abstract: 'The rate of young people (15-24 years) in Australia who are not engaged

  in full-time education or employment remains consistently higher than

  the national unemployment rate. Various Government, academic and

  not-for-profit sectors in Australia are starting to recognise social

  enterprise programs as a potential solution to the unemployment issue,

  particularly for target groups such as disadvantaged youth. These

  programs are operated in a real-life work environment where participants

  can develop vocational and employability skills through experiential

  learning as well as receive added support to identify and address

  personal barriers to employment and education. Furthermore, output from

  these programs provides benefits for the community. Social enterprise

  programs are predominantly funded by Government and delivered by

  not-for-profit agencies with a social mission. BoysTown is one such

  organisation delivering social enterprise programs specifically for

  disadvantaged young people. These young people have histories of

  long-term unemployment and welfare support, limited work experience,

  intergenerational unemployment and low levels of formal education. In a

  mixed method study (Bartlett, Mafi \& Dalgleish, 2013; BoysTown Griffith

  University, 2012) of the processes of BoysTown''s social enterprises and

  the outcomes for its participants, the survey data from 542 participants

  in these social enterprises indicated not only high rates of positive

  employment and education achievements, but also significant improvements

  in personal development areas such as functional literacy and numeracy,

  communication, teamwork, self-esteem, substance abuse and antisocial

  behaviour. The themes from semi-structured interviews with 40 of these

  participants supported the results from these quantitative data. An

  integral finding was that improvements in decision-making competence and

  the belief in achievement of job, life and financial aspirations had

  flow-on effects for young people''s achievement of employment and

  education outcomes. These results can inform BoysTown and similar

  agencies about current strengths and future possibilities in its social

  enterprise programs.'
affiliation: 'Mafi, Salote, Griffith Univ, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia.

  Mafi, Salote, BoysTown, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

  Bartlett, Brendan, Australian Catholic Univ, Sydney, NSW 2059, Australia.'
author: Mafi, Salote and Bartlett, Brendan
author_list:
- family: Mafi
  given: Salote
- family: Bartlett
  given: Brendan
booktitle: '6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

  (ICERI 2013)'
da: '2023-09-28'
editor: Chova, LG and Martinez, AL and Torres, IC
files: []
isbn: 978-84-616-3847-5
keywords: 'Social enterprise; youth; research project; aspirations;

  decision-making; employment; education'
language: English
note: '6th International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation

  (ICERI), Seville, SPAIN, NOV 18-20, 2013'
number-of-cited-references: '7'
pages: 575-581
papis_id: e94c8748167d5682fd53358fdd02e12e
ref: Mafi2013aspirationsdecisionm
times-cited: '0'
title: 'ASPIRATIONS AND DECISION-MAKING COMPETENCE IN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT
  AND EDUCATION OUTCOMES: A STUDY OF BOYSTOWN''S SOCIAL ENTERPRISES FOR AUSTRALIAN
  YOUTH'
type: proceedings
unique-id: WOS:000347240600084
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '3'
web-of-science-categories: Education \& Educational Research
year: '2013'