Summary statistics for follow-up leaver destinations, no. 7: 2025 edition

Section 3. Comparing initial and follow-up destinations

Section 3.1 Initial and follow-up destinations

A school leaver’s follow-up destination, nine months after they leave school, can be different to their initial destination, three months after they leave school.

In 2023-24 the proportion of school leavers in a positive initial destination was 95.7 per cent (see the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 7: 2025 edition). A smaller proportion of school leavers were in a positive follow-up destination (93.1 per cent). It is not unusual to see a decrease between initial and follow-up destinations - the same pattern can be seen across all previous school leaver cohorts since consistent records began in 2009-10. However, the decrease between initial and follow-up positive destinations in 2023-24 is the second largest on record at around 2.6 percentage points.

In 2023-24, the largest reductions between initial and follow-up destinations were in Further Education and Higher Education. The largest increase was in Employment.  Again, these patterns are broadly consistent with those seen in most years since 2009-10.

The proportion of leavers who were Unemployed Seeking or Unemployed and Not Seeking employment both increased between initial and follow-up destinations.

A time series of initial and follow-up destinations is available in Supplementary Tables L1.1a and L1.1b.

Chart 7: The proportion of school leavers in a positive follow-up destination is lower than the proportion who were in a positive initial destination

Percentage of school leavers by initial and follow-up destination category, 2023-24

Section 3.2 Leavers staying in the same destination or changing destination

In 2023-24, 95.5 per cent of those in a positive initial destination were also in a positive follow-up destination. This includes leavers in the same positive destination, and those who moved from one positive destination to another. This is up from 95.1 per cent in 2022-23.

The positive destination in which 2023-24 school leavers were most likely to remain between initial and follow-up was Employment. It is possible that some of these school leavers changed jobs in between times.

School leavers whose initial destination was Personal Skills Development or Training were less likely to remain in the same destination. This may reflect the short-term nature of some of these activities.

Chart 8: School leavers who were in initial destinations such as Higher Education or Employment were more likely to stay in those destinations than school leavers who were in Training or Personal Skills Development

Percentage of school leavers whose follow-up destination was the same as their initial destination, 2023-24

Of those school leavers who were in a positive initial destination, 4.3 per cent moved into an ‘other’ follow-up destination. This varied for different initial destinations.

For example, 43.4 per cent of those whose initial destination was Personal Skills Development (PSD) were also in PSD at follow-up, 37.7 per cent had moved into a different positive destination and 18.0 per cent had moved into an ‘other’ destination.

For those whose initial destination was Training, 44.8 per cent also had a follow-up destination of Training, 33.1 per cent had moved into a different positive destination and 21.5 per cent had moved into an ‘other’ destination.

Meanwhile 94.2 per cent of those whose initial destination was Employment also had a follow-up destination of Employment, 3.0 per cent were in a different positive destination and 2.6 per cent had moved into an ‘other’ destination.

Of those school leavers who were in an ‘other’ initial destination, 35.5 per cent moved into a positive follow-up destination. Again, this varied by initial destination.

Amongst those whose initial destination was Unemployed Seeking, 31.7 per cent were also Unemployed Seeking at follow-up, 19.1 per cent were in a different ‘other’ destination and 48.9 per cent had moved into a positive follow-up destination.

Of those whose initial destination was Unemployed Not Seeking, 71.5 per cent were still Unemployed Not Seeking at follow-up, 7.2 per cent were in a different ‘other’ destination and 20.4 per cent had moved into a positive follow-up destination. Of those who moved to a positive follow-up destination, the most common destination was Employment.

Note that a small number of school leavers who were in the initial school leaver cohort are excluded from the follow-up cohort. This means that figures in this section may not sum to 100 per cent.

Supplementary Tables L1.8a and L1.8b provide information on school leavers staying in their initial destination or moving to a different destination.

Section 3.3 Leavers staying in the same destination or changing destination, by the stage in which they left school

School leavers from S4 were more likely to move from a positive destination to an ‘other’ destination between initial and follow-up than school leavers from S5 or S6. This holds for each year since 2009-10. Supplementary Table 4 provides more information on the movement of school leavers between destination types by stage of leaving.

S6 leavers were the least likely to leave a positive destination and move into an ‘other’ destination between initial and follow-up.

Chart 9: S4 leavers are more likely to move from a positive initial destination to an ‘other’ follow-up destination than leavers from S5 or S6

Percentage of leavers in a positive initial destination who moved to an ‘other’ follow-up destination 2018-19 to 2023-24

S4 and S5 leavers who were in an ‘other’ initial destination were more likely to still be in an ‘other’ destination at follow-up than S6 leavers. This has been the case in every year since 2018-19.

Between 2022-23 and 2023-24, the percentage of leavers who remained in an ‘other’ destination between initial and follow-up increased for leavers from S4 and S6 but decreased for S5 leavers.

Chart 10: S4 and S5 leavers are more likely to remain in an ‘other’ destination than S6 leavers

Percentage of leavers in an ‘other’ initial destination who remained in an ‘other’ follow-up destination 2018-19 to 2023-24