Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 3: 2021 Edition

This statistical publication provides information on the educational attainment and initial destinations of 2019/20 school leavers from publicly funded schools in Scotland


Chapter 5: School Leaver Attainment and Destinations

  • School leavers with higher attainment levels are more likely to go on to a positive destination – 64.7 per cent of school leavers who did not achieve a pass at SCQF Level 3 or better entered a positive destination; this increases to 98.5 per cent of leavers who achieved at SCQF Level 7.

Table 8 shows that for 2019/20 school leavers whose highest qualification was at SCQF Level 5 the main destination is Further Education (55.3 per cent), while the majority of school leavers with one pass or more at SCQF Level 6 or 7 entered Higher Education.

The most common destination for school leavers with no passes at SCQF Level 3 or better is Further Education (27.4 per cent). The same is also true for those with SCQF Level 3 and 4 as their highest qualification (36.8 per cent and 48.1 per cent respectively).

Table 8: Percentage of school leavers by highest SCQF Level achieved and initial destinations category, 2019/20 1
Initial Destination No passes at SCQF 3 or better SCQF Level 3 SCQF Level 4 SCQF Level 5 SCQF Level 6 SCQF Level 7 Total
Higher Education 1.6 * * 3.2 56.6 87.9 44.2
Further Education 27.4 36.8 48.1 55.3 21.7 4.0 28.1
Training 16.4 20.9 14.2 4.5 1.0 0.3 3.7
Employment 13.8 11.4 17.8 27.2 16.3 5.6 16.2
Voluntary Work 0.7 * * 0.4 0.3 0.6 0.5
Personal Skills
Development
4.9 2.7 2.4 1.1 0.3 0.0 0.8
Positive Destinations 64.7 72.9 83.6 91.7 96.3 98.5 93.3
Unemployed seeking 12.3 14.2 9.6 5.6 2.8 1.1 4.1
Unemployed Not Seeking 17.2 10.0 5.3 1.8 0.6 0.4 1.8
Unknown 5.7 2.9 1.5 0.9 0.3 0.1 0.7
Other Destinations 35.3 27.1 16.4 8.3 3.7 1.5 6.7
Number of Leavers 964 1,036 4,780 10,360 19,286 11,028 47,454

1. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding

* percentages based on less than 5 leavers have been suppressed for disclosure and quality reasons.

Contact

Email: andrew.white@gov.scot

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