School leavers: People who have left secondary school. Data is captured in the first year after leaving school.
Youth Guarantee: Youth Guarantee fees free tertiary programmes provide 16-19-year-olds who have left school with opportunities to study towards NCEA or equivalent qualifications at tertiary providers free-of-charge.
Data calculation/treatment
Tertiary information is based on tertiary enrolments in formal provider-based study, industry training and targeted training programmes.
Data for formal tertiary enrolments at a tertiary education provider relates to students enrolled at any time during the year with a tertiary education provider in formal qualifications of greater than 0.03 EFTS.
The highest tertiary qualification level is used, if the student has enrolled in two different tertiary qualification levels the highest is taken.
Students who identified in more than one ethnic group have been counted in each ethnic group.
Private Training Establishments (PTEs) which neither received tuition subsidies/targeted training funding nor were approved for student loans or allowances.
At URL provided, select 'Time series: School leaver destinations (2015-2025)' from the 'Time Series: School leaver destinations' section. Figure.NZ edited the file for processing purposes.
From the dataset School Leavers: Time Series Data School Leavers Destinations 2025, this data was extracted:
Sheet: 1. Gender-Ethnicity by Qual Lev
Range: D4:L102
Provided: 891 data points
Dataset originally released on:
July 2026
About this dataset
This dataset is about the destination of school leavers after leaving secondary school.
Purpose of collection
The tertiary education sector is a diverse sector. Its scope ranges from informal non-assessed community courses in schools through to undergraduate degrees and advanced research-based postgraduate degrees. It provides pathways for a diverse range of learners, from school leavers to workers, the unemployed to students from overseas, and to those pursuing an interest, hobby or more social interaction. This indicator focuses on recent school leavers.
New enrolments in tertiary education are indicators of the extent to which New Zealanders are developing the skills needed for a modern knowledge economy. To achieve this goal, clear pathways to assist young people making the direct transition from school to tertiary level study must be developed and maintained.