Qualifications and work methodology

Two types of error are possible in estimates based on a sample survey:

• non-sampling error
• sampling error

Non-sampling error is caused by factors other than those related to sample selection. It is any factor that results in the data values not accurately reflecting the true value of the population.

It can occur at any stage throughout the survey process. Examples include:

• selected people that do not respond (e.g. refusals, non-contact) 
• questions being misunderstood
• responses being incorrectly recorded
• errors in coding or processing the survey data

Sampling error is the expected difference that can occur between the published estimates and the value that would have been produced if the whole population had been surveyed. Sampling error is the result of random variation and can be estimated using measures of variance in the data. 

One measure of sampling error is the standard error (SE). There are about two chances in three that an estimate will differ by less than one SE from the figure that would have been obtained if the whole population had been included. There are about 19 chances in 20 that an estimate will differ by less than two SEs.

The datacube reports the relative standard error (RSE) for estimates of counts ('000) and the margin of error (MOE) for estimates of proportions (%) (available in the Data downloads section of the main release).

Estimates of proportions with a MOE greater than 10% are annotated to indicate they are subject to high sample variability and particular consideration should be given to the MOE when using these estimates. In addition, estimates with a corresponding standard 95% confidence interval that includes 0% or 100% are annotated to indicate they are usually considered unreliable for most purposes.

Education data are coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Education, 2001. 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. It includes 'Level of education' and 'Field of education'.  

Refers to Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSA) as defined by the ASGS. The GCCSAs represent the socio-economic extent of each of the eight State and Territory capital cities. The whole of the Australian Capital Territory is included in the GCCSA. See Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016.

A person having 'completed' a qualification means they have successfully passed all of the requirements for the qualification and excludes people who have stopped studying without gaining the qualification.

Country of birth has been classified according to the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC), 2016. 'Born in Australia' refers to all persons born in Australia or any of its external territories. 'Born overseas' refers to all persons not 'born in Australia', including those born at sea and persons whose country of birth is unknown.  

As reported by respondent when asked in survey if they are currently working in the field of their qualification.

Any institution whose primary role is education. Included are schools, higher education establishments, colleges of technical and further education and public and private colleges.

People who, during the reference week:

• worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers); or 
• worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers); or 
• were employees who had a job but were not at work and were: 
  • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week; or 
  • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week; or 
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement; or 
  • on strike or locked out; or 
  • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job; or
• were employers or own account workers who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

Employed people who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.

Employed people who usually worked less than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week, or were not at work in the reference week.

The term engagement is used when assessing a persons level of participation in employment and education. People can be 'Fully engaged', 'Partially engaged', or 'Not engaged'.  

Equivalised household income is total household income adjusted by the application of an equivalence scale to facilitate comparisons of income levels between households of differing size and composition. Equivalised total household income can be viewed as an indicator of the economic resources available to a standardised household. 

For a lone person household it is equal to household income. For a household comprising more than one person, it is an indicator of the household income that would be needed by a lone person household to enjoy the same level of economic well-being.

Refers to the subject matter of an educational activity. Fields of education are related to each other through the similarity of subject matter, through the broad purpose for which the education is undertaken, and through the theoretical content which underpins the subject matter. There are 12 broad fields, 71 narrow fields and 356 detailed fields of education. Where a qualification covered multiple fields (e.g. a double degree) the 'Main Field of Education ' is the field considered the most important for the survey respondent.

In this survey, the first qualification was based on the earliest year the non-school qualification was completed. Where two or more non-school qualifications were completed in the same year, then the lowest qualification level is considered to be the first qualification. If they were all completed in the same year and at the same level, then the qualification reported last is the first qualification.

Refers to Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSA) as defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The GCCSAs represent the socio-economic extent of each of the eight State and Territory capital cities. The whole of the Australian Capital Territory is included in the GCCSA. See Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016.

Income consists of all current receipts, that are received by the household or by individual members of the household, and which are available for, or intended to support, current consumption.

• wages and salaries and other receipts from employment (whether from an employer or own incorporated enterprise), including income provided as part of salary sacrificed and/or salary package arrangements 
• profit/loss from own unincorporated business (including partnerships)
• net investment income (interest, rent, dividends, royalties) 
• government pensions and allowances 
• private transfers (e.g. superannuation, workers' compensation, income from annuities, child support, and financial support received from family members not living in the same household)

Gross income is the sum of the income from all these sources before income tax, the Medicare levy and the Medicare levy surcharge are deducted. 

Refers to a non-school qualification that was started and partially undertaken but never completed. Incomplete qualifications excludes qualifications that are currently being studied. 

Industry data is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006.

The ISCED was developed by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to facilitate comparisons of education statistics and indicators within and between countries. In 2011, the second major revision of this classification was officially adopted by the UNESCO General Conference and takes into account significant changes in education systems worldwide since the previous ISCED revision in 1997. Education data were categorised from ASCED 2001 to ISCED 2011 using a concordance method. For more information, see 'International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED) 2011 to Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) Concordance (tcisupport.gov.au)', Tertiary Collection of Student Information.

Level of highest educational attainment identifies the highest achievement a person has attained in any area of formal study. It is not a measurement of the relative importance of different fields of study, but a ranking of qualifications and other educational attainments regardless of the particular area of study or the type of institution in which the study was undertaken. The derivation process determines which of the 'school' or 'non-school' attainments will be regarded as the highest. Usually the higher ranking attainment is self-evident, but in some cases some secondary education is regarded, for the purposes of obtaining a single measure, as higher than some certificate level attainments. 
There are two types of measures used to determine level of highest educational attainment: 'Non-School Priority' and 'Standard Education Priority'. 

• 'Non-School Priority' is where all non-school qualifications are considered of higher ranking than secondary education. For example, a person whose highest year of school completed was Year 12, and whose level of highest non-school qualification was a Certificate I, would have their level of highest education attainment output as Certificate I. 
• 'Standard Education Priority' is where some school qualifications are ranked higher than some non-school qualifications. For example, years 10, 11 and 12 are ranked higher than Certificates I, II and n.f.d. The Standard Education Priority is based on the decision table below and was designed for the purpose of obtaining a single value for level of highest educational attainment and is not intended to convey any other hierarchy.

The following decision table shows which responses to 'highest year of school completed' and 'level of highest non-school qualification' are regarded as the highest. For example, a person's level of highest educational attainment if they completed Year 12 and a Certificate III would be 'Certificate III'. However, if the same person answered 'certificate' to the highest non-school qualification question, their level of highest educational attainment would be output as 'Level not determined'. In addition, for persons who never attended school and do not have a non-school qualification the output is 'No educational attainment'.

For ease of interpretability, the layout of this table has been modified from Education Variables, June 2014, however the ranking of different levels of attainment has not changed.

A person's level of highest non-school qualification is the highest qualification a person has attained in any area of formal study other than school study. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 Level of education classification.

In this survey, a respondent's non-school qualifications (up to five qualifications) were ranked by their Level of education ASCED code to determine which was their highest non-school qualification. Where a respondent had more than one non-school qualification at the same level, then the qualification reported first was ranked higher. 
Note: Not further defined levels were ranked lower than the defined levels eg. Certificate n.f.d. was ranked lower than the defined Certificate levels I-IV. Responses that did not provide sufficient information to be coded to any level, or there was no level information provided were ranked last.

Migrant refers to any person not born within Australia or the Australian external territories.

In this survey, the most recent qualification was based on the most recent year that the non-school qualification was completed. Where two or more non-school qualifications were completed in the same year, then the higher qualification level is considered to be the most recent. If they were all completed in the same year and were at the same level, then the qualification reported first is considered to be the most recent qualification.

Non-school institutions are those which may still provide school level programs but primarily deliver higher education courses, e.g. universities, colleges, institutes of advanced/tertiary/higher education, agricultural colleges and some institutes of technology.

Non-school qualifications are awarded for educational attainments other than those of pre-primary, primary or secondary education. They include qualifications at the Postgraduate Degree level, Master Degree level, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate level, Bachelor Degree level, Advanced Diploma and Diploma level, and Certificates I, II, III and IV levels. School level qualifications obtained through institutions other than primary and secondary schools (such as TAFE) are not included. Non-school qualifications may be attained concurrently with school study. 

People who were not in the categories ‘employed’ or ‘unemployed’. 

Refers to number of non-school qualifications completed. Detailed information was collected on only up to five of the highest non-school qualifications.

An occupation is a collection of jobs that are sufficiently similar in their title and tasks, skill level and skill specialisation. Occupation data is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), 2013, Version 1.2. 

Spoken English proficiency as reported by respondent who speaks a language other than English at home.

Formal certification, issued by a relevant approved body, in recognition that a person has achieved an appropriate level of learning outcomes or competencies relevant to identified individual, professional, industry or community needs. Statements of attainment awarded for partial completion of a course of study at a particular level are excluded.

Qualification(s) completed by a migrant before and/or after arrival in Australia are based on the five highest completed qualifications reported. These may have been completed before arrival, after arrival or a combination of both. 

Out of the five highest qualifications reported, the highest qualification(s) completed by a migrant in any year after their year of arrival in Australia.

Out of the five highest qualifications reported, the highest qualification(s) completed by a migrant in the same year or any year prior to their year of their arrival in Australia.

A qualification was 'relevant' to an employed person's current job or business if they reported: 

• working in the field of the qualification, or 
• the qualification was highly relevant, relevant or somewhat relevant to current job or business.

Most relevant qualification to current job 

If a person had only one relevant qualification, then that was the 'most relevant'. Where a person had more than one relevant qualification, the most relevant was identified by the respondent from a list of their relevant qualifications.

The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) was used to define remoteness. The Remoteness Structure is described in detail in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 5 - Remoteness Structure, July 2016.

Comprises the remainder of each state/territory not included in a Capital City. See Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016.

A function of the range and complexity of the set of tasks involved in an occupation. The greater the range and complexity of the set of tasks, the greater the skill level of the occupation. For more information, see the Occupation Standard, 2018.

Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) is an ABS product that ranks areas in Australia according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. The indexes are based on information from the five-yearly Census of Population and Housing.  The SEIFA indexes used in this publication were created from Census 2016 data. Each index is a summary of a different subset of Census variables and focuses on a different aspect of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. Each index ranks geographic areas across Australia in terms of their relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. It is therefore likely that the same area will have different ranking on each index. 
The four indexes in SEIFA 2016 are: 

• Index of Education and Occupation (IEO)
• Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD)
• Index of Economic Resources (IER)
• Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD)
• For more information, refer to Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia, 2016. 

For more information, refer to Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia, 2016. 

Employed people aged 15 years and over who want, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have. They comprise:

• people employed part-time who want to work more hours and are available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the four weeks subsequent to the survey; or
• people employed full-time who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons (such as being stood down or insufficient work being available). It is assumed that these people wanted to work full-time in the reference week and would have been available to do so.

People aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and:

• had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week; or 
• were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.

'Year 12 or equivalent' includes overseas qualifications comparable to the Australian Year 12 level of schooling as well as other terms used to describe the final year of schooling in Australia, for example, 'Year 13', '6th Form', 'high school certificate' and 'matriculation'.