This chapter describes the employment and education destinations of graduates, and how these destinations vary across the different graduation years and levels of qualification. Two different styles of longitudinal study are presented. Graduate outcomes are described at one, two, and three years after graduation in a longitudinal panel study. Graduate outcomes are also analysed at one year after graduation for each of the separate graduation years in a longitudinal cohort study.

There are five classifications that describe graduate activities within each calendar year.

• 'Substantial Employment only': graduates who meet minimum criteria for employment and have no record of enrolment in further or higher education within the same year.
• 'Substantial Employment and Education': graduates who meet the criteria for substantial employment and were enrolled in further or higher education at some point within the same calendar year.
• 'Education only': graduates who are enrolled in further or higher education but are not in substantial employment.
• 'Neither Employment nor Education': graduates who are not in further or higher education nor in substantial employment but who do appear in some administrative data in the year. These graduates may have some record of (non-substantial) employment or may have claimed some benefit over the year.
• 'Not Captured': all other graduates. This group could not be found in any administrative dataset for the year and it is assumed that most emigrated, but there is no definitive indicator of emigration in the administrative data sources.

Outcomes for 2015 graduates after one, two and three years are shown in figure 2.2. This graduation year is examined in some detail throughout this report as it is the most recent graduation year for which outcomes data after three years is available. Other combinations of graduation year and years since graduation are available within the CSO PxStat tables that accompany this publication.

Five in every six 2017 graduates find substantial employment in first year after graduation

The proportion of graduates who were in substantial employment in the first year after graduation rose between 2013 and 2017 from 66% to 83.5%. In 2017, 53.5% of all graduates were in substantial employment while 30.2 were in substantial employment and education.

In 2013, 48.9% of graduates returned to education in the first year after graduating but this dropped to 37.6% by 2017.

The proportion of graduates who were neither in employment nor education nearly halved between 2013 and 2017, falling from 14.6% to 6.8%. The proportion of graduates who were not captured also decreased slightly from 2.5% to 2.2% over this time period.

Interactive table: PxStat Link ELA02

Four in ten graduates from 2015 re-enrolled in Education one year after graduation

Four in ten (40.2%) graduates from 2015 had re-enrolled in education in the first year after graduation, dropping to 28.2% three years after graduation. Almost four in five (78.5%) graduates were substantially employed in the year after graduation and this had risen to 80.8% by three years after graduation. In the first year after graduation, just 2.2% of graduates were not captured and this proportion had risen to 4.2% three years after graduation. The proportion of graduates who were neither in employment nor education grew slightly from 9.1% in the first year after graduation to 10.4% after three years.

Interactive table: PxStat Link ELA02

About five in six graduates at NFQ levels 6, 7 and 8 in substantial employment one year after graduation

About five in six graduates who completed courses in 2015 at NFQ level 6 (84.7%), NFQ level 7 (90.5%) and NFQ level 8 (87.2%) were in substantial employment the following year. These proportions fell slightly three years after graduating for level 6 (84.2%), level 7 (85.7%) and level 8 (82.5%). NFQ level 5 graduates have the lowest proportion of employment with 69.9% of graduates in substantial employment in the year after graduation, increasing to 77.3% three years after graduation.

Over seven in ten (71.4%) of NFQ level 7 graduates were re-enrolled in education one year after graduation. This percentage dropped significantly, to 28.6%, three years after graduation. This pattern may be explained by courses that offer students an additional 'add-on year', leading to an additional award, often at a higher NFQ level. This option is common at NFQ level 7. 

Interactive table: PxStat Link ELA02

Most graduates who re-enrol proceed to higher NFQ

This section examines those graduates from 2017 who were re-enrolled in education in the first year after graduation. Most graduates who re-enrolled opted for a course of a higher NFQ level. In figure 2.3 it was shown that over 70% of level 7 graduates had re-enrolled within one year, and here it can be seen that almost three quarters of these were pursuing a course at level 8 or above.The proportion that opted for a course at a lower level was 21.1%, while 5.3% were enrolled in another level 7 course. Similarly, 87.6% of level 5 graduates who were back in education had enrolled at a higher NFQ level. Among level 8 graduates, however, only 37.5% of those re-enrolling were taking courses at levels 9 or 10, with 12.5% taking another level 8 course, and 50% choosing a lower NFQ level course instead. Of those level 8 graduates who subsequently enrolled in a lower NFQ course, many were found to be studying Leadership for Inclusion (LINC). This is a specialist course and a prerequisite for taking on the role of Inclusion Co-ordinator in the ELC sector. 

Interactive table: PxStat Link ELA02

Go to next chapter: Employment Sector