Information for participants

​Who is invited to the surveys?​​​​

The Year 12 Completers survey invites students from Queensland state, Catholic and independent schools and TAFE secondary colleges who completed Year 12 in the previous year. This includes international students. This presentation​ provides an overview of the Year 12 Completers survey.

The Early School Leavers survey invites students from Queensland state schools who left during Year 10 or 11 or before completing Year 12 in the previous year.

We do our best to make sure our invitation list is correct at the time we prepare the survey, but sometimes we accidentally include extra students. If you think we made a mistake inviting you to the survey or you don’t want to do the survey, that is okay. Please let us know by emailing nextstep@qed.qld.gov.au​ and we can remove you from the survey so you don’t get further reminders.

How did you get my contact details?​

Contact details for former students are sourced from state school enrolment records and/or their learning account with the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. Contact information is provided to the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office (QGSO) under the Statistical Returns Act 1896 (Qld) (the Act).

The QGSO conducts the survey fieldwork on behalf of the department and Minister for Education. Only de-identified information is provided back to the department.

How will you contact me?​

You could be contacted by any of these ways:

• a letter in the mail from the Minister for Education with a link to do the survey online
  
• an email or SMS reminder with a link to do the survey online
  
• a phone call and opportunity to do the survey over the phone.

Why should I do the survey?​

All Year 12 completers who complete the survey go into a draw for a chance to win 1 of several prizes. Refer to the terms and conditions for more information.

Your responses provide important information that helps us understand the pathways and challenges students face in their first year after school. Your responses help:

• future students, parents and the wider community to understand the range of options available to students
  
• schools to improve their services especially for senior students
  
• school systems to better support students into work and further study
• training bodies, universities, business and industry, local government and regional planners to plan their services.
  

What questions will I be asked?

It’s a short survey and should only take about 5 minutes.

• If you are working, we’ll ask for your occupation, industry, weekly hours worked, if you are casual and if you are doing an apprenticeship or traineeship.
  
• If you’re not working, we’ll ask about any previous work and if you are looking for work. We’ll also ask what challenges you are facing in finding work or why you are not looking for work at the moment.
  
• If you are studying, we’ll ask for the name of your course, level of the qualification, where you are studying and if it is full-time or part-time.
  
• If you are not studying, we’ll ask why you are not doing further study at the moment. We’ll also ask if you are taking a gap year or deferred tertiary study and what your priorities are afterwards if you completed Year 12.
  
• If you didn’t complete Year 12, we’ll ask you why you left.
  

When do the surveys take place?​​

The Year 12 Completers survey is conducted between March and June each year and results are released during Term 4. The Early School Leavers survey is conducted between August and September and results are released during Term 1 the following year.

Will my individual survey answers be passed on to my old school?​​

No, answers of all students from the same school are combined and summarised before they are provided to the school. If there are not enough responses, we will withhold results to make sure individuals can’t be identified.

How do you look after my privacy?​

Responses to the surveys are kept strictly confidential. The information collected by the QGSO is protected by the Act. Legal penalties apply to anyone who releases responses in a way that identifies that person. The QGSO is committed to conducting statistical surveys in a prompt, confidential and courteous manner. It employs a team of trained survey interviewers based in Brisbane. Refer to QGSO's research and survey participation page​ ​for further details.

Can additional feedback be provided on the survey?

The Next Step Survey gathers feedback on targeted focus areas to inform continuous improvement at the school and system levels. The survey is not designed to collect information of a specific nature through open text fields.

Should you have more specific feedback or concerns about your school or the schooling system, we recommend the following approach.

1. Contact your school—school contact details are available by phoning 13 QGOV (13 74 68) or searching the Schools Directory.
2. Contact your school’s regional office if you feel uncomfortable raising your concerns directly with your school. You can find your school’s regional office on the Schools Directory.
   
3. If you have a specific complaint (PDF, 1.4MB) and all other avenues of enquiry have been exhausted, the department’s complaints process​ can be followed.