Term	Post-School Qualification - 2001 Census
Synonym
Related Term
Source of Definition
Short Definition
Statistical Activity	Population Census

Definition

Variable name:	Post-school qualification
Definition:	Highest post-school qualification is the highest qualification gained, apart from school qualifications, and is collected for people aged 15 years and over. Included are qualifications awarded by training and educational institutions as well as those gained from on the job training. Post-school qualifications data is produced by category of attainment and by field of study. A qualification is a formally recognised award for attainment resulting from a full-time (20 hours per week) learning course of at least three months, or from part-time study for an equivalent period of time or from on the job training. Formal recognition means that the qualification is: awarded under the auspices of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), ie by a registered qualifications provider; or awarded by a publicly recognised New Zealand authority of a profession, academic discipline or trade; or awarded by a New Zealand recognised overseas authority of a profession, academic discipline or trade. Category of attainment is an indication of the amount and type of learning required to gain a qualification. The amount of learning is the total learning time usually necessary to obtain a qualification. Included are any previous learning or educational attainment required for admission to the educational course leading to the qualification and the amount of learning time necessary to complete the qualification. The type of learning is the blend of theoretical knowledge and understanding and the attainment of practical skills. For example, academic qualifications have greater theoretical content than vocational qualifications; vocational qualifications have a greater applied skills content than do academic qualifications.
Questionnaire:	Individual form question 24
Subject population:	Census Usually Resident Population Count aged 15 years and over.
Non-response:	Post-school qualification: 1996 = 9.0% 2001 = 15.0%
Quality level:	Post-school qualification is a defining variable.
Comparability with previous census data:	There have been changes in the census question on post-school qualifications and the associated classification for each of the last three census years. Between 1991 and 1996 the classification changed from being a mixture of category of attainment and field of study in 1991, to having separate classification components for category of attainment and field of study in 1996 and 2001. Extreme care should be taken when comparing data between 1991 and 1996/01. Between 1996 and 2001 the field of study component of the classification changed. It is not possible to directly compare field of study data between these two periods.
Things to be aware of:	Users should be aware of the classification changes as noted above. Also note that there are a large number of 'not stated' responses for post-school qualifications.: People object to answering this question when they do not have a post-school qualification, therefore users should be wary when doing detailed analysis of post-school qualifications for people who tend not to have post-school qualifications. In 1996 people were asked to give their two highest post-school qualifications. The variables 'first tertiary qualification' and 'second tertiary qualifiation' have not been sorted into highest and second highest. The words 'first' and 'second' refer to the order the qualifications were collected in the questionnaire.
	If help is required with using this variable, email us on info@stats.govt.nz or phone 0508 525 525

Example