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Further education and training can assist beneficiaries to gain skills, improve their chances of gaining employment and reduce long-term benefit dependence. This study examines the impact of undertaking further education on beneficiaries' labour market outcomes. It focuses on those who had been receiving a benefit for at least six months when they newly enrolled at a tertiary institution over the period 2003-2005 and their outcomes five years later. Some results for those who started studying in 2008-2010 and outcomes one to three years later are also included. The study addresses the following questions: What impact does participating in further education have on beneficiaries' outcomes? What impact does completing a qualification have on beneficiaries' outcomes? How do these vary by level and field of study and the demographic characteristics of participants? A range of outcomes are considered, including subsequent employment, earnings and receipt of income support.

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The Youth Service is a programme administered by the [New Zealand] Ministry of Social Development, designed to encourage and assist disadvantaged youth to stay in education and achieve qualifications. There are three main strands of the programme. The Youth Service (YS) is provided to recipients of the Youth Payment (YP) and Young Parent Payment (YPP) benefits, while the YS:NEET [not in employment, education or training] service is aimed at disadvantaged young people at risk of becoming detached from employment, education and training. This report focusses on the YP and YPP strands. Community organisations are contracted to provide mentoring and support for youth participating in the service. This is complemented by other changes to youth benefits intended to encourage continued study, including; obligations to participate in the service and in formal study, financial incentives, sanctions for failing to meet obligations, and access to childcare payments.

This paper evaluates the impact of the programme on the educational retention, qualification achievement, benefit receipt, and employment rates of participating youth in the 24 to 30 months after they come onto benefit. Administrative data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) is used to measure outcomes. The impacts of the programme are estimated by comparing the outcomes of participants with those of an historical comparison group of youth beneficiaries. This comparison is adjusted to control for other changes over time that could have affected outcomes, using two matched comparison groups of similar young people who were not receiving a youth benefit. Results from the study should be treated with some caution, as they are reliant on a number of assumptions which could not be empirically tested. While [the authors] believe these results represent the best that can be done to get at the true impact of the programme, the results may not be robust if the assumptions do not hold.

[The authors] find that YS raises enrolment in formal education for young beneficiaries, relative to the previous youth beneficiary case management approach, with the effect being largely sustained over a two-year period for young parents, and a shorter period for other youth beneficiaries. The proportion of YP recipients who complete a level 1 or 2 qualification is raised slightly through participation in the programme, while the impact for young parents occurs slightly later, is larger, and occurs at levels 1, 2 and 3. Participation in the programme appears to raise subsequent benefit receipt rates in the short term, but there is some evidence that it encourages a move off benefit and into work in the medium term (24 to 30 months after starting benefit), especially for YPP participants.

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This study examines the impacts of post-school education on the labour market outcomes of young people who leave school with few qualifications. Specifically, it estimates the effects of tertiary study on the employment rates, benefit receipt rates and earnings of young people who left school without completing [National Certificate of Educational Achievement] NCEA level 2, who enrolled at a tertiary institution while they were aged 16-19. The benefits of the further education are measured by comparing the students' post-study outcomes with those of matched comparison groups of other poorly qualified school leavers who did not undertake any tertiary education. [The authors] find that enrolling in a level 1-3 or level 4 certificate programme had a small positive impact on the employment of low-qualified school leavers, raising their employment rate by 3.4 percentage points on average, two years after they ceased studying. However, the benefits of tertiary study were confined to the 44 per cent of students who completed a qualification and were not experienced by non-completers. Students who completed a level 1-3 certificate were 8.5 percentage points more likely to be employed and 6.4 percentage points less likely to be receiving a benefit than their matched comparisons two years after finishing. Slightly larger benefits were experienced by those who completed a qualification at level 4 or higher. The size of the employment impacts associated with gaining a qualification varied by gender and ethnicity, the type of tertiary provider and the subject area of the qualification. There was no evidence that tertiary study had a significant impact on participants' level of earnings, after controlling for their employment status.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

'The impact of tertiary study on the labour market outcomes of low-qualified school leavers: an update' was published in 2018 and is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 133.860. Show less

A growing number of adults have been participating in industry training and gaining new qualifications. This paper investigates the labour market benefits that were obtained by working adults aged 20-64 who trained during 2003-2008. The study focuses on people who were employed both before and after their spell of training and uses longitudinal administrative data from the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary Education data set to estimate the impact of training on their subsequent average monthly earnings.

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In recent years, workplace-based industry training has been growing at a faster rate than other forms of tertiary education and training. Government and industry have substantially increased their investments in industry training. However, there is not much information available on whether training improves participants’ skills, productivity, and labour market outcomes. In this paper, we examine the labour market outcomes of employees who left industry training during 2003-05. We use a new dataset constructed for the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary Education (EOTE) feasibility study [indexed at TD/TNC 97.933], Statistics New Zealand 2009, that assessed whether tertiary education and training data could be linked to Statistics New Zealand’s Linked-Employer Employee Dataset (LEED).

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This paper is an update of a previous study by Treasury (Tumen et al, 2015) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 121.519]. It assesses the impacts of post-school education on the labour market outcomes of young people who leave school without the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 qualification. Specifically, it estimates the effects of low-level tertiary study on the employment rates, benefit receipt rates and earnings of young people who left school without completing NCEA level 2 and then enrolled at a tertiary institution while they were aged 15-21. The benefits of the further education are measured by comparing the students' post-study outcomes with those of matched comparison groups of other young people who also left school without NCEA level 2 but did not undertake any tertiary education. The current study differs from the previous one in that we allow the students in our study population a longer time period in which to start and complete their tertiary study and track their outcomes for a greater number of years after completion.

The findings are similar to the findings of the previous study. Just over half (51 per cent) of those who enrolled in a level 1-4 certificate programme had achieved a qualification by the time they were 22 years of age. Three years after finishing, the students who completed a qualification were 9.1 percentage points more likely to be employed and 4.8 percentage points less likely to be receiving a benefit than their matched comparisons. Five years after finishing, they were 9.2 percentage points more likely to be employed and 5.9 percentage points less likely to be on a benefit than their matched comparisons. While completion of a tertiary qualification was associated with positive employment impacts, we find no evidence of positive impacts on participants' level of earnings, after controlling for their employment status. In addition, the employment benefits of tertiary study were confined to the students who completed a qualification and were not experienced by the 49 per cent who did not.

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A growing number of adults have been enrolling in tertiary education to gain new qualifications. This paper investigates the labour market benefits that were obtained by working adults aged 25 to 64 years, who enrolled with a tertiary education provider and completed a certificate or diploma at levels 1-6, from 2003 to 2005. We focus on people who were employed both before and after their spell of tertiary study and use longitudinal administrative data from the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary Education (EOTE) dataset to estimate the impact of education on their subsequent growth in average monthly earnings. We use a difference-in-difference approach and compare the earnings changes experienced by the study group members over the pre-study to post-study period, with the earnings changes experienced by a matched comparison group of working adults who did not return to education. Students who completed a level 1-3 or level 4 certificate generally did not increase their earnings relative to the comparison group. However, earnings benefits were gained by students who completed a certificate in a small number of fields of study. On average, diplomas were associated with earnings benefits for women but not men. There were substantial variations by subject field, however, with diploma students in some fields experiencing substantial increases in their relative monthly earnings and those in other fields experiencing relative earnings losses or no effect. Overall, there was only limited evidence of beneficial impacts. Several factors may have contributed to this result. First, 60 per cent of the working adults in the study were already qualified at an equivalent or higher level, and so did not raise their educational attainment level by completing a new certificate or diploma. Second, many certificates and diplomas required the equivalent of one year or less of full-time study to complete. The absence of more significant labour market impacts may partly reflect the short duration of these qualifications.

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Youth Service: Not in Employment, Education or Training (or YS: NEET) is a [New Zealand] government programme designed to encourage and assist disadvantaged 16-17 year olds to stay in education or training and improve their qualification attainment. Community organisations are contracted to undertake needs assessments and provide mentoring and support for these youth. This paper evaluates the impact of the programme on the educational retention, qualification achievement, benefit receipt, inactivity and employment rates of participating youth in the 18-24 months after they enrol in YS: NEET. Administrative data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) is used to measure individuals' outcomes. The impacts of the programme are estimated by comparing the outcomes of participants with those of a matched comparison group of similar youth who did not participate.

[The authors] find that YS: NEET raises the educational retention of participants in the first year, by up to nine percentage points at peak. The proportion who complete a level 2 qualification is slightly raised, by around two percentage points. The programme appears to raise rather than lower participants' subsequent benefit receipt rates, and there is no improvement in their likelihood of being employed.

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