Destinations and earnings after further education
Published
Last updated 5 March 2021 - see all updates
1. Main facts and figures
- 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
- further education includes apprenticeships, traineeships and courses at further education colleges
- 78% of White people were in sustained employment or study (or both), the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
- the highest earnings in the year after finishing further education were in the Other Asian (£18,870) and Chinese (£17,550) ethnic groups
- the lowest earnings were in the Bangladeshi (£11,970) and Pakistani (£14,200) ethnic groups
- people from the Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest average earnings 1, 3 and 5 years after finishing further education
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data shows what people did after further education. It includes:
- people who passed apprenticeships and traineeships
- people aged 19 and over who passed a further education course
The data shows destinations recorded in the 2017 to 2018 academic year for students who finished their further education the previous year.
Destinations include:
- sustained employment or study (or both)
- a destination that was not sustained – this might include people who went into employment or further study but not continuously between October 2017 and March 2018
- activity not recorded
Earnings data is also shown for people who completed further education 1, 3 and 5 academic years earlier.
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Earnings figures are rounded to the nearest £10.
The ethnic groups used in the data
Data is shown for the Black and Asian ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census. Data for the White ethnic group is aggregated, which means figures are shown for the group as a whole.
There is an additional category that combines people with Mixed ethnicity and all Other ethnic groups.
People with Arab ethnic backgrounds are included in the ‘Unknown’ ethnic group.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document (PDF opens in a new window or tab) for the data on this page.
The median earnings for each ethnic group is the middle point when the figures are ordered from lowest to highest. You can read more about when we use the mean and median to work out averages.
In the data file
See Download the data for figures for 5 aggregated ethnic groups:
- Asian
- Black
- Mixed
- White
- Other
3. 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:
-
76% were in sustained employment or study (or both) in the academic year after finishing their further education
-
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'
-
the destination wasn’t known for 6%
-
White people were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to be in sustained employment, study or both (at 78%)
-
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
-
those from the Chinese, Indian and White ethnic groups were least likely to have a destination that was not sustained (all at 17%)
4. 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:
-
the average (median) salary was £16,910 one year after completing further education
-
people from the Asian Other (£18,870) and Chinese (£17,550) ethnic groups had the highest average earnings one year after finishing further education
-
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
-
people from the Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest average earnings one year after (£11,970) finishing further education
-
they also had the lowest average earnings 3 years after (£12,340) and 5 years after (£13,820) finishing further education
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