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ATTAINMENT

This section on Educational Attainment includes the Key and Related series for the following Indicators:

Attainment of Year 12 or a formal qualification at Certificate II or above
Attainment of a non-school qualification
Literacy and numeracy skills



YEAR 12 OR A FORMAL QUALIFICATION AT CERTIFICATE II OR ABOVE


Key series

ATTAINMENT OF YEAR 12 OR FORMAL QUALIFICATION AT CERTIFICATE II OR ABOVE (a)(b), 20-24 years
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Males	79.4	78.3	78.1	81.1	81.3	81.4	82.4	81.6	84.1	84.3
Females	83.2	84.1	85.9	86.1	87.3	87.7	88.9	86.7	87.8	89.2
(a) Includes any of the following: Year 12; Certificate II, III, or IV; Advanced Diploma or Diploma; Bachelor Degree; Graduate Diploma or Graduate Certificate, or Postgraduate Degree. (b) Males and females who have attained Year 12 or a formal qualification at Certificate II or above as a proportion of all persons aged 20-24 years for each sex. Source: ABS Education and Work, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 6227.0).

ATTAINMENT OF FORMAL QUALIFICATION AT CERTIFICATE III OR ABOVE (a), 25-29 years
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Males	53.5	55.1	56.1	57.9	59.1	60.8	62.1	59.8	65.4	62.6
Females	53.7	56.4	55.3	60.2	61.0	65.2	63.2	67.2	66.5	68.9
(a) Males and females who have attained a formal qualification at Certificate III or above as a proportion of total persons in 25-29 years age group for each sex. Source: ABS data available on request, Survey of Education and Work.

ATTAINMENT OF BACHELOR DEGREE OR ABOVE (a), 25-29 years
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Males	22.2	26.5	26.0	27.7	28.5	30.3	29.9	29.8	31.8	28.4
Females	32.8	33.0	32.7	35.7	36.0	40.5	38.1	41.0	39.2	41.0
(a) Males and females who have attained a Bachelor Degree or above as a proportion of all persons aged 25-29 years for each sex. Source: ABS data available on request, Survey of Education and Work.

ATTAINMENT OF A NON-SCHOOL QUALIFICATION (a)(b), 15-64 years
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Males	53.6	54.2	54.5	54.5	55.3	56.4	56.9	57.4	59.6	57.1
Females	48.1	48.9	50.4	50.6	52.6	53.6	54.6	55.7	58.0	57.3
(a) Males and females who have attained a non-school qualification as a proportion of all persons aged 15-64 years for each sex. (b) Includes 'Certificate not further defined' and 'Level not determined'. Source: ABS data available on request, Survey of Education and Work.

LITERACY COMPETENCY AT SKILL LEVEL 2 OR UNDER (15–64 years) (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)
	2011–2012
	%
Males	43.2
Females	43.9
(a) Males and females with literacy competency as a proportion of persons aged 15-64 years for each sex. (b) Includes those classified as 'Missing', Below Level 1, at Level 1 and at Level 2. (c) 'Missing' refers to people who did not receive a proficiency score because they were not able to answer more than five questions in the background questionnaire. For further information see Appendix ('Scores and Skill Levels') and Explanatory Note 1 in ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia, 2011–12 (cat. no. 4228.0). (d) Skill Level 2 and under reflect the lower end of the competency spectrum, whereas Skill Levels 4 and 5 reflect the higher end of the competency spectrum. (e) Prior to the February 2014 release of Gender Indicators, Australia, data for this table was sourced from the ABS Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, Summary Results, Australia, 2006 (Reissue) (cat. no. 4228.0). Because this survey has since been discontinued, this table now sources data from the ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia. For methodological reasons, data from these two surveys are not comparable. Source: ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia, 2011–12. (cat. no. 4228.0). Related series

NUMERACY COMPETENCY AT SKILL LEVEL 2 OR UNDER (15–64 years) (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)
	2011–2012
	%
Males	49.0
Females	59.2
(a) Males and females with numeracy competency as a proportion of persons aged 15-64 years for each sex. (b) Includes those classified as 'Missing', Below Level 1, at Level 1 and at Level 2. (c) 'Missing' refers to people who did not receive a proficiency score because they were not able to answer more than five questions in the background questionnaire. For further information see Appendix ('Scores and Skill Levels') and Explanatory Note 1 in ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia, 2011–12 (cat. no. 4228.0). (d) Skill Level 2 and under reflect the lower end of the competency spectrum, whereas Skill Levels 4 and 5 reflect the higher end of the competency spectrum. (e) Prior to the February 2014 release of Gender Indicators, Australia, data for this table was sourced from the ABS Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, Summary Results, Australia, 2006 (Reissue) (cat. no. 4228.0). Because this survey has since been discontinued, this table now sources data from the ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia. For methodological reasons, data from these two surveys are not comparable. Source: ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia, 2011–12. (cat. no. 4228.0).

PROBLEM SOLVING COMPETENCY IN TECHNOLOGY-RICH ENVIRONMENTS (T-RE) AT SKILL LEVEL 1 OR UNDER (15–64 years) (a)(b)(c)(d)
	2011–2012
	%
Males	68.9
Females	69.7
(a) Males and females with problem solving competency in technology-rich environments as a proportion of persons aged 15-64 years for each sex. (b) Includes those classified as 'Missing', Below Level 1 and at Level 1. (c) 'Missing' refers to people who did not receive a proficiency score because they were not able to answer more than five questions in the background questionnaire. For further information see Appendix ('Scores and Skill Levels') and Explanatory Note 1 in ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia, 2011–12 (cat. no. 4228.0). (d) Skill Level 1 and under reflect the lower end of the competency spectrum, whereas Skill Levels 2 and 3 reflect the higher end of the competency spectrum. Source: ABS Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia, 2011–12. (cat. no. 4228.0).