This report investigates the effect of post-secondary education and training on the occupation and earnings of young people. The majority of young Australians undertake further education and training after leaving school; understanding the pathways that they follow, and the impact of different types of experience on the early career can help young people in choosing appropriate programs, assist policy makers in identifying resource priorities, and contribute to debates about the role of education in promoting social mobility and economic development. The data analysed are from a sample of young people who were first interviewed when they were in Year 9 in 1995 and subsequently interviewed annually. This report analyses annual data collected up until 2005 when they were, on average, 24 years of age. The report examined the occupational status of jobs and weekly earnings by type of post-school education and training. Occupational status provides a summary measure of occupations based on job status or prestige, while earnings measure the financial reward from work. For these two outcomes, two sets of analyses were performed. The first focused on the effects of participation in, and completion of, post-secondary education and training on occupational status and earnings. The second set focused on "trajectories," (whether post-secondary education and training influences the pattern of occupational status and earnings in the years after participation or completion.) The types of post-school education and training analysed were apprenticeships, traineeships, technical and further education (TAFE) certificates, TAFE diplomas, university diplomas, university degrees, post-graduate degrees and other qualifications comprising primarily courses run by private providers. Multi-level regression analyses provides estimates of the effects of participation in and qualifications from post-secondary education and training on occupational status and earnings net of the effects of other influences, such as prior labour market experiences of work and unemployment, literacy and numeracy, school type, socioeconomic background and ethnicity. These estimates are based on person-year data from all waves on the longitudinal study, minimising biases that may result from sample attrition. Overall results provide a positive message for education and training. In general, post-school education and training leads to higher status occupations and, in particular, higher earnings compared to not doing any further study or training. These benefits of education and training are stronger for young women than young men for those who enroll in bachelor degrees, although the gender effect works in the other direction for apprenticeships. Results indicate that social background plays a small role in accounting for differences in occupational status and earnings, indicating that education is enhancing social mobility. Not all forms of post-secondary education and training are equally beneficial, at least in terms of the measures of occupation and earnings used in this report: apprenticeships and university degrees tend to have stronger effects on earnings and occupations than other forms of post-secondary education and training at an early stage of young people's careers. This variability suggests that there needs to be continuing attention to the relationship between the knowledge and skills produced through different forms of education and training and those required by the labour market. It also suggests the need for continuing emphasis on career guidance and counselling to help young people choose the programs most appropriate to their interests and needs. An appendix details the measures used in the report. (Contains 1 footnote, 4 figures, and 28 tables.) [This report forms part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth analytical program conducted by ACER under contract to the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), now Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).]