Fearless and flexible: views of gen Y

Generation Y have their feet firmly on the ground. They are not, for the most part, idealists. Their ambitions are material (the car, the house) and conventional (marriage, children). In these ways they are not perhaps very different from earlier generations, but in one important way they are different. Not only has this generation been born into a prolonged period of economic growth, but they have come too late to experience the severe economic restructuring brought about by globalisation and the information revolution. The insecurities wrought by these forces in their parents’ generation are not to be found in them. They have grown up understanding and accepting that the future is all about mobility, adaptability and change. For the most part, they are preparing for it and they embrace it. Thus we hypothesize that the attitudes of this generation reveal a fundamental shift in outlook towards education, work and the future which suggests Australia is entering what we might call a post-Settlement phase.