Post-school labour-market outcomes of school-based NCEA

This report presents some basic statistics on what happens to school leavers in the first few years after school and what difference school-based NCEA makes on post-school labour market outcomes.

Youth activity graphs Updated: October 2025

Yearly snapshots of participation in post-compulsory education and training by young people 2021-2024

The intent of these graphics is to provide an indicative annual snapshot of the proportions of young people aged 16 to 24 years participating in different types of education and in work in New Zealand. They illustrate the differences in distribution of young New Zealanders through the education system and the labour market by age, ethnicity, and gender at points in time.

If you are interested instead in research that follows cohorts of school leavers in the years after they leave school, including the proportion that go overseas, or if you want to view the tertiary education indicator for school leaver destinations, see the links under the Related Pages section.

Below the graphics are notes explaining how the graphics were created and identifying the data sources and data limitations. There are also definitions for the different activity types. Because the graphics combine administrative and survey-based data and because of possible double counting in the education data, they should be treated as indicative only.

Key results for 2024:

• In 2024, on average across the year, 67 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds were participating in education and 20 percent were in employment (and not in education), with the remaining 12 percent not in employment, education or training (NEET). Fifty-five percent of 20- to 24-year-olds were in employment (and not in education) and 29 percent in education, with 16 percent NEET, which includes 3.1 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds who were NEET while being caregivers.
• A greater proportion of 20- to 24-year-old men were in employment (and not in education) in 2024 than women. Among those who were in education, men participated more in workplace-based training in both age-groups. Women had higher proportions in other forms of education.
• For Māori in both age groups, and for Pacific Peoples aged 20 to 24 years, lower-than-average participation in education is associated with higher rates of NEET, while proportions in employment are closer to the overall rates.

Figure 1: Participation by young people in education, training and employment, 2021-2024, interactive graph

Time series: School leaver destinations Updated: August 2025

This spreadsheet provides numbers and percentages of school leavers by range of dimensions (such as region, school authority, ethnicity) across time in a simple, easy to use format.

School leaver destinations technical notes

The measure

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for school leavers

School leavers are students that permanently left school to enter the workforce and/or undertake further education and training outside of the compulsory schooling system from 1 March for given year to the last day of February the following year (inclusive). School leavers are identified using ENROL. Students counted as school leavers are:

• Domestic students who were aged less than 19 in their first enrolment in ENROL; including alternative education students, students 16 or over on 1 March for given year and students attending teen parent units.
• Students with leave reason ‘end of schooling’ or ‘early leaving exemption’
• Students with leave reason ‘transferred to another school in New Zealand’ or ‘transferred to home schooling’ but did not reenrol in another school according to ENROL
• Students with leave reason ‘gone overseas permanently’, who meet the age criteria

This excludes:

• Returning adult students (aged 19 or more) with a year gap in their attendance
• Exchange and International fee-paying students
• Students who successfully transferred to another school in New Zealand or to home schooling
• Deceased students

Alternative education students are counted with the school that enrolled them in alternative education, this may not be the school that manages their enrolment while they are in alternative education. This is to reflect that the enrolling school is responsible for ensuring the students’ education needs are met.

School leavers are counted under the last school they attended for at least 70 days. If they did not attend a school for 70 days within the school leaver year, then they are included under a ‘transitory leaver’ group.

Interpretation issues

The indicator is constructed from a matched database of school enrolment records, student achievement data from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and tertiary enrolments in formal provider-based study, industry training and targeted training programmes.

A student is considered to progress directly from school to tertiary if they enrol in tertiary in the same year or the year after their last year at school.

Tertiary information is based on tertiary enrolments in formal provider-based study, industry training and targeted training programmes.

Data excludes those Private Training Establishments (PTEs) which neither received tuition subsidies/targeted training funding nor were approved for student loans or allowances.

The highest tertiary qualification level a student is enrolled in is used. If the student has enrolled in two different qualification levels the highest is taken.

Total response ethnicity

Total response ethnicity is when people who have been identified in more than one ethnic group have been counted in each ethnic group. For the New Zealand total, individuals are counted only once. Total response ethnicity has been used for all ethnic group analysis in this indicator.

For this indicator European/Pākehā refers to people who affiliate as New Zealand European, Other European or European (not further defined). For example, this includes and is not limited to people who consider themselves as Australian (excluding Australian Aborigines), British and Irish, American, Spanish, and Ukrainian.