School Leaver Follow-up Destinations - Data Sources and Methodology

Methodology

A pupil is counted as a school leaver if they have a leaver record on the ‘Opportunities for All’ shared data set, a record on the Scottish Government’s Pupil Census for the same academic year, and no pupil census record in the following academic year. School leavers do not include pupils who transferred to another school or moved outwith Scotland.

A school leaver is defined as a young person of school leaving age, who left school during or at the end of the school year. The leaver year is based on the dates of the Scottish Government’s pupil census, details of which can be found in the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication.

The initial destinations data (published in February) provides information on the outcomes for young people approximately three months after the end of the academic year (first Monday in October) while the follow-up data provides information on the outcomes for young people approximately nine months after the end of the academic year (first Monday in April). These collections should be seen as complementary to one another.

A relatively small number of school leavers identified in the initial leaver cohort are not included in the follow-up leaver cohort. This is typically where the individual has been identified as having moved outwith Scotland, as having returned to school or, in rare circumstances, having deceased.

The follow-up destination statistics only relate to leavers from mainstream schools. They do not include data on destinations of leavers from special schools.