This field indicates the learner’s employment status.

An Employment Status record must be returned for Education Funding Agency (EFA) funded learners on part time programmes of study (where the learner’s total Planned hours is less than 540 hours in the teaching year). You must return complete data and must only return 'not known' in exceptional circumstances as the Employment Status field is required for ESF match funding.

If code 10 ‘In paid employment’ or code 11 ‘Not in paid employment and looking for work and available to start work’ is returned, Employment Status Monitoring fields should be returned with the relevant EmploymentStatusMonitoring.ESMTYPE.

Code 10 'In paid employment': Learners who have been in paid work prior to starting the learning aim or programme or who are temporarily away from a job (for example, on holiday). Also counted as in paid employment are people on government-supported training schemes and people who do unpaid work for their family’s business.

Code 11 'Not in paid employment and looking for work and available to start work': Learners who have not been in paid work prior to starting the learning aim or programme, who are without a job, want a job, have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next 2 weeks, or have found a job and are waiting to start it.

Please view The Individualised Learner Record (ILR) specification for more details.

To monitor economic activity of learners, support delivery of programmes for the unemployed and establish eligibility for ESF and EFA funded programmes.