ACYS Volume 30, Number 4, December 2011

This Australian Clearinghouse of Youth Studies article looks at alternative ways of re-engaging young people in education and training. Alternative education programs are one way of responding to the disengagement of young people from mainstream schools.

While there are a great variety of programs, those where young people experience success have incorporated a number of elements of best practice (Mills & McGregor 2010). This article reviews the attributes of effective alternative programs, with a particular focus on programs situated in Queensland, Australia. Establishing what constitutes a successful alternative program becomes increasingly important in an education climate that includes rapid movement toward a standardised educational experience with the attendant potential to further alienate those young people already existing on the margins of mainstream schooling.

Click here to read the full report

Click here to view YANQ's work on Re-engagement