Policy making and the Ministerial Review of Postcompulsory Education Pathways in Victoria 2000-2004

In January 2000 the Victorian government established a 'Ministerial Review of Postcompulsory Education Pathways in Victoria'. This explores the work of this Ministerial Review using an organisational discourse approach to the policy-making process. The study examines how the initial problem was represented that required policy intervention. I ask what the Brack's Victorian State Government defined, understood and represented the 'problem' to be regarding young people's participation in post-compulsory education. The research then focuses on establishing how the Ministerial Review set out to validate the initial representation of the problem. The research then concentrates on how the Ministerial Review came to develop its policy recommendations to address the policy problems it had identified. This involves establishing what solutions to the 'problem' were proposed by the Ministerial Review panel and why they were recommended as policies. Finally this study evaluates the value of the Ministerial Review process.