BROAD EDUCATION CONCEPTS
As defined by the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) (cat. no. 1272.0), "Education can be broadly defined as the lifetime process of obtaining knowledge, attitudes, skills, and socially valued qualities of character and behaviour. Education is generally considered to involve an intent to bring about learning, and for most types of education involves communication from one person to another".
Education can occur within a variety of environments, and may be:
Formal education: Refers to any study being undertaken that will lead to a recognised qualification, issued by a relevant approved body, stating that a person has achieved learning outcomes or competencies. This includes primary and secondary level education.
Non-formal education: Refers to any structured learning undertaken through an institution that does not lead to a recognised qualification.
Informal education: Informal learning is not institutionalised and typically is not structured in terms of objectives, time or learning support. It is unstructured, but the participants typically have the intention to learn.
The standard education modules relate only to formal education that has led to a non-school qualification or completion of a school year (i.e. completed formal education).
For the purposes of these standards, school education includes primary and secondary level education, regardless of the location or institution where it was undertaken. School education therefore includes secondary education undertaken, for example, at a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institution.
For the purpose of these standards, a non-school qualification is one that is recognised by the relevant approved body. Currently in Australia this is a qualification recognised through the AQF. Qualifications attained overseas are in scope for the standard variables.
The AQF incorporates qualifications from each education and training sector into a single comprehensive national qualifications framework. Information on the AQF is available on the Australian Qualifications Framework website.
AUSTRALIAN STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF EDUCATION (ASCED)
The Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) (cat. no. 1272.0) is the Australian standard for use in the collection, classification and analysis of data on educational activity and attainment. ASCED is comprised of two component classifications, Level of Education and Field of Education.
The ASCED applies to all formal education which forms part of a course leading to a qualification. It can also classify some courses, and components thereof, which do not lead to a qualification.
Introduction of the ASCED
From 2001, ASCED replaced the ABS Classification of Qualifications (ABSCQ) in all relevant ABS statistical collections. The ABSCQ was used to classify post-school educational qualification prior to 2001.
Prior to the introduction of the ASCED it was not possible to produce a single measure of educational attainment because the classification in use (ABSCQ) was restricted in scope to post-school qualifications only. The ASCED is broader in scope than the ABSCQ and includes both school and non-school education.
Prior to 2001 a precise measure of the highest level of school education was not available. The variable 'Age left school' was used as a surrogate for determining the level of school education obtained by an individual. As 'Age left school' is imprecise for this purpose, the ABS considered it necessary to produce a standard variable which measures the concept more precisely, allowing highest educational attainment to be derived.
ASCED Level of Education
Relevant categories from the Level of Education component of the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) are used when collecting, aggregating and disseminating data relating to the standard education variables. ASCED Levels of Education include Years of school completed as well as non-school qualifications.
The Level of Education is defined as a function of the quality and quantity of learning involved in an educational activity. Level of Education is measured operationally in terms of the following criteria:
• The theoretical and vocational orientation of the educational activity;
• The minimum entry requirements for the educational activity (i.e. the minimum amount of prior education needed to undertake the educational activity at that level); and
• The programme length (or notional duration of the educational activity).
The classification criteria are applied to educational activities to organise them into a three level hierarchical classification structure.
One, two and three digit codes are assigned to the first, second and third level units of the classification respectively. The first digit identifies the Broad Level in which each Narrow and Detailed Level is contained. The first two digits taken together identify the Narrow Level in which each Detailed Level is contained. The three digit codes represent the Detailed Levels.
The following examples illustrate the coding scheme:
|
Hierarchical Level | Code | Level of Education |
|
Broad | 5 | Certificate Level |
Narrow | 51 | Certificate III & IV Level |
Detailed | 511 | Certificate IV |
|
The most detailed level of the classification consists of 64 base (or third-level) units called Detailed Levels. The Detailed Level categories of the classification are aggregated to form the second-level categories of the classification which comprises 15 Narrow Levels (of Education). These in turn are aggregated to nine Broad Levels of Education. The nine Broad Levels (of Education) are:
1. Postgraduate Degree Level
2. Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate Level
3. Bachelor Degree Level
4. Advanced Diploma and Diploma Level
5. Certificate Level
6. Secondary Education
7. Primary Education
8. Pre-primary Education
9. Other Education
The relationship between the Level of Education categories is essentially ordinal. However, it is not possible to assert this in the case of the relationship between Broad Level 5 'Certificate Level' and Broad Level 6 'Secondary Education', where secondary educational activities may be of an equal, higher or lower level than Certificates found in Broad Level 5.
The hierarchical structure of the ASCED allows users the flexibility to output statistics at the level of the classification which best suits their requirements. Data can be presented by Broad Levels, Narrow Levels, or by the base Detailed (third) Levels. If necessary, significant Detailed Levels within a Narrow Level can be presented separately while the remaining Detailed Levels within the Narrow Level are aggregated. For example, the third-level category '111 Higher Doctorate’ can be separately identified as an output category within the Narrow Level '11 Doctoral Degree Level', with the remaining third-level Detailed Level categories in this Narrow Level aggregated in an 'Other Doctoral Degree Level' category. As no Broad Level contains more than two Narrow Levels, such aggregation is unnecessary at the second level of the classification.
For more information on the ASCED Level of Education classification see the
ASCED publication on the ABS website. The '
Collection Methods' section below contains a complete list of ASCED Level of Education (and supplementary) codes. Information on which codes are valid for the three standard education level variables and whether they are coded by the ASCED coder is provided.
Supplementary codes are codes used for output categories not covered by the ASCED classification. For example '000' is generally used for 'not applicable' categories. Each Standard will list the relevant supplementary categories used for output coding.
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF EDUCATION (ISCED) 2011 AND ASCED LEVEL OF EDUCATION
The Australian Government Department of Education and Training (AGDET) has developed a correspondence table (or concordance) between the
International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011) and the Australian Standard Classification of Education – Level of Education. A link to the correspondence table has been added here for the convenience of users of these classifications and related statistics. While the Australian Bureau of Statistics cooperated with AGDET during the development of the correspondence table, the published correspondence ultimately reflects the AGDET interpretation of ISCED 2011.
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