Press Statement

Preasráiteas

05 December 2019

Go to release: Post-Primary Outcomes - Academic Years Ending 2012 & 2013

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (5 December 2019) published Post-Primary Outcomes – Academic Years Ending 2012 & 2013. This publication analyses outcomes in 2012 – 2017 for two post-primary academic cohorts; 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. It examines outcomes in terms of education and training, substantial employment, and earnings over time. A major aspect of this report is on the focus of post-primary students’ outcomes, depending on whether they completed the Leaving Certificate Examination (LCE Completers) or left post-primary prior to completing the LCE (Early Leavers).

Commenting on the report, Michael Courtney, Statistician, said: “Over 75% of LCE Completers were in Education and training in the first year after post-primary education. Transitions to higher education amounted to 49.0% and transitions to Further education amounted to 25.9%. Repeat Leaving Certificate accounts for 2.8% of outcomes in year one.

Early Leavers transitioned to Further education at a rate of 24.7%.

After six years, 74.0% of LCE Completers were in substantial employment compared to 43.8% for Early Leavers.

Median weekly earnings for LCE completers were €410 after six years, while Early Leavers earned on average €345 per week.”

Commenting further on the report, Declan Smyth, Senior Statistician, said: “This report is an example of the policy-relevant research projects that the CSO are developing as part of its’ leadership role of the Irish Statistical System (ISS). Our goal is to maximise the variety and volume of data available, to provide high quality information to the Government, businesses and citizens.

While life choices involve complex decisions, this report provides a statistical overview of the broad medium-term outcomes for students after post-primary upper secondary education. Its’ focus is particularly on the choice of continuing formal education (via further or higher education programmes) or initiating substantial employment, or a mixture of the two. It also provides information about those who do not pursue either of these outcomes.

Under the auspices of the Statistics Act 1993, the CSO is in a unique position to gather and link administrative data sources and evaluate their potential for statistical use. Our aim is to ensure that citizens can live in an informed society while at the same time ensuring adherence to relevant data protection legislation.

In this regard, the CSO treats all data with strict confidentiality and never discloses any data that could subsequently be associated with any person or business. We have compiled these new statistics using anonymised records and will only produce statistical results at an aggregate level.”

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