This publication was formerly known as ‘Further education outcome-based success measures’ (OBSM). Although the name has been amended for clarity, the content of the publication remains unchanged.
What are further education outcomes and what do they cover?
Further education outcomes (FEO) shows the percentage of further education learners going to or remaining in an education and/or employment destination in the academic year after achieving their learning aim. The most recent data reports on learners who achieved their aim in the 2021/22 academic year, and identifies their education and/or employment destinations the following year (2022/23).
FEO also includes estimates on the earnings outcomes of learners who achieved a Full Level 2, Full Level 3 or Level 4+ qualification and have an earnings record, a record of sustained employment and no record of further study at a Higher Education institution within the earning year.
This publication reports outcomes by various learner demographics and type and level of learning. Where a learner achieves more than one aim at the same provider within an academic year, the outcomes for the learner are reported against the highest and latest aim within that year. For example, if a learner achieves an aim at Level 2, and a separate Full Level 3 aim in the same academic year at the same provider, their destinations will be reported against the Full Level 3 aim. Full Level 2 and Full Level 3 are counted as higher than other Level 2 and Level 3 aims respectively, and apprenticeship aims are prioritised over education and training aims.
What data is used?
The Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset is used, which looks at how learners move through education and into the labour market by bringing together:
- schools, further and higher education information from the Department for Education (DfE)
- employment information from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
- benefit histories from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)
All learner counts reported here relate to those learners for whom a match was found in the LEO data, therefore the counts will not match headline achievements in the FE & Skills National Statistics release.
What further data is available?
In addition to the headline measures presented in this publication, further data is available on detailed destination, earnings and progression measures broken down by geographic areas, provider, learner demographics, type/level of learning completed and qualification title.
A number of detailed breakdowns using this data have been signposted throughout the publication, and can also be accessed using the table builder tool which allows users to build custom tables. Alternatively, the underlying data files themselves can be downloaded from the ‘Data catalogue' section above.
The outcomes reported in the commentary are presented as raw figures. They do not seek to control for differences in learner characteristics that may influence outcomes over time or across different learner populations.
Rounding and suppression
Full details on rounding and suppression are available in the accompanying methodology document.
Any percentage point (ppt) changes reported that appear to mismatch the percentages provided in the charts and tables are due to rounding conventions. The use of rounding and suppression may also mean that some charts do not appear to add up to 100%.