This section explores how people with different types of education experience Australian public services.
This includes people who finished school in year 12 or below, those with certificates, diplomas and advanced diplomas and people with a tertiary education.
Who did we survey?
- Year 10 or below: 14%
- Completed Year 12: 17%
- Certificate I-IV Level: 20%
- Diploma Level: 13%
- Tertiary: 36%
Service use
People who finished school in year 10 or below are less likely to use services than their tertiary counterparts.
Trust and satisfaction
The tertiary-educated have the highest trust and satisfaction with Australian public services.
Channels
People who finished school in year 10 or below tend to use more phone and in-person channels and fewer digital channels.
People who finished school in year 10 or below are less likely to use services
Reasons to access services are similar
People with year 10 or below are most likely to access services for only one reason in a twelve month period (38%), or not access services at all (22%), while the tertiary educated are the most likely to access services for three or more reasons (34%). This finding is counter-intuitive, highlighting a need to conduct further segmentation analysis using demographics other than education.
The tertiary-educated are more likely to access services for overseas travel-30 per cent compared to 11 per cent of the Year 10 or below cohort.
People with year 10 or below are more likely to
access services because they experience a chronic condition, injury or illness (20%) than other cohorts.
For all cohorts, Centrelink, the ATO and Medicare are the top three services accessed.
Through media you hear some difficult situations others have found themselves in but I haven't personally experienced this.
The tertiary-educated have the highest trust and satisfaction with Australian public services
Expectations differ
More tertiary-educated people have high service expectations (42%) than other cohorts, particularly people with year 10 or below (33%).
Trust is polarised
The tertiary-educated report the highest trust in Australian public services (37%), while people with certificates and year 10 or below have the least trust (24-26%).
Satisfaction is less polarised
Satisfaction with services is highest for the tertiary-educated (55%) but lowest for the certificate-level cohort (46%). People with year 10 or below sit firmly in the middle with one in two respondents satisfied with services accessed (50%).
Provision of feedback does not greatly differ across education cohorts. The tertiary-educated are more likely to provide suggestions for change and have the highest satisfaction with how feedback is handled (37%).
The certificate-level cohort have the lowest satisfaction with feedback handling (23%).
I have had many good and bad experiences with Centrelink and other services providers and inconsistency is difficult to deal with.
People who finished school in year 10 or below tend to use phone and in-person channels more than digital
All education cohorts most commonly use only one channel to engage services, with myGov the primary channel. The tertiary-educated tend to use websites and email more often than those with year 10 or below, who tend to use phone and in-person slightly more.
Across all cohorts, about a fifth of people report they cannot change how they interact with a service.
The tertiary-educated are the most likely to report they would change how they interact in the future (19%).
Desire for change
Across the education categories a similar proportion of people agree Australian public services will need to change in the future to meet the needs of all Australians (33-41%).
Trust in Australian public services to implement those changes ranges from 27 per cent for the tertiary-educated, to 21 per cent for those with a diploma.
I prefer to talk to a real person.