystem in Western Australia, to inform policies that support entrepreneurship and... Read article 19 November 2024Focus on WA Read More