Summary Statistics for Follow-up leaver Destinations, No. 2: 2020 Edition

Chapter 1: Introduction

This publication provides information on the follow-up destinations of 2018/19 school leavers, relating to outcomes approximately nine months after the end of the school year (first Monday in April 2020).

Follow-up destinations relate to outcomes approximately nine months after the end of the school year. The figures for 2018/19 in this report relate to early April 2020 and therefore will not reflect the full impact of the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Further information can be found in section 5.2.

A separate publication - 'Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations' - published in February 2020, provided information on the initial destinations of 2018/19 school leavers, approximately three months after the end of the school term (first Monday in October 2019).

School leaver destinations data is based on the Skills Development Scotland (SDS) 'Opportunities for All' shared dataset matched with pupil census records for the school year 2018/19.

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. For 2018/19 school leavers, the leaver year is 19th September 2018 to 17th September 2019. For more information on how this data is collected, see section 5.3.1.

This publication covers school leavers from all stages of secondary school. For most young people, S4 (≈15-16 year olds) is the last compulsory year of school, but the majority choose to stay on and complete S5 (≈16-17 year olds) and S6 (≈17-18 year olds).^[1]

Figures are based on pupils in publicly funded mainstream schools, in the 32 local authorities and one grant aided school.

Destinations are grouped in the following categories within this statistical bulletin: