School leaver attainment and destinations

Statistics have been released today on the destinations and attainment of 2022-23 leavers from Scotland’s publicly funded schools.

Initial destinations

95.9 per cent of 2022-23 school leavers were in a positive destination three months after the end of the school year. This was higher than in 2021-22 (95.7 per cent) and is the highest since the current time series began in 2009-10. Positive destinations include higher education, further education, employment, training, personal skills development and voluntary work.

The gap between the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas is 3.7 percentage points and is the narrowest it has been since the current time series began in 2009-10.

Attainment in National Qualifications

The statistics also show the proportion of 2022-23 school leavers who attained passes in National Qualifications at different Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Levels. National Qualifications include the National Courses (National 3, National 4, National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher), and Skills for Work.

The proportions of pupils who left school having attained one pass or more at SCQF Levels 4 or better, 5 or better, 6 or better and 7 under the National Qualifications measure have all decreased compared to 2021-22. The proportion of leavers with one pass or more at SCQF Level 5 or better is at its lowest level since 2013-14 and the proportion with a pass at SCQF Level 6 or better is at its lowest since 2012-13.

Attainment increased following changes to the approaches to determining attainment and grades in 2020 and 2021. It has now decreased following changes back toward approaches used before the pandemic and has fallen below levels seen immediately prior to the pandemic. The attainment figures will also reflect the increased proportions of S4 and S5 leavers and the decreased proportion of S6 leavers in 2022-23 compared to other recent years.

Attainment in All Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (All SCQF) qualifications

For the first time, this release also includes statistics which show the proportion of school leavers who attained any qualification or learning programme on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). These include the SQA National Qualifications, other qualifications provided by the SQA and qualifications and learning programmes from other providers (for example the Open University).

As for the National Qualifications measure, under the All SCQF measure, the proportions of pupils who left school having attained one pass or more at SCQF Levels 4 or better, 5 or better, 6 or better or 7 have all decreased compared to 2021-22. Again, these figures will reflect the impact of the different certification approaches and the changes in the proportions of S4, S5 and S6 pupils leaving school in 2022-23 compared to other recent years.

The impact of COVID-19 on these statistics

Different approaches to determining attainment and grades in qualifications were in place in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, as a result of the pandemic. The attainment of school leavers in 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 may be based on a combination of approaches to certification for both the National Qualifications measure and the All SCQF measure.

This means that care should be taken when interpreting changes in school leaver attainment between 2019-20 and 2022-23, and when comparing attainment in those years to attainment in years before the pandemic (2018-19 and earlier). Changes between the years should not be seen as an indication that performance has improved or worsened, without further evidence.

Further details on the impact of the pandemic on these statistics can be found in the statistical release.

Background

The figures released today were produced by professionally independent statistical staff in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

‘Accredited Official Statistics’ is the new term for National Statistics. Accredited Official Statistics are official statistics that have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and confirmed to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

These statistics are sourced from ‘Summary statistics for attainment and initial leaver destinations, no. 6: 2024 edition’. The publication uses the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) post-review results, data received from other organisations who deliver qualifications and learning programmes on the SCQF, and school leaver destinations data supplied by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) from the Opportunities for All shared dataset. 

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is Scotland’s national qualifications framework. The SCQF has 12 levels, which, in ascending order (SCQF Level 1-12) indicate the level of difficulty of a particular qualification. The SCQF allows for broad comparisons to be made between qualifications to allow learners, employers and the public to understand the range of skills and learning that should be achieved at each level. More information can be found on the SCQF website. 

The qualifications and learning programmes included in the All SCQF measure at a given SCQF level can be associated with differing numbers of notional learning hours and – therefore - SCQF credit points. Each qualification, irrespective of this, is counted as a single pass or award at that Level. This is different from the National Qualifications measure, where all qualifications at a given SCQF Level are associated with the same numbers of notional learning hours and SCQF credit points. There are other differences between the All SCQF measure and the National Qualifications measure, which are outlined in the statistical release.