All school leavers fact sheet
This report was originally published 26 October 2021.

This fact sheet provides a high-level overview of findings from the 2020 NSW Post-School Destinations and Experiences Survey relating to all school leavers, including early school leavers and Year 12 completers.
In 2020, a total of 24,843 school leavers completed the survey.
Post-school destinations of all school leavers in 2020
In 2020, 86.0% of all school leavers were in education, training or employment. The remainder were either looking for work or not in the labour force, education or training.

The proportion of recent school leavers involved in higher education, training or employment has decreased since 2014.

Changes in all school leavers’ post-school destinations over time
34.2% Bachelor |
5.4% VET Cert IV+ |
3.7% VET Cert III |
1.4% VET Cert I-II |
10.4% Apprenticeship |
---|---|---|---|---|
▼ down 7.3 percentage points since 2014 | ▼ down 2.1 percentage points since 2014 | ▲ up 0.6 percentage points since 2014 | ▼ down 1.5 percentage points since 2014 | ▲ up 1.0 percentage points since 2014 |
4.4% Traineeship | 8.0% Full-time work |
18.5% Part-time work |
10% Looking for work |
4% NILFET |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|
▼ down 0.5 percentage points since 2014 | ▲ up 1.1 percentage points since 2014 | ▲ up 6.1 percentage points since 2014 | ▲ up 2.0 percentage points since 2014 | ▲ up 0.6 percentage points since 2014 |
Top 3 areas of education school leavers enter post-school:
- Business and management (5.9%)
- Building (5.9%)
- Teacher education (5.6%).
Top 3 post-school work roles for school leavers:
- Sales assistants and salespersons (18.3%)
- Hospitality workers (14.7%)
- Storepersons (8.2%).
What are the subgroup differences in destinations?
Females more likely to be in a:
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Males more likely to be in an:
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Recent school leavers who speak a language other than English at home more likely to be in a:
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Recent school leavers who do not speak a language other than English at home more likely to be in a:
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Recent school leavers with higher parental SES* more likely to be in a:
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Recent school leavers with lower parental SES more likely to be in a:
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Recent school leavers living in Greater Sydney more likely to be in a:
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Recent school leavers living in the Rest of NSW more likely to be in a:
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Aboriginal recent school leavers more likely to be in a:
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Non-Aboriginal recent school leavers more likely to be in a:
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* SES means socio-economic status.
* NILFET means not in the labour force, education or training.