School leaver follow-up destinations

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published ‘Summary Statistics for Follow-up Leaver Destinations, No. 4: 2022 Edition’.

The results show that 93.2% of 2020/21 school leavers were in a positive destination nine months after the end of the school year. This has increased from 92.2% in 2019/20.

Compared to the previous school leaver cohort (2019/20) there was an increase in the proportion in Employment from 21.3% of 2019/20 leavers (the lowest rate since consistent records began in 2009/10) to 31.5% in 2020/21 – the highest rate since 2009/10. Over the same period the proportion of leavers in Higher Education decreased from 42.9% to 40.3%, and the proportion of leavers in Further Education also decreased, from 23.6% to 18.3% (the lowest since 2009/10).

For 2020/21 school leavers, 95.5% of those who were in a positive initial destination (three months after the end of the school year) were also in a positive follow-up destination (nine months after the end of the school year). This includes leavers in the same destination or in a different positive destination.

The percentage of school leavers in a positive follow-up destination increased in 2020/21 for leavers from both the 20% most deprived and 20% least deprived areas (based on Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)), compared to 2019/20. The gap between the two groups decreased from 8.3 percentage points in 2019/20 to 7.5 percentage points in 2020/21 – the lowest it has been since 2009/10.

Follow-up destinations relate to outcomes approximately nine months after the end of the school year and the figures for the 2020/21 school leaver cohort relate to statuses recorded as at April 2022. It is likely that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will have continued to affect the destination choices made by, and opportunities available to, some school leavers in 2020/21.

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

Background

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

These statistics are sourced from ‘Summary Statistics for Follow-up Leaver Destinations, No. 4: 2022 Edition’. The publication uses the school leaver destination data supplied by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) from the “Opportunities for All” shared dataset.