1246.0 - Education Variables, June 2014  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/06/2014   
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INTRODUCTION

'Highest educational attainment' identifies a person's highest educational achievement or qualification in any area of formal study, incorporating both level of school completed and non-school qualifications.

The standard contains two distinct variables:

  • the level of a person's highest educational attainment
  • the main field of a person's highest educational attainment.
This variable uses the standard variables 'Highest year of school completed' and 'Highest non-school qualification' to rank people's highest educational attainment. The variable, 'Level of highest educational attainment', is designed for the purpose of obtaining a single value for level of highest educational attainment and is not a measurement of the relative importance of different levels of study.

The 'Education Standard Variables Guide’ provides information on education concepts, classifications and terminology used in this standard.