Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations - Data Sources and Methodology 2025

Section 4. Differences between the National Qualification and All SCQF measures

Section 4.1 Summary of differences between the two measures

There are a number of methodological differences between the All SCQF measure and the National Qualifications measure. This is because the two measures were originally developed for different purposes. The National Qualifications measure has been used in all previous versions of this publication and contributes three of the key National Improvement Framework (NIF) measures. The All SCQF measure was introduced to the publication last year (2022-23).

The All SCQF measure was developed for use in Insight – the senior phase benchmarking tool used by schools and local authorities – and is used across the education system to provide information on the range of attainment young people are gaining at school. Both measures are valid and provide important insights into the attainment of school leavers. 

The main methodological differences between the National Qualifications measure and the All SCQF measure are set out in Table 2. 

Table 2: A comparison of the main methodological differences between the National Qualifications and the All SCQF measure 

Qualifications and award providers: 

The National Qualifications measure covers SQA National Qualifications, with the exceptions of National Units and Scottish Baccalaureates. The SQA National Qualifications included are therefore the National Courses – National 3, National 4, National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher – and Skills for Work.

The All SCQF measure covers all qualifications on the SCQF. These include the National Qualifications (as under the National Qualifications measure), along with other qualifications provided by SQA, such as National Progression Awards, Awards etc. and qualifications provided by other award providers.

SCQF credit points: 

All of the qualifications at a given SCQF Level in the National Qualifications measure carry the same number of SCQF credit points (and notional learning hours). 

The qualifications at a given SCQF Level in the All SCQF measure can be associated with different numbers of SCQF credit points and notional learning hours. See Section 4.2 for more information. 

Treatment of Grade Ds: 

In the National Qualifications measure a grade D at a given SCQF Level is counted as a pass at the SCQF Level below. So, for example, a grade D at SCQF Level 6 is counted as a pass at SCQF Level 5 but not as a pass at SCQF Level 6. 

In the All SCQF measure a grade D at a given SCQF Level is counted as a pass at that SCQF level. So, for example, a grade D at SCQF Level 6 is counted as a pass / award at SCQF Level 6. 

Leaver cohort:  

The National Qualifications measure includes those who have left a publicly funded mainstream school from any stage. Those leaving from special schools are not included in the headline measures found in this report but are included in certain Supplementary Tables. 

The All SCQF measure includes those who have left a publicly funded mainstream school from the senior phase, i.e. from stages S4-S6 only. Those leaving from special schools are not included in this measure. 

Stage of schooling in which qualifications are attained: 

The National Qualifications measure considers all of the attainment in National Qualifications which a school leaver has gained over the previous 6 years. In practice, given the focus on the best level achieved, it is likely that the earlier years of this period will have a limited effect on attainment. 

The All SCQF measure considers attainment which a school leaver has gained during the senior phase of schooling, i.e. in S4-S6 only. 

Other factors affecting attainment under the All SCQF measure  

Other factors which may affect attainment under the All SCQF measure which should be kept in mind are:

• The numbers of award providers, and qualifications, included in the All SCQF measure has risen over time. This could be because new providers or courses have been added to the SCQF framework, because the Scottish Government has started receiving data for courses or from providers we were not previously receiving data from, or it could reflect changing presentation policies in schools or local authorities. See Section 3.2 for more information.
• There may be some attainment in qualifications that are on the SCQF but that is not reported to the Insight team by the award provider at present – this attainment will not be included within the measure.
• The numbers of SCQF credit points (based on the number of notional learning hours) associated with the qualifications included in the All SCQF measure have changed over time. See Section 3.3 for more information.
• Just as there can be differences in the make-up of the qualifications included in the All SCQF measure over time there can also be differences from one local authority to another, due to differing presentation policies in courses of differing SCQF credit points. There can also be variation within a single local authority over time. See Section 3.4 for more information.

Section 4.2 Learning hours and SCQF credit points  

One of the features of the National Qualifications measure is that all of the qualifications counted at a given SCQF Level have the same number of notional learning hours (see Section 2.3). SCQF credit points provide an indication of the length of time it takes to complete a course’s learning outcomes, with 1 credit point equating to 10 notional hours of learning. So, for example, at SCQF Level 6, all Highers are associated with 24 SCQF credit points or 240 notional hours of learning. This means that, under the National Qualifications measure, a pass in one qualification at a given SCQF Level can be seen as being equivalent to a pass in another qualification at that SCQF Level. 

Under the All SCQF measure this is not the case. Qualifications at the same SCQF Level can involve different numbers of notional learning hours. As outlined above, a Higher is associated with 24 SCQF credit points. Meanwhile, by way of example, the SCQF Level 6 Emergency First Aid at Work qualification is associated with one SCQF credit point or 10 notional learning hours, and the SCQF Level 6 Qualification in Sports Leadership is associated with 14 SCQF credit points (140 notional learning hours). Under the All SCQF measure, gaining any of these qualifications counts as attainment at SCQF Level 6.  

Tables 3 and 4 demonstrate this point. They show the numbers of different qualifications gained by school pupils in 2023-24 broken down by SCQF level and SCQF credit points. Table 3 shows this for the qualifications in the All SCQF measure and Table 4 shows it for the qualifications in the National Qualifications measure. (Note the data presented in these tables present qualifications gained by school pupils in 2023-24. School leavers are likely to have gained attainment over multiple years).

Table 3: Numbers of All SCQF measure qualifications by SCQF credit point banding, at each SCQF level, 2023-24 

Table 4: Numbers of qualifications associated with National Qualification measure by SCQF credit point banding, at each SCQF level, 2023-24

Whilst qualifications associated with smaller numbers of SCQF credit points (e.g. one or two) are of the same level of difficulty as other courses at that SCQF Level, they may be achieved more quickly due to the smaller number of notional learning hours. This will have an impact on the patterns of attainment seen in the All SCQF measure. 

Section 4.3 How might the levels of attainment be different, under the two measures?

Attainment as measured under the All SCQF measure will typically be the same as, or higher than, attainment as measured under the National Qualifications measure. This is because the All SCQF measure includes attainment in National Qualifications and also attainment in other qualifications. There may be some small exceptions due to other methodological differences between the measures but, typically, the attainment figures presented in Section 5 of the main report will be higher than those presented in Section 4.

The difference between the two measures is likely to be larger when considering greater numbers of passes. The reason for this is explained in the next two paragraphs.

The headline statistics in this report focus on school leavers with one pass or award or more at a given SCQF level or better. Where a school leaver has attainment in both a ‘wider’ qualification and a National Qualification they will be counted as having one pass or more under both measures. For example, a school leaver who has achieved a National Progression Award at SCQF Level 6, and also has a Higher, will be counted as having 1 pass or more in both the National Qualification measure and the All SCQF measure. Therefore the differences in attainment under the two measures may not be very large when comparing them at ‘one pass or more’.

This report also presents figures on the proportions of school leavers who have larger numbers of passes (2 passes or more, 3 passes or more, 4 passes or more etc.) at a given SCQF level. In the example above the school leaver would be counted as having 2 passes under the All SCQF measure but only one pass under the National Qualifications measure. The differences between the National Qualifications measure and the All SCQF measure may therefore be larger when considering greater numbers of passes. Figure 1 illustrates this.

Figure 1: Example of how attainment under the two measures may appear different as larger numbers of qualifications are considered

Section 4.4 What can be concluded by comparing the two measures?

The main difference between the two measures is the wider set of qualifications which are included in the All SCQF measure compared to the National Qualification measure.

Comparisons between the two measures will give an indication of the impact of the wider range of qualifications (i.e. non-National Qualifications) on school leaver attainment. However, the difference between the two measures does not equal attainment in non-National Qualifications. Many pupils with attainment in the wider set of qualifications covered by the All SCQF measure will also have attainment in National Qualifications and so will be included in both measures.