This chapter provides a breakdown of educational outcomes for post-primary students. This includes all students who were, according to the categories outlined in Chapter 3, in ‘education & training only’ and ‘education & training and substantial employment’.

These outcomes incorporate repeat leaving certificate, enrolment in higher education, further education and training, and, primarily for Early Leavers, post-primary re-enrolment and Youthreach. The figures presented are by calendar year, based on either an administrative enrolment or award record. For enrolments, activity is counted for the enrolment year and the subsequent year. For awards, activity is counted for the award year and all relevant preceding years. For most instances this will relate to a single preceding year, but apprenticeship records cover four years preceding the award. Estimates for Youthreach enrolments are based on progressions from post-primary education during 2012 - 2017 into Youthreach in 2017 (see Methodology).

Over three-quarters of students enrolled in education and training in year one

Over three quarters (77.4%) of the 50,810 LCE Completers with valid Personal Identifier Keys (PIKs) from the 2012/2013 academic year were engaged in education generally ('education & training and substantial employment' or 'education and training only') in year one.

Almost half (48.0%) of students were in ‘higher education’ one year after post-primary. This rate peaks at 54.1% in year three.

‘Further education’ accounts for 25.2% of educational outcomes in year one, which also represents the peak year for this category.

Students active in ‘both further and higher education’ in year one amounted to 0.9%, peaking in year two at 7.1%.

Repeat Leaving Certificate students registered at 2.8% in years one and two, dropping off considerably thereafter to 0.9% and below. 

In year one, 22.6% of completers are ‘not in education’, rising to 40.3% in year five.

Over half of Early Leavers not in education in year one

For the academic school year 2012/2013, only 1.7% of the 2,810 Early Leavers (with valid PIKs) are in ‘higher education’ one year after post-primary education. This rises to 14.8% in year four.

‘Further education’ is the primary educational outcome for Early Leavers with 25.0% enrolled in year one. In year three, 33.2% were enrolled (the highest recorded for this outcome in the five-year time period).

Activity in ‘both further and higher education’ accounted for 0.1% of educational outcomes in year one, rising to 1.4% in year five.

Early Leavers enrol in the repeat leaving certificate at a rate of 0.7% and in the LCE programme at a rate of 1.6%.

Estimates were calculated for enrolments in Youthreach based on data available for comparable cohorts in subsequent academic years, and applied to the cohorts analysed in this study (see Methodology chapter). On this basis, it is calculated that 19.5% of Early Leavers from the 2012/2013 academic year were enrolled in ‘Youthreach’ in year one. This is the peak year for estimated ‘Youthreach’ enrolments.

Over half (51.5%) of Early Leavers were not in an educational outcome one year after post-primary. This rate is lowest in year three at 37.6%

Females more likely to undertake Education & Training in year one

Of the 24,980 female completers (with valid PIKs) in the 2012/2013 academic year, 49.0% were in ‘higher education’ in year one and 56.6% in year four (highest recorded over the five-year time period). Among the 25,830 male completers (again with valid PIKs), 47.1% were enrolled in ‘higher education’ in year one, peaking at 51.8% in year three.

Females enrolled in ‘further education’ at a rate of 27.4% in year one. This was the peak year for female enrolments. Males were less likely to engage with ‘further education’ with 23.1% enrolled in year one and peaking at 24.6% in year two.

Enrolments in ‘both further and higher education’ in the same calendar year accounted to 1.0% of males’ and 0.9% females’ educational outcomes. Both genders in this category peaked in year two at 7.6% for females and 6.6% for males.

While 2.5% of females repeated the leaving certificate in year one, 3.1% of males did so too.

In year one, 19.9% of female LCE Completers and 25.2% of male LCE Completers were ‘not in education’. These figures are lowest in year two for females at 13.1% and males at 16.4%.

For the 1,240 female Early Leavers (with valid PIKs) in the 2012/2013 academic year, 2.0% were in ‘higher education’ in year one and peaking at 20.2% in year four. For the 1,580 males, 1.5% were in ‘higher education’ in year one, with 10.5% in both year four and five.

Males enrolled in ‘further education’ in year one at a rate of 27.8%, rising to 35.5% in year two (highest year) while females were enrolled in year one at a rate of 21.3%, rising to 30.5% in year three.

Only 0.1% of both females and males were enrolled in ‘both further and higher education’ in year one. This peaks for females in year four at 1.4% and in year five for males at 1.5%.

Repeat leaving cert enrolments accounted for 1.0% and 0.4% of female and male early leavers respectively in educational outcome year one. While this represents the peak figure for females, male re-enrolments peak in year three at 0.6%. The rate of re-enrolment in LCE programme was 1.2% for females and 2.0% for males.

Female leavers enrolled in ‘Youthreach’ programmes in year one at a rate of 23.7% while males enrolled at a rate of 25.0%. Year one represents the peak year of ‘Youthreach’ enrolments for both genders.

In year one, 50.7% of females and 43.2% of males were ‘not in education’. This is lowest in year three for females at 32.6% and for males at 35.3%.

 

Statbank tables: PPO02 - Education and Training