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Non-School Qualification: Level of Education (QALLP)

This variable describes the level of a person's highest completed non-school qualification. Non-school qualifications are educational attainments other than those of a pre-primary, primary or secondary education level. This variable is applicable to all persons aged 15 years or over who stated a completed qualification.

How this variable is created

Non-School Qualification: Level of Education is mainly coded based on written responses for qualification level and qualification field questions. Highest year of primary or secondary school completed, qualification indicator (question asking whether a person has completed any educational qualification) and whether the qualification was completed before 1998 may also be used. Images of these questions are provided below.

The Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) (cat. no. 1272.0), released in 2001, was used to code data for QALLP. The standard replaced the ABS Classification of Qualifications (ABSCQ). For the 2001 Census, question wording, instructions and examples were modified to assist in coding using the ASCED, and to accommodate the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), which was introduced in 1998. The ASCED classifications have not been reviewed since their introduction.

Qualification coding is reliant on a variety of processes. All text response fields that contribute to qualification coding are first auto-repaired before being sent through an auto-coding process. The remaining records that did not successfully achieve a code in auto-coding were examined by clerical staff and independently assessed for an ASCED code. When completing their Census Form, some people provide responses which cannot be coded. In these instances, an 'Inadequately Described' code is allocated during processing. For 2016 these comprised 1.5% of the data (compared to 1.0% in 2011).

In the 2006 Census, the year completed question was reworded to ask if the qualification was obtained before 1998 or from 1998 onward, with 1998 being the year the AQF was introduced. The distinction between certificates awarded pre-1998 and from 1998 is also used to assist in coding some certificates to finer levels of the ASCED classification.

Variable history

A question relating to level of education was first asked in the 1911 Census and has been asked in every census since then. In many censuses, school and non-school qualification were not necessarily separate questions. No changes were made for 2016.

Non-response rate

The majority of item non-response is attributable to the people who did not respond to the Census at all. Refer to item non-response tables for more information. The second and smaller contributor to item non-response is when people return a Census form but may not answer a particular question(s). For more information, refer to Understanding Census data quality.

Item non-response rates are a measure of how many people did not respond to a particular question as a proportion of the total number of people the question was applicable to. In this instance the response is left as not stated.

The non-response rate (records coded to the supplementary class 'not stated') for this variable was 16.0% in 2016 (17.1% in 2011). A large component of non-response for Non-School Qualification: Level of Education is due to people answering neither the Qualification Indicator question (question 28 on the Census Household paper form) nor the Non-School Qualification: Level of Education questions. This includes people who may not have seen the qualifications questions as relevant to themselves, and thus chose not to respond, and those people who were imputed into occupied dwellings from which no form had been returned. As such, it may not be appropriate to consider these groups of non-respondents when calculating non-response for the directly applicable population.

When Non-response derivation for Non-School Qualification: Level of Education is analysed in conjunction with a 'Yes' response to the Qualifications Indicator question, the non-response rate for this variable for 2016 is 2.8% (see Table 1 below). Using this same method, the non-response rate for 2011 was 2.6%.

Table 1 Non-response derivation for Non-School Qualification: Level of Education for persons who indicated that they had completed a qualification^a

When using this variable, the directly applicable population (i.e. those who answered 'Yes' to the Qualifications Indicator question) is not identifiable in the output data set. Therefore this variable cannot be used as a count of people who hold a qualification.

Further information

A definition of Non-School Qualification: Level of Education is available in the 2016 Census Dictionary.
For information related to Non-School Qualification: Level of Education, see data quality statements for Level of Highest Educational Attainment and Non-School Qualification: Field of Study.

Household form question image

Data for this variable is mainly derived from questions 29 and 30 on the Census Household Paper Form

Questions 28, 29 and 30 as they appeared on the 2016 Census Household Paper Form:

A text only version of the online Census Household form is available from the Downloads tab.