I am from an Industry • Beacon

What are the facts?

Participating in education or employment after finishing school helps young people to lead meaningful lives and encourages an inclusive and productive society. Young people need support to realise the opportunities for them to transition to further education, training or employment after school.

Beacon delivers career readiness programs that bridge the gap for students in circumstances where our current education system is unable to provide these opportunities.

What does Beacon do?

Beacon connects schools with businesses and communities to bring real world relevance to education and to inspire young people to think about their careers and experience the workplace, long before leaving school.

Beacon does this through the delivery of career programs and services that are focussed on building students’ career confidence and career readiness, with the aim of assisting students to transition into a meaningful pathway of further education, training and/or employment.

Lack of career awareness

Career awareness is lacking. Young people’s career aspirations are often poorly aligned with available jobs (Musset & Mytna 2018).

Lack of support

The education system needs extra support. The education system is struggling to provide students with the generic and technical expertise they need to compete in the job market (PUC 2016).

Youth engagement

The proportion of young people aged 15-24 in Australia not engaged in employment, education or training is 18% in lower socio-economic areas, compared to 8.7% in the highest (AIWR 2021).

Low confidence

Young people don’t believe they have the skills, knowledge, confidence or experience to navigate transition (FYA 2018).

Who are Beacon’s programs for?

We deliver programs Australia-wide, for students in Years 7-12, more specifically targeting students in Years 9-12 in schools with an ICSEA* of less than 1,000. We believe socio-economic background or geography should not determine the education or career opportunities young people have in life. Beacon programs connect industry with thousands of students across Australia each year. The connection students experience with volunteers provides the opportunity for young people to understand what the world of work really looks like.

Why does Beacon need support?

As a not for profit charity, our work is simply not possible without the support of our volunteers, partners, businesses and industry groups. Contribution from industry not only aides the work of Beacon, our career readiness programs are delivered in conjunction with business volunteers which often provides the light bulb moment that some young people need to begin their journey of career readiness. We continue to advocate for the young people of Australia, but we’re nowhere near done. Our end goal isn’t to change employment outcomes. It’s to change the system itself. We want a future where there is no Beacon. If you are interested in finding out how you can be involved please complete contact us at beacon@beaconfoundation.org.au. If you would like to host a Beacon program complete the Host Business Expression of Interest

Industry Expression of Interest

COLLABORATE WITH US

VOLUNTEER WITH US

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*ICSEA (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage) provides an indication of the socio-educational backgrounds of students