Destinations and earnings after further education
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1. Main facts and figures
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out of people who completed further education in the year ending July 2017, 76% were in sustained employment or study (or both) in the following academic year
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further education includes apprenticeships, traineeships and courses at further education colleges
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78% of White people were in sustained employment or study (or both), the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
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the highest earnings in the year after finishing further education were in the Other Asian (£18,870) and Chinese (£17,550) ethnic groups
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the lowest earnings were in the Bangladeshi (£11,970) and Pakistani (£14,200) ethnic groups
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people from the Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest average earnings 1, 3 and 5 years after finishing further education
Things you need to know
This data shows destinations recorded in the 2017 to 2018 academic year for further education students who completed their studies the previous year. Earnings data is also provided for people who completed further education 1, 3 and 5 academic years earlier.
What the data measures
This data shows what destinations people progress to after further education. The data focuses particularly on the percentage of people who went into employment, study or both.
This data includes:
- people who achieved apprenticeships and traineeships
- people aged 19 and above who achieved their further education course
Earnings figures are reported either:
- by employers to HMRC
- by people themselves through a Self-Assessment tax return
Average earnings figures include people in sustained employment only. People who are also in sustained higher education are not included.
The median earnings for each ethnic group is the middle point when the figures are ordered from lowest to highest.
Annualised median earnings are calculated for people who started or left employment part way through the tax year. Their earnings are adjusted to the equivalent figure as if they had been employed for the entire tax year.
Sustained employment, study or both
'Sustained employment' is paid employment in all 6 months between October and March in the year after finishing further education. If someone is employed in all months except March, they are counted as in sustained employment if they are in employment in April. People can also have had a self-employment record at some point in the tax year. The data doesn’t distinguish between part-time and full-time employment.
'Sustained study' is further or higher education (or both) between October and March in the year after finishing further education. People can also have had an apprenticeship for 6 consecutive months.
‘Sustained employment, study, or both’ combines everyone in both categories. The sustained employment rate includes all learners in sustained employment, including those that also had a learning destination
No sustained destination or not captured
'No sustained destination' includes people whose education or employment did not count as sustained. It also includes people receiving benefits.
'Not captured' shows where information wasn't captured. For example, if people moved out of the UK after studying or earned below the National Insurance limit.
The ethnic categories used in this data
This data uses the ethnic groups included in the student records:
- Bangladeshi
- Indian
- Pakistani
- Chinese
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Any other Asian background
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Black African
- Black Caribbean
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Any other Black background
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White
- Other ethnic groups (including Mixed ethnicities)
- Unknown
People from the Arab ethnic group are included in the ‘Unknown’ category in this data. In future publications they will appear under a separate ethnic group or as part of the ‘Other’ ethnic group.
If you download the data, you can also view this data broken down into 5 aggregated groups:
- Asian
- Black
- Mixed
- White
- Other ethnic group
2. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | sustained employment study or both | destination that was not sustained | activity not captured |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | |
| All | 76 | 18 | 6 |
| Bangladeshi | 68 | 22 | 10 |
| Chinese | 73 | 17 | 10 |
| Indian | 75 | 17 | 8 |
| Pakistani | 64 | 26 | 10 |
| Asian other | 71 | 20 | 9 |
| Black African | 75 | 20 | 5 |
| Black Caribbean | 67 | 28 | 5 |
| Black other | 70 | 24 | 6 |
| White | 78 | 17 | 5 |
| Other including Mixed | 72 | 21 | 7 |
| Unknown | 69 | 22 | 8 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Destinations and earnings after further education By ethnicity Summary
This data shows that, out of people who completed further education in the year ending July 2017:
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76% were in sustained employment or study (or both) in the academic year after finishing their further education
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18% of people had a destination which was not ‘sustained’ – this includes people who may have worked or studied but not long enough for it to be 'sustained'
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the destination wasn’t known for 6%
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White people were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to be in sustained employment, study or both (at 78%)
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those most likely to have a destination that was not sustained were from the Black Caribbean (28%), Pakistani (26%) and Other Black (24%) ethnic groups
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those from the Chinese, Indian and White ethnic groups were least likely to have a destination that was not sustained (all at 17%)
3. Average earnings by ethnicity
| Ethnicity | median earnings after 1 year (£) | median earnings after 3 years (£) | median earnings after 5 years (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 16,910 | 17,230 | 18,540 |
| Bangladeshi | 11,970 | 12,340 | 13,820 |
| Chinese | 17,550 | 16,560 | 17,020 |
| Indian | 16,760 | 17,360 | 17,930 |
| Pakistani | 14,200 | 14,480 | 15,150 |
| Asian other | 18,870 | 18,250 | 19,040 |
| Black African | 17,300 | 16,990 | 19,010 |
| Black Caribbean | 17,280 | 16,500 | 18,210 |
| Black other | 16,870 | 16,890 | 18,420 |
| White | 16,970 | 17,340 | 18,650 |
| Other including Mixed | 16,640 | 16,910 | 18,090 |
| Unknown | 16,770 | 16,840 | 18,230 |
Download table data for ‘Average earnings by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Average earnings by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Destinations and earnings after further education Average earnings by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
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the average (median) salary was £16,910 one year after completing further education
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people from the Asian Other (£18,870) and Chinese (£17,550) ethnic groups had the highest average earnings one year after finishing further education
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people from the Asian Other ethnic group had the highest average earnings 3 years after (£18,250) and 5 years after (£19,040) finishing further education
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people from the Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest average earnings one year after (£11,970) finishing further education
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they also had the lowest average earnings 3 years after (£12,340) and 5 years after (£13,820) finishing further education
4. Methodology
The statistics use the longitudinal educational outcomes dataset, which combines data from:
- the national pupil database
- the Higher Education Statistics Agency (on students at UK universities)
- records from English further education providers
- HM Revenue and Customs (on employment, self-employment and earnings)
- the Department for Work and Pensions (on benefits and labour markets)
Database records are matched using the following personal characteristics:
- National Insurance number
- first name
- surname
- date of birth
- postcode
- sex
Suppression rules and disclosure control
Disclosure control is applied as needed to protect people’s confidentiality.
Rounding
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Earnings are rounded to the nearest £10.
Quality and methodology information
5. Data sources
Source
Further education outcome-based success measures: 2016 to 2017
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Department for Education
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
This data helps monitor the progress of higher education leavers into the labour market.
6. Download the data
Measure, time, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, all_learners, matched_learners, values
measure, tax_year, academic_year, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, years since learning, learners with earnings, median earnings, upper and lower quartiles