Summary Statistics for Follow-up Leaver Destinations, No. 8: 2026 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 2024-25 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. 8: 2026 edition). A smaller proportion of school leavers were in a positive follow-up destination (93.5 per cent), a decrease of 2.2 percentage points compared to the initial figure. 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.

In 2024-25, 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 by 1.1 percentage points and 0.6 percentage points respectively.

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, 2024-25

Section 3.2 Leavers staying in the same destination or changing destination

In 2024-25, 95.9 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 95.5 per cent last year and 95.4 per cent in 2018-19.

The positive destination in which 2024-25 school leavers were most likely to remain between initial and follow-up was Higher Education followed by Employment. For those that remained in Employment, it possible that some of these school leavers changed jobs.

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

Of those school leavers who were in a positive initial destination, 4.0 per cent moved into an ‘other’ follow-up destination. This varied for different initial destinations.

For example, 46.6 per cent of those whose initial destination was Personal Skills Development (PSD) were also in PSD at follow-up, 31.9 per cent had moved into a different positive destination and 21.3 per cent had moved into an ‘other’ destination.

For those whose initial destination was Training, 46.2 per cent also had a follow-up destination of Training, 32.4 per cent had moved into a different positive destination and 20.8 per cent had moved into an ‘other’ destination.

Meanwhile 94.1 per cent of those whose initial destination was Higher Education also had a follow-up destination of Higher Education, 4.9 per cent were in a different positive destination and 1.0 per cent had moved into an ‘other’ destination.

Similarly, for leavers who had an initial destination of Employment, 94.0 per cent also had a follow-up destination of Employment, 2.9 per cent were in a different positive destination and 2.9 per cent had moved into an ‘other’ destination.

Of those school leavers who were in an ‘other’ initial destination, 36.3 per cent moved into a positive follow-up destination. Again, this varied by initial destination.

Amongst those whose initial destination was Unemployed Seeking, 35.0 per cent were also Unemployed Seeking at follow-up, 17.8 per cent were in a different ‘other’ destination and 46.7 per cent had moved into a positive follow-up destination.

Of those whose initial destination was Unemployed Not Seeking, 65.9 per cent were still Unemployed Not Seeking at follow-up, 13.4 per cent were in a different ‘other’ destination and 19.2 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.

Chart 8: School leavers who had an initial destination of Higher Education or Employment were more likely to stay in those destinations than school leavers who were in Training, Personal Skills Development or Voluntary Work
Percentage of school leavers by change in destination and whether the destination category remained the same between initial and follow-up, 2024-25

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 2024-25

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 records began.

Compared to last year, the percentage of leavers who remained in an ‘other’ destination between initial and follow-up increased for leavers from S6, remained the same for leavers from S5 but decreased for leavers from S4.

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 2024-25