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

Chapter 3: Initial to Follow-Up Destination Comparison

• 95.4 per cent of 2018/19 school leavers who were in a positive initial destination were also in a positive follow-up destination.

A school leaver's follow-up destination, nine months after they leave school, may differ from their initial destination, three months after they leave school. Information on the initial destinations of 2018/19 school leavers was published in February 2020, here: 'Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 2: 2020 Edition'.

Chart 3 compares 2018/19 school leaver initial destination rates 3 months after leaving school with follow-up destination rates (9 months after leaving school). The percentage of school leavers in a positive follow-up destination (92.9 per cent) was lower than the percentage of school leavers in a positive initial destination (95.0 per cent) in 2018/19; a similar pattern can be seen across previous school leaver cohorts. The largest reductions between initial and follow-up destinations were in Further Education and Higher Education, by 3.9 and 2.0 percentage points respectively. Whereas the proportion in Employment increased by 5.1 percentage points between initial and follow-up destination.

The proportion of leavers in other destinations increased by 2.2 percentage points between initial and follow-up destinations with Unemployed Not Seeking increasing by 0.9 percentage points. A time series of initial and follow-up destinations is available in the supplementary tables. A list of these tables is available at background note 5.7.

Chart 4 shows the percentage of school leavers whose follow-up destination was the same as their initial destination. In 2018/19, 95.4 per cent of those in a positive initial destination were also in a positive follow-up destination, although some of them will have moved from one positive destination to another. The largest group of school leavers who remained in the same destination was those in Employment, at 94.5 per cent; closely followed by Higher Education at 94.3 per cent. School leavers whose initial destination was Personal Skills Development were less likely to remain in the same destination. More information on school leavers who sustained a destination or moved into another destination category is available in the supplementary tables. A list of these tables is available at background note 5.7.