School leaver follow-up destinations

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published ‘Summary Statistics for Follow-up Leaver Destinations, No. 1: 2019 Edition’ and ‘Educational Outcomes for Scotland’s Looked After Children 2017-18’[1]. 

Summary Statistics for Follow-up Leaver Destinations, (National Statistics) results show that 93.2% of 2017/18 school leavers were in a positive destination nine months after leaving school; the highest rate since 2009/10. Compared to the previous school leaver cohort (2016/17) there was an increase in the proportion of leavers in Higher Education, from 38.3% to 39.0%. The proportion in employment was 28.3% for 2017/18 school leavers which has remained the same since 2016/17.

Education Outcomes for Looked After Children (Official Statistics) results show looked after school leavers continue to have lower attainment than other school leavers, although the gap has narrowed over the last five years. The proportion of looked after young people in positive destinations nine months after leaving school has increased over the last five years to 76% in 2017/18, compared with 93% of all school leavers.

The figures released today were produced in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. 

Background

These statistics are sourced from ‘Summary Statistics for Follow-up Leaver Destinations, No. 1: 2019 Edition’ and ‘Education Outcomes for Looked After Children, 2017/18’. Both publications use the school leaver destination data supplied by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) from the “Opportunities for All shared dataset.” ‘Education Outcomes for Looked After Children, 2017/18’ also uses the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) post-review results for statistics on attainment.

Further school statistics are available within the School Education section of the Scottish Government website.

Further information on looked after children in Scotland is available on the Children and Families statistics section of the Scottish Government website.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff in line with the standards of official statistics in Scotland.

[1] Educational Outcomes for Scotland’s Looked After Children 2017-18 is an Official Statistics publication