Technical Notes
The data for the Higher Lever Apprenticeships at Further Education (FE) is sourced from The FE colleges Learner Management System and the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) administration system.
This publication reports on Department for the Economy (DfE) funded Higher Level Apprenticeships delivered through Further Education Colleges and the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE). All HLAs reported on in the publication are funded through Government training programmes.
The number of enrolments is simply a count of the number of enrolment records within the relevant data return.
The number of individual students for each academic year has been determined (using Student Reference and FE College as the unique identifier) within the specific academic year period.
Full-time provision consists of either: at least 15 hours and at least 7 sessions per week; or more than 21 hours per week, with no sessional requirement. All other mode of attendance options are regarded as part-time.
Regulated enrolments relate to courses at Level 3 or below that appear on the Register of Regulated Qualifications (RRQ), which contains qualifications on both the Qualifications and Credit Framework and the National Qualifications Framework or part of the Department’s Prescribed List of Approved Qualifications (PLAQ)/Access list) and Higher Education qualifications (‘Level 4 and above’).
From 2015/16, the dependant status yes refers to any enrolment where an individual student has declared a responsibility for either an adult, child or person with a disability (Table S1).
A student is categorised as being enrolled in a ‘Broad’ STEM subject if at least one of their enrolments is in a ‘Broad’ STEM course.
A student is categorised as being enrolled in a ‘Narrow’ STEM subject if at least one of their enrolments is in a ‘Narrow’ STEM course.
Narrow STEM is a subset of Broad STEM.
In academic year 2023/24, reporting for NINDM (2017), Parliamentary Constituency and LGD is only applicable to NI domiciled students. All students with unknown or invalid postcodes have been removed from this analysis.
Data Rounding
To prevent the identification of individuals, figures in the tables are rounded to the nearest 5, with 0, 1, 2 rounded to 0. Due to rounding the sum of numbers in each row or column may not match the total shown. Percentages are based on unrounded figures and have been rounded to the nearest whole percentage. New rounding and suppression approach (further education and essential skills) | Department for the Economy (economy-ni.gov.uk)
Parliamentary Constituency
Changes to boundaries - a new set of Parliamentary constituency boundaries was used for the 2024 general election in NI. Parliamentary Constituencies for academic year 2023/24 relate to the new 18 boundaries outlined in the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023 that came into force on 29th November 2023. Although boundaries changed, 17 of the 18 constituencies retained their name, with the only change being ‘Belfast South’ renamed as ‘Belfast South and Mid Down’.
Definitions
Academic Year
Each academic year period is defined by each FE College and potentially could differ across all six colleges. An academic year traditionally starts in August and finishes in July the following year.
Achievement rate
Achievement rate relates to the percentage of final year regulated enrolments completed by students who achieve a qualification. HLA achievement rate includes full achievers only. ‘Completers’ include any enrolments not classified as ‘Withdrawn’ or ‘Transferred’.
Achievement rate = Number of achievements/Number of completers
Age
Age is at 1st July of the previous academic year, based on the start date of the course.
Deprivation
The analysis presented in the publication utilises 5 groups or quintiles of Super Output Areas (SOAs), based on relative level of deprivation using the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure (NIMDM). Enrolments are assigned to SOAs using the postcodes provided on enrolment records.
For further details on deprivation measurement in Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure
Disability
Information on student disability is derived from individuals self reporting a disability. A student is regarded to have a disability if one of the impairment categories have been selected and presented within the return Note: 01 - 06 description changed from 2021/22.
01 - A specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or AD(H)D 02 - Blind or a serious visual impairment uncorrected by glasses 03 - Deaf or a serious hearing impairment 04 - A physical impairment or mobility issues, such as difficulty using arms or using a wheelchair or crutches 05 - A social/communication impairment such as Asperger’s syndrome/other autistic spectrum disorder 06 - A mental health condition, such as depression, schizophrenia or anxiety disorder 10 - None 11 - A long standing illness or health condition such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, chronic heart disease, or epilepsy 12- A disability, impairment or medical condition that is not listed above 97 - Not stated 98 - Prefer not to say 99 - Disability category not stated
Domicile
Students self report their country of domicile.
Final year enrolments
A student can enrol on a course that is multiple years in length but will only have the opportunity to achieve within the final year of that course.
Final year completers
Enrolments of students in their final year of a course who do not withdraw from their course are regarded as final year completers.
Final year achievements
Enrolments of students in their final year of a course who have completed the course and subsequently achieve are regarded as final year achievements. HLA achievements include full achievements only.
Further Education College
Higher Level Apprenticeships at FE colleges are an extract from overall FE Sector. Please refer to the link below for further detail about FE Colleges in Northern Ireland.
Level
If the enrolment is regulated, the level is derived from the Register of Regulated Qualifications (RRQ). If the enrolment is not part of the RRQ, the level is based on the information entered against the enrolment by the FE College.
Each regulated qualification has a level between entry level and Level 8. Qualifications at the same level typically have a similar level of demand or difficulty. The content and size of qualifications at the same level may be quite different.
For further information on comparing qualifications across the UK, RoI and overseas, click here.
Qualifications
Qualifications are counted for those final year enrolments in regulated courses at FE Colleges and CAFRE. An individual can fully achieve, partially achieve or fail their qualification. Full achievement is measured for the HLA programme.
Regulated
From academic year 2013/14, only those courses on the Register of Regulated Qualifications (RRQ) or DfE’s Prescribed List of Approved Non NQF/QCF Qualification (PLAQ) list (for Level 3 and below), or are Higher Education (HE) in FE courses (Level 4 and above), will be deemed as ‘regulated’ by the Department. Anything that falls outside this definition is not considered as ‘regulated’, regardless of whether it is considered to produce ‘outcomes’, for example, internal college certification.
Retention rate
Retention rate is defined as the percentage of final year regulated enrolments completed by students. The retention rate does not include any enrolments classified as ‘Transferred’.
Retention rate = Number of completers/Number of final year enrolments
Section 75 categories
Equality related data, such as religion brought up, disability and ethnicity, are self-reported by the student during the data capture process within FE colleges. This information is available within the supplementary tables S1 to S7. Dependent counts are based on individual questions, which is self-reported by the student, if they have any dependents which are adults, children or a person with a disability (Table S1).
Sector Subject Area
The Sector Subject Area (SSA) code is derived from the OFQUAL Register of Regulated Qualifications, which is based on the qualification or unit code. The SSA code registered against each qualification or unit has been assigned by the responsible awarding organisation. The SSAs were developed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) and the Department for Education and Skills (Wales), along with other key educational bodies according to industry sector and academic subject area. They aim to allow more consistent reporting of data across the UK.
Further information on SSAs is available at:
Ofqual -Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation
Sex
The term gender has been replaced by the term sex.
STEM
STEM provision is identified by the subject code entered by the FE College. If the subject code starts with a letter between A and K (that is, Medicine, Dentistry and Allied Subjects; Biological and Physical Sciences; Agriculture; Mathematics and IT; Engineering and Technology; and Architecture, Building and Planning), it is regarded as ‘Broad’ STEM. ‘Narrow’ STEM comprises those enrolment records with a subject code starting with a letter C, F, G, H or J (that is, Biological and Physical Sciences; Mathematics and IT; and Engineering and Technology).
Student
The number of students for each academic year has been determined (using Student Reference and FE College as the unique identifier) within the specific academic year period. The total number of students calculated over the entire time period, therefore, does not equal the summation of all individual students’ academic years. This is due to the fact an individual student may be enrolled in a number of academic years.
Success rate
Success rate is recognised as the overall measure of performance, which is the percentage of final year regulated enrolments of students who achieve a qualification.
Success rate = Number of achievements/Number of final year enrolments