MORE than half of young Australians are studying for dying professions, losing their passage into the workforce as robots take over entry-level jobs.

Nearly 60 per cent of students are being trained for jobs that will be changed radically by automation in the next 10 to 15 years, with 70 per cent of VET students affected, a Foundation for Young Australians report, released today, reveals.

“Our young people are not being trained in the jobs that will survive automation,” the report said.

The report also found more young Australians will work different jobs at the same time, with around 30 per cent of the nation’s workforce already moonlighting in multiple part-time and casual work.

FYA chief executive officer Jan Owen said Australia was in the midst of the most dramatic change in work since the Industrial Revolution. She pushed for a national enterprise learning strategy to get young people ready for the future.

She said there needed to be a focus on communication, financial and digital literacy, creativity and innovation.

Education Minister Kate Jones said ensuring students had skills for the future was a priority. “That’s why we’ll be delivering additional specialist teachers in science and maths, extending STEM teaching in Queensland schools, and will be releasing an action plan to modernise teaching in our classrooms with coding and robotics,” she said.

Year 12 students Jade Miller, 16, and Ash Christmas, 17, plan to go to university. Jade said she had considered job outcomes when picking social work as her future career.

“It’s a job that is always going to be around,” she said.