I want to be someone, I want to make a difference: Young care leavers preparing for the future in South Australia

Abstract

Improved education enhances life chances. Yet very few of those who have been in the care of the State proceed to higher education (HE). In Australia, care leavers are a subset of three demographics noted by the Bradley Review (2008) as continuing to be under-represented in HE: those from low socio-economic status (SES), rural, and Indigenous students. However, little is known specifically about care leavers in HE. In this chapter, we report on a small pilot project conducted recently in South Australia. For the project, we consulted with ten young care leavers, who told us about their experience with education and the encouragement they received, if any, to proceed onto HE. What we found was that most young people were neither expected nor encouraged to achieve academically.