Education and Skills Impact Framework (ESIF) - college provision: contextual summary report 2022

Context

Student Characteristics

This section sets out the characteristics of students enrolled on qualifications considered in this analysis. Figures are provided for academic year 2020-21. This reporting period was impacted by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic which presented a unique and significant external shock to the further and higher education systems in Scotland.

The largest group of students for most qualification groups is those aged 21 or under at 49.2%, however a substantial group of learners for each qualification group are aged 22-30 or 31+ (20.8%, 30.0%). Table 3 contains Scottish-domiciled enrolments in 2020-21 by qualification and age group.

In academic year 2020-21, 95,015 students were men (47.7%), while 102,950 were women (51.6%). This balance is mainly due to the high proportion of women in the larger other undergraduate group. When excluding this group 49.8% of students were men and 49.5% were women.

As of July 2021, 1.5% of children in Scotland were looked after or on the child protection register (Scottish Government, 2022). These students are likely to leave secondary education earlier, with fewer qualifications and are less likely to achieve a positive destination. In AY 2020-21, 3.6% of full-time higher education (HE) and 9.6% of full-time further education (FE) students at college had care experience. College provides a pathway for these students to access further and higher education at any point in life. Care experience varies within the groups considered, with SCQF groups 4 & 5 having especially high proportions of care experienced enrolments relative to other groups (Table 4).

Of similar note are the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles of students in these groupings. In total 24.3% of students considered are from the 20% most deprived areas. By contrast students from the 20% least deprived areas are underrepresented at 14.7%. Looking at the numbers by level of study it is clear that this pattern is exaggerated at lower SCQF levels, with students from the 20% most deprived areas making up 30% of enrolments to SCQF level 4 courses. These students are over-represented in subsequent qualification group until SCQF 7, with the proportion falling to approximate parity at this point.

Social and Wellbeing Impacts

It is widely recognised that education can have benefits beyond earnings and employment. Such benefits may include improved health outcomes, greater social mobility, increased civic engagement and reduced crime (BIS, 2013). Other notable benefits from post-school education include greater job satisfaction, increased community engagement (DfE, 2019). These benefits are particularly important for lower-level qualifications where individuals may face multiple challenges and originate from more deprived backgrounds.

In order to more fully understand the non-economic benefits resulting from education, a social returns workstream investigated the relationship between education and wellbeing, a non- economic outcome associated with a wide range of other positive outcomes.

Research

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the social and wellbeing workstream focused on measuring individual wellbeing using already available datasets: the Annual Population Survey, the Apprentice Wellbeing Survey and the Graduate Outcomes Survey. Datasets were restricted to individuals who hold a Scottish school-level qualification, and a regression analysis carried out to identify marginal wellbeing returns across different learner groups and qualification types.

All findings are associations – it was not possible to determine if education itself caused improvements in wellbeing.

Findings

Analysis suggests that possessing any form of qualification is associated with reporting higher levels of personal wellbeing. Respondents with no qualifications at all consistently reported lower wellbeing than the Scottish average.

Overall, the findings suggest that there is a relationship between acquiring qualifications and individual wellbeing, however further work is needed to understand if the changes in wellbeing can be attributed to education.

Next Steps

Investigating non-economic impacts of education is at an early stage, however these initial findings are a first step in recognising education gives value beyond that captured in wages and employment status. The research to date provides the building blocks for possible future work to support decisions that take a wider definition of value into account.

Short-term Outcomes and Average Earnings

This section summarises existing information on earnings and employment outcomes associated with the completion of qualifications at Scottish colleges, from the individual perspective.

College Short-term Outcomes

Outcomes for full-time college leavers are captured through the SFC’s College Leavers Destinations Survey (SFC, 2021).

The latest set of data reflect outcomes for students studying in academic year 2019-20. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there was a large degree of disruption both to education and the labour market. This is understood to have affected outcomes for leavers. Of the qualifiers leaving the college sector in AY 2019-20:

• 46.9% went on to further study at university
• 9.7% were looking for work
• In total 84.4% achieved positive destinations

For students qualifying from courses at SCQF levels 7+, such as HNC and HND:

• 58.8% went on to further study at university
• 31.5% secured employment
• 6.5% were looking for work
• In total 90.3% achieved positive destinations

College Earnings Outcomes

The Scottish Government’s Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) from Colleges experimental statistics release (2019) provides median earnings following completion of a full-time course at college. Data is disaggregated into FE students and to HNC and HND students.

Disaggregated data to match the full other undergraduate group is not available. The latest published data describes outcomes for students completing their studies in AY 2012-13. These individuals are observed early in their post qualification careers and may not yet be receiving the full benefit of their qualification. Three years after completing their qualification:

• FE students in sustained employment had median earnings of £13,800
• Students who completed a HNC or HND had median earnings of £15,600

For both FE and HE students a clear gap was present in median earnings by sex:

• Men who studied Full-time further education qualifications had median earnings £2,600 more than women with the same qualification, three years after completion
• Men with a HNC or HND qualification had median earnings £2,200 more than women with the same qualification, three years after completion