Every year the Australian Jobs report is published, and every year it’s a goldmine for career educators. This year it’s been published by Jobs and Skills Australia not the National Careers Institute. It’s full of practical insights into Australia’s Labour Market with details that could help shape the conversations you’re having with your students. Here are the key takeaways, and some ideas for putting them to use in your classroom or careers office.
Qualifications still matter, but the pathway is flexible
One of the clearest messages in this year’s report is that post-school study pays off. More than 90% of employment growth over the decade to 2035 is expected to require some form of post-secondary training, and 70% of Australians aged 15 to 74 now hold, or are working towards, a post-school qualification. In today’s job market 90% of employers are looking for post-school qualifications, interestingly 50% of those advertised jobs call for a VET qualification, compared with 40% requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher.
An important message for young people is that university isn’t the only ticket to a stable career and there are plenty of opportunities available for those who may not want, or be able, to head off to uni straight after school. Apprenticeships and traineeships in particular let students earn a wage while they train, with financial support available to help cover the costs along the way.
When you’re running pathway sessions or having one-to-one conversations you could present VET, apprenticeships, and university as parallel roads rather than a hierarchy, with the “best” pathway simply being the one that matches a student’s interests and strengths. Invite VET graduates or apprentices as guest speakers alongside university panels, or add a “did you know” stat like the 50% of advertised jobs calling for a VET qualification one into your next parent information evening. Presenting all the options to your students and a low-pressure way to widen the conversation.
Employability skills open more doors than a resume alone
The report puts real numbers behind something career educators have long known instinctively: employers care about more than qualifications. When asked what mattered most at interview stage, 49% of employers pointed to a candidate’s approach and attitude to work, and 43% pointed to cultural fit and personality.
Building low-stakes opportunities for students to practise communication and teamwork, through group projects, sport, debating, leadership and community projects for example, or encouraging volunteering, remain a fantastic way to support young people. These experiences count as evidence of employability skills, providing students who haven’t held a paid job yet with confidence and examples to highlight in applications and interviews.
Help students find opportunities
The report breaks down exactly how employers are filling vacancies, and it’s a useful reality check for students who assume job hunting starts and ends with scrolling job boards. Internet job boards are still the top method overall, used by 61% of employers in cities and 52% regionally. But word of mouth comes in second everywhere, used by around a quarter of employers regardless of location, and regional employers lean more heavily on social media (31%) than their city counterparts (13%). Searching the company’s own website and recruitment agencies are still popular. But job seekers directly approaching employers is still a surprisingly effective technique, particularly in rural regions (16%).
Continue to broaden your “how to find a job” messaging and if your school is outside a capital city, you could focus more on networking and social media strategies, since that’s where regional employers are more likely to be looking. Other ideas could be to:
- Teach the “ask around” approach. Show students how to let their networks know they’re job hunting, whether that’s family friends, sports coaches, or former employers, without it feeling awkward. A simple message template can help take the pressure off.
- Talk about turning up in person. The report notes that approaching an employer directly, even just to ask if they’re hiring, can make a real impression and shows initiative. Role-play this scenario so students feel less nervous about it and help to prepare a resume and general cover letter to leave behind after a conversation.
- Do a social media audit. Since employers do check public profiles, run a session on cleaning up socials, and flag the difference between a casual approach on platforms like Instagram and a more professional one on LinkedIn.
- Build in scam awareness. With online job scams on the rise, remind students that legitimate employers don’t ask for money or push for any decisions or commitment without a proper application process.
Growth is concentrated in a few key sectors
Health Care and Social Assistance remains Australia’s largest and fastest-growing employing industry, projected to grow by over 12% in the five years to 2030. Education and Training, Construction, and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services are also expanding steadily. It’s a useful reminder that the labour market doesn’t move at the same pace everywhere. Manufacturing and some parts of agriculture continue to contract, while care, trades and tech-related roles are hiring.
Using the report’s Occupation Matrix (pages 63-73 of the report) as a live resource in one-on-one careers conversations, is a quick way to check whether a student’s occupation of interest is growing, shrinking, or facing a skills shortage, and to talk honestly about what that might mean for their job search. It’s also a brilliant resource to use in LMI activities and exploration.
AI is changing work, not replacing it wholesale
The report’s Gen AI findings are reassuring rather than alarming. Most jobs are expected to be augmented by artificial intelligence rather than automated altogether, meaning tools like Gen AI are more likely to change how a task gets done than remove the need for a person to do it. Employers consistently value capabilities that technology cannot easily replace; human judgement, communication and problem-solving, among others, remain valuable across almost every occupation. And ironically, as AI becomes more capable, these human capabilities will only become greater differentiators in employment.
If you’re not already, framing digital and AI literacy as a foundational skill, like using email, rather than a niche specialisation is important. Encourage students to get comfortable experimenting with these tools now, but not solely relying on them, so they’re neither playing catch-up later or losing out on building the skills they’ll need outside of the classroom.
Bring the data into the classroom
The Australian Jobs report is a hefty document, so you could extract the data/sections most relevant to your school community rather than trying to cover everything at once. For example you could:
- Share the state and regional employment tables (from page 34) or the interactive Jobs and Skills Atlas with students weighing up whether to study or work locally versus moving elsewhere.
- Use the Jobs and Skills Councils section (pages 20-31) to introduce students to industries they might not have considered.
- Pair the shortage occupation lists from each industry area (example below from Construction), with your work experience or guest speaker program, so students hear directly from people in in-demand fields.
Other key takeaways
Careers are becoming less linear and more flexible with Australians increasingly moving between occupations, industries and education pathways throughout their working lives. Helping students to identify transferable skills rather than attaching their identity to one occupation could be hugely beneficial in their future career management and explorations.
Schools need to continue preparing students for a labour market where ongoing learning is expected throughout adulthood.
Ask students “What strengths, skills and capabilities do you want to develop, and where could they take you?” to continue shifting conversations away from occupation-first career guidance towards skills-first career development. This is more inline with how industry, governments and workforce planners are now thinking about Australia’s future workforce.
Keep the conversation going
Labour market data changes every year, and so will the advice you give. If you’d like more career resources to share with your students, take a look at our Jobs & Careers hub for articles, job spotlights and pathway guides to support your careers program.
If you’ve got any Illustrations of Practice you’d like to share with our community that reflect these ideas, you’re welcome to email us at schools@studyworkgrow.com, we’d love to help spread the word.
