This submission is particularly concerned with the children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who are most at risk of missing out in the future, on the benefits of work, unless they have access to quality schooling, including careers education and viable post-school pathways to further education, training and work. As the Discussion Paper states, Queensland has a lower ratio of persons with post-secondary educational qualifications, lower ratio of persons in professional occupations and lower ratio of digital literacy capabilities and slower technology take up than the national average. However, in recent years there have been significant efforts made to improve the educational achievement of young Queenslanders and this has resulted in important improvements in NAPLAN and Year 12 certification rates.2