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This chapter covers statistics on the graduates whose outcomes are analysed in later chapters. The number of graduates for years 2010 to 2021 are shown, along with variables such as sex, age category, National Framework for Qualifications (NFQ) Level and field of study. Graduates without a valid PPSN are included in this chapter in order to give a clearer representation of the national trends in further education. In the following chapters, graduates with invalid PPSN are excluded since these cannot be linked to outcome data.
Approximately 54% of all 2021 graduates were aged 25 and under. These graduates are classified as 'Young', while graduates that are older than 25 at the time of graduation are classified as 'Mature'. The majority of graduates (63.2%) in 2021 are female. While women outnumber men in all age categories, the difference is particularly noteworthy among mature graduates, where the number of women was close to double compared to the number of men. Of the female graduates, 31.7% were over the age of 36 at the time of graduation, compared with 19% of males.
For further details on 'Young' and 'Mature' definitions, see Background Notes. The remainder of this report focuses on young graduates only.
Of the 25,515 unique graduates in 2021, 1,720 were qualified apprentices. The gender and age classification provided in Table 1.1 excludes qualified apprentice. For the remainder of this report, references to 'graduates' refer to 'Young' persons who did not complete apprenticeships. The outcomes of qualified apprentices will be analysed in a separate release.
Of the 2021 graduates, 9,360 completed awards at NFQ Level 5, accounting for 72.6% of the total in that year. There were a further 1,875 awards at NFQ Level 6, and 805 at Level 4. There were relatively few graduates at lower NFQ levels, with one in fifteen (6.6%) graduates completing awards at NFQ Levels 3 and below in 2021.
The most common field of study in each year was Health & Welfare which accounted for more than one in four (26.5%) of 2021 graduates. Arts & Humanities was the second most common field of study, with 2,090 graduates in 2021. Nevertheless, there was a sharp decline by about 20% in the number of Arts & Humanities graduates, from 2,585 in 2017 to 2,090 in 2021. The number of graduates in Business, Administration & Law also dropped by 20% during the same period, comprising 1,650 of graduates in 2021. Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary was the third most common course in 2021, accounting for the same number of graduates as the Business, Administration & Law field of study. The number of graduates in Services declined by roughly a third (34.7%) between 2017 and 2021.
Note that the Education field of study shows low numbers of graduates. Therefore, this cohort will not be included in the remaining outcome analysis. However, it will be considered in all relevant calculations across the release.
The most common field of study in 2021 for female graduates was Health & Welfare, which accounted for two in five (39.5%) female graduates. However, only 8.3% of males graduated in this field of study. Instead, the most common field of study for men was Arts & Humanities, accounting for one in five (19.2%) male graduations. Males were also more likely to graduate in fields such as Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries & Veterinary, as well as Engineering, Manufacturing & Construction and Information & Communication Technologies.
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