One of education’s many roles is to provide young people with the
knowledge, skills and behaviours required to support their
progression to further study, training and employment.
However, the main focus of schools and colleges has historically
been on short term attainment outcomes and less on long term
specific measures of future labour market success.
To address this gap, the Edge Foundation commissioned the
National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to conduct a
study to investigate whether existing data could help identify
new measures which provide schools and colleges with information
about the longer-term destinations of their former students.
As well as providing insights into where young people progress to
after post-16 education, the research finds that the institution
at which a young person studies their post-16 qualifications is
associated with having a small but significant impact on their
longer-term earnings and employment outcomes.
This suggests that longer-term destination measures could have
the potential, as part of a broad basket of measures, to inform
school and college approaches towards supporting their pupils to
achieve better labour market outcomes.
Other findings from NFER’s investigation include:
- Context should be taken into account when understanding and
interpreting destination measures, as young people’s progression
pathways systematically differ based on their background
characteristics.
- To illustrate, a young person’s destination varies
significantly based on their performance by the age of 16. For
the 2003/04 post-16 cohort, young people who achieved five A*-C
in their GCSEs were a third more likely to be in sustained
employment[i] and over five
times less likely to be on benefits at age 25 compared to young
people who did not achieve five A*-C in their GCSEs.
- Most young people are not in a sustained employment
destination until their mid-20s. Schools and colleges should
therefore consider their destination outcomes across a number of
different points in time.
The potential value of longer-term destination measures could
improve going forward as existing data sources improve.
Recommendations
- Work is undertaken with schools and colleges to develop best
practice for using destination measures to help young people
achieve better labour market outcomes.
- Improve the longer-term destination measures information made
available to schools and colleges at post-16 to help inform
practice in supporting young people to achieve better future
outcomes.
- Target additional transitional support to schools and
colleges with high densities of young people who are at risk of
falling out of the labour market.
Commenting on the report Alice Barnard, CEO of the Edge
Foundation, said:
“So often, educational success is measured using short-term
metrics like exam results and league tables. While these offer
snapshots of a moment in time, they also provide an incomplete
and therefore potentially misleading picture. It is imperative
that the government starts to leverage longer-term destination
information to support schools and colleges in ensuring their
young people are supported in achieving their best for the longer
term.”
Jude Hillary, report author and head of Optimal Pathways and
Systems at NFER said:
“Our research shows that there is potential for developing
longer-term destination measures to help schools and colleges
better understand how they are preparing young people for the
future labour market. Policymakers should look to improve the
longer-term destination measures available to schools and
colleges at post-16 and work with schools and college leaders to
develop best practice.”
ENDS
[i] An
individual is considered to be in sustained employment if they
are in employment for at least one day per month over a 12-month
period.
