Initial destinations of senior phase school leavers: 2018 edition

3. National Trends in Initial Destinations by Deprivation

• For the most deprived 20 per cent of senior phase school leavers the percentage in a positive initial destination has increased by 0.9 percentage points (88.7 per cent in 2015/16 to 89.6 per cent in 2016/17).
• For the least deprived 20 per cent of senior phase leavers the percentage in a positive initial destination has remained at 96.6 per cent for 2015/16 and 2016/17.
• The percentage point gap in positive initial destinations (the difference between the most and least deprived senior phase leavers) decreased from 7.9 percentage points in 2015/16 to 7.0 percentage points in 2016/17. This continues the downward trend in the percentage point gap observed over the last six years (11.2 per cent in 2011/12).

3.1. Positive initial destinations by deprivation

3.1.1. The next section presents positive initial destinations of senior phase school leavers by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD). For more information on SIMD see background note 5.2.4.

Table 2: Percentage of senior phase school leavers in positive initial destinations by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) (2011/12 – 2016/17)

3.1.2. In 2016/17, 89.6 per cent of leavers from the 20 per cent most deprived areas were in a positive initial destination compared to 96.6 per cent of leavers from the 20 per cent least deprived areas.

3.1.3. For the most deprived 20 per cent of leavers the percentage in a positive initial destination has increased by 0.9 percentage points, from 88.7 per cent in 2015/16 to 89.6 per cent in 2016/17.

3.1.4. For the least deprived 20 per cent of leavers the percentage in a positive initial destination has remained at 96.6 per cent for 2015/16 and 2016/17.

3.1.5. The positive initial destination gap between the most and least deprived leavers has decreased over the last six years from 11.2 per cent in 2011/12 to 7.0 per cent in 2016/17.

Chart 6: Positive initial destinations of senior phase school leavers by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) (2011/12 – 2016/17)

3.2. Breakdown of initial destinations by deprivation

3.2.1. The next section presents a breakdown of initial destinations by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) for 2016/17 senior phase school leavers. For more information on SIMD see background note 5.2.4.

3.2.2. The most deprived 20 per cent quintile had the greatest percentage of leavers entering further education, training or engaging in activity agreements (37.0 per cent, 4.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively in 2016/17).

3.2.3. The least deprived 20 per cent quintile had the greatest percentage of leavers entering higher education (60.6 per cent in 2016/17).

3.2.4. The middle 20 per cent (quintile 3) had the greatest percentage of leavers entering employment (24.9 per cent in 2016/17).

Table 3: Percentage of senior phase school leavers in initial destinations broken down by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) quintile (2016/17)

*time series information from 2011/12 to 2016/17 can be found in supplementary Table 3.

Chart 7: Initial destinations of senior phase school leavers broken down by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) quintile (2016/17)

* ‘Other positive’ includes leavers undertaking activity agreements, training or voluntary work. ‘Other destinations’ includes leavers that are unemployed seeking, unemployed not seeking or where destination is not known.