Quality Declaration - Summary

Institutional Environment

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

TableBuilder files are released in accordance with the conditions specified in the Statistics Determination section of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (CSA). This ensures that confidentiality is maintained whilst enabling micro level data to be released. Microdata is released using methods and systems that protect the confidentiality of people, households, and businesses. For more information about confidentiality, see the ABS Confidentiality Series and How ABS keeps your information confidential.

Relevance

The Survey of Education and Work (SEW) provides information for a range of key indicators relating to the educational participation and attainment of persons aged 15 to 74 years, along with data on their transition between education and work.

The type of information collected includes:

• general demographic and labour force characteristics; participation in education in the survey month and in the year prior to the survey;
• type of educational institution attended;
• level of education of current and previous study;
• level and main field of highest non-school qualification;
• transition from education to work; unmet demand for education; and
• selected characteristics of apprentices, including unmet demand for apprenticeships and traineeships.
  

The Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) is used to classify the Level and Field of education. The ASCED is a national standard classification which can be applied to all sectors of the Australian education system including schools, vocational education and training and higher education.

As SEW is collected as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), persons excluded from the LFS are also excluded from this survey (see Explanatory Notes in Labour Force, Australia for standard LFS exclusions). Additional exclusions from SEW are persons aged 75 years or older, institutionalised persons, boarding school pupils and persons in Indigenous Communities. Persons permanently unable to work and persons aged 65 to 74 years who are not intending to work, or not in the labour force, or not marginally attached to the labour force, were included for the first time in 2013.


Timeliness

Data from the survey are released approximately six months after they have been collected. The ABS has been conducting similar education and work surveys annually since 1964. These surveys were conducted in February from 1964 to 1974, in May 1975 and 1976, in August 1977 and 1978, and in May since 1979.

Accuracy

The microdata generally contains finer levels of detail for data items than are published in other formats, for example, in Education and Work, Australia, May 2019 (cat. no. 6227.0). For information on the level of detail provided, please refer to the data item list in the Downloads tab. Steps to confidentialise the data made available in TableBuilder are taken in such a way as to maximise the usefulness of the content while maintaining the confidentiality of respondents selected in the survey. As a result, it may not be possible to exactly reconcile all the statistics produced from TableBuilder with other published statistics. Further information about the steps taken to confidentialise the microdata is available in How the ABS keeps your information confidential.

Coherence

The ABS seeks to maximise consistency and comparability over time by minimising changes to its surveys. However, sound survey practice requires ongoing development and maintenance to maintain the integrity of the data and the efficiency of collection. Information about comparability of SEW data to other ABS publications is available in the Explanatory Notes. For information on comparability of the SEW data over time see 'History of changes' in the Explanatory Notes. For a full list of changes made to the LFS, see the Labour force comparability over time chapter of Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods, Feb 2018 (cat. no. 6102.0.55.001) and Information Paper: Forthcoming Changes to Labour Force Statistics, Aug 2015 (cat. no. 6292.0).

Interpretability

Detailed information on the terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with the SEW can be found in the Explanatory Notes and relevant web pages provided with this release.

Accessibility

Microdata products are available to approved users. Access can be applied for through the Registration page. Users should also familiarise themselves with information available via the Microdata Entry Page.

A full list of all available microdata can be viewed via the List of expected and available Microdata.

Any queries regarding access to microdata can be forwarded to microdata.access@abs.gov.au or contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS handles any personal information that you provide to us.