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 Projects
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Unpacking the role of the resources sector in harnessing and developing Australia’s STEM capability
Estimating the causal effects of the demand-driven system reform on higher education equity
City of Fremantle community family and domestic violence prevention project
Evaluating literacy and numeracy progressions in custody and desistance from crime
WA Women’s Report Card 2022
Scitech Economic Impact Assessment
Related Publications
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Executive Summary Family and domestic violence (FDV) is a significant issue for the Fremantle community. In 2024, the City of Fremantle identified FDV as one of its highest community priorities through its Social Needs Analysis, which highlighted increasing demand for... Read article
The authors study employment outcomes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across eight countries exhibiting different case levels and policy responses: the United States, Australia, France, Denmark, Italy, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden. While the proportion of people... Read article
Social media use has become ubiquitous among young people, yet evidence on its association with mental health remains limited and mixed. In this study, we use rich longitudinal data from Australia and measure social media use based on the frequency... Read article
This research was funded by a grant awarded under the Western Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research (WACSAR) Criminal Justice Research Grant Program, administered by the WA Department of Justice (the Department). This study investigates the impact of prisoners’... Read article
This research was funded by a grant awarded under the Western Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research (WACSAR) Criminal Justice Research Grant Program, administered by the WA Department of Justice (the Department). This study investigates the impact of prisoners’... Read article
The resources sector makes a vital contribution as the anchor for Australia’s science, research and industrial base. As the sector undergoes a structural evolution to capture a greater share of the minerals, materials and manufacturing value chain, new research commissioned... Read article
The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre team acknowledges the Wadjuk Nyungar people as the traditional owners of the land on which the Centre is situated.