§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to answer of 13 May 2004, ref 171718, if he will make it his policy to publish data for 16 to 18-year-olds participating in education, training and employment by ethnic group. [174336]
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§ Mr. Ivan LewisAnnual population estimates are not available by ethnic group and hence the published participation rates for 16 to 18-year-olds in education, training and employment cannot be broken down by ethnic group, as they use population estimates as the denominator to calculate the percentages.
However, each of the separate sources used to produce the numbers of 16 to 18-year-olds in education and LSC funded work based learning (WBL) do publish information by ethnic group, though not specifically for the 16–18 ages. These are available on the departmental website for those in schools; in HE institutions; and in LSC funded further education and work based learning.
Information on the labour market status of young people comes from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which also supplies the numbers in non-college based employer funded training (EFT) and other education and training (OET). Due to sample sizes, LFS numbers cannot be broken down by ethnic group for single years of age.
Some information is also available on the Departmental website from the Youth Cohort Study, for single years of age. This is a sample survey of school pupils monitoring their transition from school to further (then higher) education or to the labour market and is not directly comparable with the participation rates.