Longitudinal education outcomes (LEO) from Scottish colleges: 2016-2017

Annex E: Glossary

Tax year: Runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year. For example the 2016/17 tax year ran from 6 April 2016 to 5 April 2017.

College completers: Individuals who complete college with a successful outcome. This means the individual completed the course and was assessed as successful, or they completed the first year of an HND but chose to leave with an HNC.

Superclass grouping: Groups college courses that cover similar subjects into broad categories. For example, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Welding/Joining are all grouped under the superclass grouping of 'Engineering'

Further information on superclass groupings is available on the SFC website: http://www.sfc.ac.uk/

Higher Education: Higher education is advanced learning that is delivered across colleges and universities in Scotland. In this release only Higher National Certificates (HNC) and Higher National Diplomas (HND) are included.

Nominal earnings: Nominal earnings represent the cash amount an individual was paid. They are not adjusted for inflation (the general increase in the price of goods and services).

PAYE: HMRC's system to collect Income Tax and National Insurance from employment. The LEO project uses information from the P45 to ascertain employment spell length and from the P14 (P60) to determine annual earnings.

Self-assessment: Self-assessment data captures the activity of individuals with income that is not taxed through PAYE, such as income from self-employment, savings and investments, property rental, and shares.

Sustained annualised earnings: The calculated average daily wage across the tax year grossed up to the equivalent annual figure.

Total earnings: The total of annualised PAYE earnings and raw self-assessed earnings.