Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 2: 2020 Edition

This statistical publication provides information on the educational attainment and initial destinations of 2018/19 school leavers from publicly funded schools in Scotland.

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Chapter 5: School Leaver Attainment and Destinations

  • School leavers with higher attainment levels are more likely to go on to a positive destination - 74.4 per cent of school leavers who did not achieve a pass at SCQF Level 3 or better entered a positive destination; this increases to 99.2 per cent of leavers who achieved at SCQF Level 7.

Table 8 shows that for school leavers whose highest qualification was at SCQF Level 5 the main destination is Further Education (50.7 per cent), while the majority of school leavers with one pass or more at SCQF Level 6 or 7 enter Higher Education.  

The most common destination for school leavers with no passes at SCQF Level 3 or better is Further Education (30.3 per cent), with a similar pattern present for those with SCQF Level 3 as their highest qualification (31.6 per cent).

Table 8: Percentage of school leavers by highest SCQF Level achieved and initial destinations category, 2018/191


Initial Destination
No passes at SCQF 3 or better SCQF
Level 3
SCQF
Level 4
SCQF
Level 5
SCQF
Level 6
SCQF
Level 7
Total
Higher Education 1.5 * * 3.4 55.1 86.8 40.3
Further Education 30.3 31.6 46.5 50.7 18.7 4.1 27.3
Traininga 19.4 18.7 * 4.1 0.9 * 3.5
Employment 17.4 17.9 25.6 35.1 22.8 7.2 22.9
Voluntary Work 1.0 1.0 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.8 0.6
Personal Skills Developmentb 4.8 * 1.2 0.5 0.1 * 0.5
Positive Destinations 74.4 72.8 86.3 94.1 98.1 99.2 95.0
Unemployed seeking 11.7 14.4 8.9 4.1 1.3 0.5 3.1
Unemployed Not Seeking 12.1 11.2 3.8 1.2 0.4 0.2 1.4
Unknown 1.8 1.6 1.0 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.4
Other Destinations 25.6 27.2 13.7 5.9 1.9 0.8 5.0
Number of Leavers 1,113 925 5,401 12,196 20,613 9,512 49,760

1. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding

* percentages based on less than 5 have been suppressed for disclosure and quality reasons.

a. For 2018/19, support previously recorded as Activity Agreements is recorded in the Training category. For more information see section 6.2.

b. There has been a change to the way in which Personal Skills Development activity is categorised in these statistics. For more information see section 6.1.

Contact

Email: andrew.white@gov.scot

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