Work and study after further education
Published
1. Main facts and figures
- 80% of people who finished further education in the year ending July 2021 were working or studying (or both) in the following academic year
- 82% of white people were working or studying (or both) after finishing further education – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
- people in the Chinese (£31,860) and black African (£26,280) ethnic groups had the highest earnings in the year after finishing further education
- people in the Pakistani (£20,110) and white (£22,620) ethnic groups had the lowest earnings
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data shows what people did in the year after they finished further education. It includes people:
- aged 19 and over who passed a further education course
- of any age who passed apprenticeships and traineeships
The data shows destinations recorded in the 2021 to 2022 academic year for people who finished their further education the previous year.
The most common destination is ‘sustained employment or study (or both)’ – we also refer to this as ‘work or study (or both)’.
Someone’s destination is ‘sustained’ if they were:
- employed in 5 out of 6 months between October 2021 and March 2022
- self-employed and completed a tax return for the 2021 to 2022 tax year
- in further or higher education in all 6 months between October 2021 and March 2022
Median earnings are shown for people who finished their further education in the 2016 to 2017 academic year, and earnings are shown for them 1, 3 and 5 academic years after finishing further education. On previous versions of this page this data was presented differently, and showed earnings in the 2016 to 2017 academic year for those who had finished further education 1, 3 and 5 years prior.
The median earnings for each ethnic group is the middle point when the figures are ordered from lowest to highest. Read more about when we use the mean and median to work out averages.
Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Earnings are rounded to the nearest £10.
The ethnic groups used in the data
Data for the white and mixed ethnic groups is aggregated, which means data is shown for these groups as a whole.
Data is shown for the black and Asian ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.
People with Arab ethnic backgrounds are included in the ‘other’ ethnic group.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.
In the data file
Download the data for data for 5 aggregated ethnic groups:
- Asian
- black
- mixed
- white
- ‘other’
3. By ethnicity (destinations)
| Ethnicity | Sustained employment, study or both | Destination that was not sustained | Benefit | No destination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | |
| All | 80 | 11 | 4 | 5 |
| Asian | 74 | 14 | 4 | 7 |
| Bangladeshi | 70 | 16 | 5 | 9 |
| Chinese | 81 | 11 | withheld to protect confidentiality | withheld to protect confidentiality |
| Indian | 79 | 12 | 3 | 6 |
| Pakistani | 70 | 16 | 5 | 8 |
| Asian Other | 75 | 14 | 5 | 7 |
| Black | 78 | 14 | 4 | 4 |
| Black African | 79 | 13 | 4 | 4 |
| Black Caribbean | 76 | 15 | 5 | 4 |
| Black Other | 77 | 14 | 5 | 4 |
| Mixed | 77 | 14 | 5 | 4 |
| White | 82 | 10 | 3 | 4 |
| Other | 72 | 16 | 5 | 6 |
| Unknown | 79 | 11 | 4 | 5 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity (destinations)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity (destinations)’ (CSV)
Summary of Work and study after further education By ethnicity (destinations) Summary
The data shows that, out of people who completed further education in the year ending July 2021:
- 80% were working, studying or doing both in the following academic year
- 11% were in a ‘destination that was not sustained’ – this may include people who worked or studied but not for long enough for it to be 'sustained'
- 4% were only receiving benefits, and the destination was not known for 5%
- 82% of white people were in work, study or both – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
- the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups had the highest percentage of people in a ‘destination that was not sustained’ (both 16%) – the white (10%) and Chinese (11%) ethnic groups had the lowest percentage
4. By ethnicity (earnings)
| Ethnicity | Median earnings after 1 year (£) | Median earnings after 3 years (£) | Median earnings after 5 years (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 14,720 | 17,940 | 22,900 |
| Asian | 12,770 | 16,150 | 20,850 |
| Black | 13,260 | 16,810 | 23,050 |
| Mixed | 13,060 | 16,860 | 23,230 |
| White | 14,920 | 18,100 | 22,980 |
| Other | 13,170 | 16,110 | 21,930 |
| Unknown | 14,410 | 17,720 | 23,010 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity (earnings)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity (earnings)’ (CSV)
Summary of Work and study after further education By ethnicity (earnings) Summary
The data shows that, out of people who completed further education in the year ending July 2017:
- the median salary was £14,720 one year after finishing further education
- people from the Asian other (£15,370) ethnic group had the highest earnings out of all ethnic groups one year after finishing further education – download the data to see these figures
- people from the Bangladeshi ethnic group (£10,860) had the lowest earnings one year after
- white people (£18,100) had the highest earnings 3 years after
- people from the other ethnic group (£16,110) had the lowest earnings 3 years after
- people from the mixed ethnic group (£23,230) had the highest earnings 5 years after
- Asian people (£20,850) had the lowest earnings 5 years after
5. Data sources
Source
Further education outcomes: 2020 to 2021
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Department for Education
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
This data helps monitor the progress of further education leavers into the labour market.
6. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, time, time_type, geography, geography_type, geography_code, number_of_learners, number_of_matched_learners, sustained_percent, emp_percent, learn_percent, emp_only_percent, emp_and_learn_percent, learn_only_percent, not_sustained_percent, benefit_percent, no_dest_percent
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, time, time_type, geography, geography_type, geography_code, years_after_learning, num_learners_with_earnings, 25_th_percentile, median, 75_th_percentile