Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past & Future Releases

Formal educational qualifications are the desired outcome of most study at educational institutions. When issued by an accredited authority they denote a particular level of knowledge, skills and perhaps competencies. This assists the graduates themselves when entering the labour market, employers in selecting appropriate personnel, and clients in assessing the quality of professional services. The classification of educational attainment to level assists in measuring the stocks of available skills in a community, enabling policy makers to monitor the volume of skill levels compared to skill shortages, and to influence the direction of future educational focus.

In May 2001, of the 12.8 million persons aged 15-64, 6.0 million people (47%) had at least one non-school qualification. These comprised 2.2 million whose level of highest non-school qualification was a bachelor degree or higher, 854,600 whose highest was an advanced diploma or diploma, 1.8 million whose highest was a certificate III or IV, 873,600 whose highest was a certificate I or II and 192,100 whose highest was a certificate not further defined (table 10.51).

10.51 LEVEL OF HIGHEST NON-SCHOOL QUALIFICATION, Persons aged 15-64 - May 2001
	Highest year of school completed
	Year 12	Year 11	Year 10	Year 9 or below	Total(a)
	'000	'000	'000	'000	'000
Postgraduate degree	268.5	7.7	6.8	**0.8	283.9
Graduate diploma / Graduate certificate	262.8	15.9	18.1	*3.6	300.3
Bachelor degree	1,463.7	46.6	75.0	10.2	1,595.5
Advanced diploma / Diploma	588.9	89.4	145.7	30.6	854.6
Certificate III / IV	508.1	283.4	789.7	217.3	1,798.6
Certificate I / II	306.7	127.7	339.1	100.1	873.6
Certificate not further defined	89.6	34.1	54.6	13.4	192.1
Level not determined	62.4	18.0	48.8	13.6	142.7
Without a non-school qualification	2,113.5	938.8	2,158.1	1,489.3	6,747.1
Total	5,664.1	1,561.6	3,636.0	1,878.9	12,788.3
(a) Includes persons who never attended school. Boarding school pupils at May 2001 have not been allocated a highest year of school completed but are included in the total.
Source: Education and Work, Australia, May 2001 (6227.0).

Graph 10.52 shows the proportion of males and females aged 15-64 and their level of highest non-school qualification at May 1991, 1996 and 2001. During this period the proportion of persons with a bachelor degree or higher has increased by 5.7 percentage points for males and by 9.7 percentage points for females. In 1991 there was a greater percentage of males (11%) with a bachelor degree or higher than females (7.3%), but by 2001 this pattern had been reversed, with 17% of females having a bachelor degree or higher compared to 16% of males.

10.53 LEVEL OF HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT - May 2001
	Age group (years)
	15-19	20-24	25-44	45-64	Total
	’000	'000	’000	’000	’000
Postgraduate degree	-	*4.7	148.7	130.5	283.9
Graduate diploma / Graduate certificate	**0.2	5.8	163.2	131.1	300.3
Bachelor degree	**0.8	180.0	946.8	467.9	1,595.5
Advanced diploma / Diploma	*5.1	87.3	446.1	316.1	854.6
Certificate III / IV	22.8	164.6	967.1	644.1	1,798.6
Certificate I / II	*3.4	6.7	42.5	69.2	121.8
Certificate not further defined	*1.3	**0.6	6.4	*5.5	13.7
Year 12	384.7	594.8	1,064.1	478.1	2,521.7
Year 11	277.7	101.4	471.8	246.2	1,097.1
Year 10 or below	630.8	197.8	1,413.1	1,769.4	4,011.1
Level not determined	4.8	9.3	73.5	55.1	142.7
Total(a)	1,350.7	1,353.1	5,751.7	4,332.9	12,788.3
(a) Includes boarding school pupils and persons who never attended school and have no educational qualifications.
Source: Education and Work, Australia, May 2001 (6227.0).

10.54 MAIN FIELD OF HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT - May 2001
	Age group (years)
	15-19	20-24	25-44	45-64	Total
	’000	’000	’000	’000	’000
Natural and physical sciences	-	23.4	114.5	72.5	210.4
Information technology	*3.1	23.3	96.7	21.1	144.2
Engineering and related technologies	5.8	79.0	634.5	458.3	1,177.7
Architecture and building	*1.5	26.7	209.8	152.0	390.0
Agriculture, environment and related studies	*2.2	17.5	68.5	35.8	124.1
Health	*1.1	34.8	312.8	221.6	570.3
Education	**0.7	28.2	208.8	202.3	440.0
Management and commerce	9.2	91.6	479.9	279.5	860.2
Society and culture	*3.9	63.9	367.4	217.9	653.1
Creative arts	3.0	26.5	117.7	62.4	209.6
Food, hospitality and personal services	7.2	40.3	166.3	81.0	294.7
Mixed field programmes(a)	1,312.3	894.1	2,950.0	2,494.6	7,651.0
Field not determined	**0.6	*3.1	16.5	14.2	34.3
Total(b)	1,350.7	1,353.1	5,751.7	4,332.9	12,788.3
(a) Includes persons whose highest level of educational attainment was Year 12 or below. (b) Includes persons who never attended school and have no educational qualifications.
Source: Education and Work, Australia, May 2001 (6227.0).