DESTINATIONS AND OUTCOMES OF TASMANIAN YEAR 12 GRADUATES

INTRODUCTION

An important goal of educational and social policy is to encourage young people to complete schooling and successfully transition to further education, training or work. Supporting young Australians to stay connected to education and training is strongly linked to creating a productive, skilled and knowledgeable society.¹

For the first time, data from the Census of Population and Housing has been integrated with Tasmanian government school enrolments to provide a new dataset with enhanced information about the destinations and outcomes of Year 12 graduates, particularly their participation in work and study. This approach leverages more information from the combined dataset than is available from the individual datasets separately. It also provides a new opportunity to determine the outcomes of Year 12 graduates one to five years post schooling with a finer level of granularity in terms of their field of study, type of occupation, income and participation in unpaid work than would typically be possible in State-based school leaver surveys.

This article demonstrates how the integrated dataset can enhance the evidence base for social, economic and educational policy in Australia, particularly in terms of understanding what happens to Year 12 graduates post schooling.


DATA IN THIS ARTICLE

This article utilises data from Tasmanian government school enrolments for each year from 2006 to 2010, integrated with 2011 Census data to provide information on post school outcomes for Year 12 graduates, particularly in terms of further study and employment.

For more detailed information about data sources, definitions and linkage methodologies, see the Explanatory Notes tab.


WHAT ARE THE DESTINATIONS AND OUTCOMES FOR YEAR 12 GRADUATES?

Participation in full-time work increases over time

Of the students who completed Year 12 in 2010, 57% were fully engaged in work or study one year after leaving school. This means they were in full-time work, full-time study, or both worked and studied part time. Just under a quarter (23%) of these graduates were in full-time employment and a third (33%) were in full-time study, with a small overlap between these groups. A small proportion of Year 12 graduates were in both part-time work and part-time study one year after leaving school (2%).

Of the students who completed Year 12 in 2006, 72% were fully engaged five years later in 2011. Just under half (45%) were in full-time employment. While both male and female class of 2006 graduates were more likely to be employed full time than studying full time, a larger proportion of females from the class of 2010 were in full-time study than their male classmates, with a higher proportion of males in full-time work.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have lower engagement post Year 12

While 58% of the non-Indigenous students who completed Year 12 in 2010 were fully engaged one year after leaving school, only 38% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduates from the same year were fully engaged. Although a gap in engagement rates is apparent for all years of school completion, the gap lessens once the graduates have been out of school for more than one year. Five years after completion 58% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduates from the class of 2006 were fully engaged compared with 72% of non-Indigenous graduates.



ONE YEAR OUT OF SCHOOLING

One year out from school, about 30% of Year 12 graduates were studying at University

Of the students that graduated from Tasmanian government schools in 2010, 43% were furthering their study in 2011, with the majority (77%) studying full time. Around 30% of the class of 2010 were studying one year later at University, 34% of females and 25% of males. A further 8% were studying at a Technical or Further Educational Institution (including TAFE Colleges), with males more likely than females to be pursuing this option. The vast majority of University students (94%) were studying full time. In contrast, the Technical or Further Educational Institution (including TAFE Colleges) students were more likely to be studying part time (23%).


One year out from school, about three-quarters of those not continuing study were employed

Over half (53%) of the graduates of the class of 2010 who were continuing with their studies were also employed, with the majority (71%) being employed part time. Of the graduates of the class of 2010 who were not continuing with their studies, 74% were employed, with just over half (53%) being employed part time.

The most common occupation in 2011 for all of the employed 2010 Year 12 graduates was Sales Assistants. The only group for which this was not the case was males working full time, for whom the most common occupations were trade occupations such as Electricians and Carpenters and Joiners.



FIVE YEARS OUT OF SCHOOLING

Just under half of Year 12 graduates had completed a further non-school qualification five years after leaving school

By 2011, 45% of the students from the graduating class of 2006 had completed a non-school qualification. A further 23% were still studying towards their first non-school qualification. Slightly more females than males had completed a qualification (48% compared with 41%), with 27% having completed a Bachelor Degree or higher compared with 17% of males.

	Males	Females
	%	%
Bachelor Degree Level or higher	16.6%	26.8%
Advanced Diploma & Diploma Level	5.4%	3.6%
Certificate IV	3.1%	3.3%
Certificate III	15.7%	13.8%
Year 12	56.3%	50.4%
Total (a)	100.0%	100.0%
(a) Includes Not stated and Inadequately described. Source: Integrated Tasmanian Education and Census Dataset.

Nursing and teaching are the most common fields of study for uni graduates. Hospitality is the most common for vocational graduates

For the graduating class of 2006 who had completed a Bachelor Degree or higher by 2011, the most popular field of study was Nursing (17%), with Teaching coming in second (11%). For those that had completed other qualifications at Certificate III or above, the most common qualifications were in Food and Hospitality (14%) and Business and Management (12%).



Defence Force Members, Fire Fighters and Police are the highest paid group five years after completing school

Of the most common occupations for the graduates of the class of 2006 who were employed full time, those working as Defence Force Members, Fire Fighters and Police had the highest median weekly personal income five years after completing school. This group earned approximately $1200 per week. Midwifery and Nursing Professionals were the second highest earners amongst the most common occupations (with a median weekly income of approximately $1020). The most common full-time occupation was Sales Assistants and Salespersons, whose median weekly personal income was comparatively low, at approximately $680.
Five years out from school, up to 30% of Year 12 graduates were not engaged in work or study in some locations

On average, 13% of 2006 Year 12 graduates were not engaged in work or study five years later in 2011. However, location matters and those that lived in certain areas when they were in Year 12 were less likely to be in work or study.

Nearly a third of those that lived in Brighton, North of Hobart, in 2006 (31%) were not engaged in any work or study in 2011. A quarter of people that lived in West Coast (25%), or in South East Coast (25%) when they were in Year 12 were also not engaged in 2011.

In contrast, those that had lived in Hobart - South and West (7%), and Hobart - Inner (9%) had lower than average rates of not being in work or study.



GRADUATES WHO LEFT TASMANIA

One year after graduating, 7% of the class of 2010 had left Tasmania and moved interstate. Of these, 63% were studying full time, compared with 31% of their classmates who stayed in Tasmania.

Five years post graduation, 19% of the class of 2006 had left the state. However, students from the class of 2006 were almost equally likely to have completed a non-school qualification regardless of whether they left Tasmania (46%) or stayed (44%).


LOOKING AHEAD

The Census of Population and Housing provides an extensive suite of information about the post school destinations and outcomes of Year 12 graduates. By combining the Census and Tasmanian government school enrolments data, analysis of particular groups or cohorts can be undertaken without the additional burden, complexity and expense of having to conduct a separate data collection.

In this study, the cohorts identified in the Census using school enrolment data were persons in Year 12 in Tasmanian government schools in particular years, enabling analysis of education and employment outcomes one to five years post schooling. Over time, the value of this kind of analysis will grow, as more years of data become available and allow us to look at longer term outcomes.

Further work could be done looking at outcomes by Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), by what subjects the student did at school or by NAPLAN scores. The ABS has already undertaken some work in this space in respect of early school leavers - see the Destinations and Outcomes of Tasmanian Early Leavers article.


ENDNOTES

1. Australian Government Department of Education, School to Work Transitions, <https://education.gov.au/school-work-transitions> (Accessed 15 July 2014)