Attendees:
Alan Wall Department of Education and Skills, Andrea Feeney State Examination Commission, Angela McCourt Central Statistics Office, Brendan Murphy Central Statistics Office, Brendan O'Dowd Central Statistics Office, Colette Harrison Quality and Qualifications Ireland, Cormac Halpin Central Statistics Office, Declan Smyth Central Statistics Office, Deirdre Cullen Department of Education and Skills, Diarmuid Reidy Central Statistics Office, Helen McGrath Central Statistics Office, Jill Fanin Department of Education and Skills, Joan McNaboe SOLAS, Kathleen P Gavin Department of Education and Skills, Kieran Culhane Central Statistics Office, Maria Fitzgerald Teaching Council, Michael Courtney Central Statistics Office, Nora Condon SOLAS, Paul Morrin Central Statistics Office, Phil O'Faherty DES, Philip Crosby Department of Education and Skills, Sarah Crilly Central Statistics Office, Selen Guerin SOLAS, Tadgh Hegarty SOLAS, Valerie Harvey Higher Education Authority.
Paul Morrin, Assistant Director-General of the CSO Statistical Co-ordination Unit opened the meeting at 2:30pm, welcomed members to this new liaison group.
Paul Morrin outlined the agenda for the meeting and the ESLG Terms of Reference.
“CSO Education Outputs” – Helen McGrath, CSO
Helen presented on the current CSO releases/publications in relation to education. Helen explained how the CSO utilises multiple data sources to provide statistics on educational attainment or other educational indicators in Ireland.
As well as providing comprehensive indicators on education every 5 years, the Census was identified as the main mechanism for providing educational indicators at the lowest geographic levels. Following on from that, household surveys provide deeper insights in the topic but the trade-off is a loss in geographic availability. The reports based on household surveys include:
The final survey presented was a business survey, the Continuing Vocational Training Survey. This survey looks at, amongst other things, overall participation in education/training, amount on time spent on training and the cost of training.
As Helen is moving to a new division within the CSO, Sarah Crilly was introduced as the new education statistician in the social analysis unit.
“Education Longitudinal Studies” – Brendan O’Dowd, CSO
Brendan delivered a presentation to members on his current work on education statistics within the Statistical Systems Co-ordination Unit. This work is centred on the development of an Educational Longitudinal Dataset (ELD). The purpose of the ELD is to provide a single, comprehensive platform for carrying out policy-relevant analysis on the impacts of education on student/graduate outcomes. The ELD follows on the back of a study on Higher Education Outcomes, and has been developed by expanding the methodology of that earlier project to include a wider variety of initial courses and a broader range of datasets that describe activities. The ELD may be seen as an analogue of the JLD (Jobseekers Longitudinal Dataset) which has successfully been used for a number of studies on labour policy.
A number of projects involving outcomes analysis are underway which use the methodology developed under the ELD for calculating outcome activities. These involve different educational cohorts, including Further Education graduates, Springboard graduates, and graduates from courses funded through the HEA and SOLAS.
Brendan emphasised the importance of data security outlining some of the rigorous procedures and protocols that CSO statisticians must adhere to before gaining access to pseudonymised administrative data.
“Field of Study in Census 2021” – Brendan Murphy / Cormac Halpin CSO
Cormac introduced Brendan’s presentation that discussed the future of the Field of Study (FoS) question in Census 2021. Cormac briefly explained the reasoning behind the decision to evaluate the FoS question. Brendan delivered a presentation that outlined the history of the FoS question and some of the response rates and statistical analyses that was conducted based on this question in Census 2016.
Brendan discussed the alternative sources from which the FoS can be currently obtained. These include HEA and QQI data which capture the FoS using the ISCED classification. The proposed method of matching 2016-2020 HEA and QQI data to Census 2021 data would allow the CSO to obtain the FoS on recent graduates. For persons who have not completed higher or further education in Ireland, it is proposed to match these persons with Census 2016 data. The benefits of such an approach include a reduction in response burden and processing time/cost. It would also improve accuracy and there is the potential for added value by looking at persons who have completed multiple courses.
The main challenges of missing data due to those who studied abroad or were not resident in Ireland during 2016-2020 and on persons who studied in institutions not covered by HEA and QQI were discussed. The potential solutions to these issues included utilising previous Census data and surveys such as the Labour Force Survey, as well as capturing data from additional sources such as professional/regulatory bodies.
CSO will bring this proposal to the Census Advisory Group when it reconvenes in March to make proposals for the content of the 2021 questionnaire.
1. Organise next ESLG meeting
2. Circulate presentation slides from meeting to all ESLG members
3. Ask for volunteers to present at the next meeting
