The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is looking to boost their employment numbers in order to support Australia's future security challenges. According to the 2024 National Defence Strategy there is a current shortfall of around 4,400 ADF personnel which is around 80% short of the target employment rate. What can GENERATION tell us about whether young people willing to sign up? Of those young people who express a willingness to join, where do their career interest lie?
One in 15 (7%) of participants in Generation Wave 1 expressed an interest in joining the ADF. This equates to about 23,000 15 year old’s across Australia.
Of the young people who expressed an interest in joining the ADF, just over half (57%) identified as male, 42% identified as female and 2% identified as non-binary/other gender.
Those who are planning to join the ADF are more certain about what they want to do after school. 61% of those who want to join the ADF are certain about their plans while 44% of those who do not want to join the ADF are unsure of what they want to do after school.
Young people were asked a series of questions about their career interests. The career interests fell into six areas:
(1) realistic (doers): likes work that includes practical hands-on problems and answers;
(2) investigative (thinkers): likes work that has to do with ideas and thinking;
(3) artistic (creators): likes work that deals with the artistic side of things, like acting, music, art and design;
(4) social (helpers): likes working with others to help them learn and grow;
(5) enterprising (persuaders): likes work to do with starting up and carrying out business projects; or
(6) conventional (organisers): likes work that follows set procedures and routines.
Young people who wanted to join the ADF are more likely to have career interests which are realistic but less conventional. Of those who wanted to join the ADF, young people were more likely to express realistic but less conventional career interests.
The graphs above show the odds ratios of young people who expressed an interest in joining the ADF. A score above one indicates a higher chance of a high or moderate score (middle or top third) compared to a low score (bottom third)for each type of career interest.
Males had more realistic interests and were more enterprising but less conventional and career interests wanted to joint the ADF.
- Males who scored in the top third of scores on the realistic interests were 3.7 times more likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third. Additionally males who had a moderate (middle third) levels of realistic interests were 1.8 times more likely to join the ADF than those who had a low score.
- Males who scored in the top third of scores for enterprising career interests were 1.8 times more likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third.
- Males who scored in the top third of scores on the conventional interests were 0.61 times less likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third.
For females, those who had more realistic, more investigative but less artistic and less conventional interests were more likely to consider joining the ADF.
- Females who scored in the top third of scores on the realistic career interest scale were 5 times more likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third. Additionally females who had a moderate levels were 4.03 times more likely to join the ADF than those who had a low score.
- Females who scored in the top third and who had moderate levels on the conventional career interest scale were less likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third.
- Females who scored in the top third of scores on the artistic career interest scale were less likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third.
- In contrast, females who scored in the top third of scores on the investigative career interests were 1.6 times more likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third.
Young people who identified as non-binary/other who scored in the top third on realistic career interests were 9.4 times more likely to want to join the ADF than those who scored in the bottom third.