[Music] trying to decide what to do after you finish high school can be tough um I'm not really 100% sure I'd like to take a gap here and I guess trying to travel a bit I'm sort of leaning towards either jumping straight into uni or taking a year off to just work and earn a bit of pocket money personally I started considering a bit at the start of the Year actually not going to UNI While most of your TW or recent graduates will be thinking about this stuff students in or from Regional areas ofte
n have a bit more to consider sometimes you have to move to go to university and that can be a real disincentive to go to university and get a degree it can be really financially expensive uh to move and to set up and rent in another part of the country to get a University degree that's education Minister Jason CLA he's recently released the Australian University's Accord report which says by the year 2050 Australia needs 80% % of its working age population to have a tertiary education that mean
s getting a qualification from uni or ta the reason to fill a huge skill shortage that this report says will only get worse unless Australia makes some pretty drastic changes it says that nine out of 10 jobs being created right now uh require you to go to Tay for University so it's it's just the nature of what the fastest growing jobs are you know it includes teaching and nursing and doctors Engineers IT workers more and more jobs require extra qualifications the plan is to focus on groups who a
re much less likely to go on to further study particularly First Nations students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and Regional Rural and remote students graduating high school is probably the best feeling like I was so happy like it was a bunch of um weight just lift it off my shoulders um I knew I wanted to go to UNI um 100% all of my Friends new um and I think that's mainly because it's so small and you just want to see what else there is to offer I feel that because kids from Al Springs ar
e from Al Springs we sort of get underestimated because of where we live where you look at people from the East Coast or like in big cities you have all of these really high performing Elite schools that tend to get all the offers into University and stuff like that both Jordy and Armani are from Alice Springs and graduated high school last year they're excited about going to UNI but are taking Gap Years first Armani says she'll have more opportunities moving to a big city Vic or ADL can offer m
e way more better opportunities way more resources for my learning to be put like at its Peck you know so I think definitely thinking about what your community wants or what you want is like the main interest and that's what you should go with and she's got her family support even if it's going to be tough sometimes being abortional and being culturally strong you know and coming from real remote places you also have that whole thing about cultural obligations you know that's a part of your iden
tity that's who you are and it's it's really good because I have grandmothers that you know let me know lack money you know if um you know if you do want to go to Union just know that we're always going to be here we're waiting for you don't think that we're going to feel any kind of way like we know you're trying to benefit us and be our vessel but what about for people who don't want to leave their homes or their communities to get a tertiary education rural students can often be like AIT litt
le bit concerned and a bit frightened about traveling to the city it's quite a confronting place for most it's not an option everyone has um so I think there should be a little bit more easier way to do it Bailey is from Nar court and is currently a boarding student in Adelaide Ava and Emma are borders too home is sort of like a really small community and cuz I live on a station is sort of very I don't know don't get to socialize with many people so coming here sort of changed that mind of livin
g like in more of a community than sort of you know out where no one lives they say they've adapted to living in the city but the government says it's trying to make it easier for students like them to study at Uni or ta a little closer to home and so one of the things that we're doing is setting up University study hubs in more Regional Community communities make it easier for people to get a degree where they live to study closer to home because we know that having to move can be one of the bi
g barriers that stops people from going to University in the first place these hubs also have people who work there whose job it is is to provide academic support but also to provide other sorts of help in particular the the sort of mental health support that you can often need when you're studying on your own when it can get really lonely student income support is something else the report recommends making a few tweaks to because cost is often a huge barrier in whether young people go to UNI o
r ta and whether they stay and finish their studies another recommendation is setting up a jobs broker that can help students find work related to their field of study part of the reason I actually decided to stay in Al Springs and take a gap here is because like the accommodation I'm going to is um quite expensive so looking at scholarships and stuff like that it would cover it but at the same time having that bit of money on the side it just would make it a lot easier to have financial assista
nce and I'm going to apply for that next year Ava Emma and Bailey haven't made any final decisions about what they'll do when they graduate but say all students should feel like they have a choice I think it's really important to have um that opportunity whether you like it or not I think every student should have the opportunity to either go to UNI ta like a vet cour like just to kind of get give themselves an opportunity I would say just don't be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone and
yeah try something new try something different and even if it doesn't work out your way you've always got home to go back to you're always going to like want to return home especially when you're studying for for home you know like I think it's really important that you always come back to your foundations and give back to the community that made you
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