Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 7: 2025 edition

Section 6. Other groups of qualifications

This section presents data on other attainment of interest. The statistics in Section 6 refer to school leavers from all stages, including S3, S4, S5, S6 and ‘other’ stages. The statistics on Literacy and Numeracy and those on Foundation Apprenticeships refer to mainstream school leavers. The statistics on Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) refer to leavers from mainstream and special schools consistent with the DYW key performance indicator. 

Section 6.1 Literacy and Numeracy levels achieved by school leavers

Literacy and numeracy are key skills for any school leaver. Literacy is the ability to communicate by reading, writing and listening and talking. Numeracy is defined as the ability to use numbers in order to solve problems by counting, doing calculations, measuring, and understanding graphs and charts.

A range of courses are included in the literacy and numeracy measures, as set out in Section 7 of the Methodology document. These courses are selected based upon the outcomes and assessment standards for SQA’s literacy and numeracy units at National 3, 4 and 5, with the key criterion being that the main purpose of the qualification or award is to improve literacy and/or numeracy skills.

When looking at achievement in literacy and numeracy, a pass in relevant units (rather than full qualifications, for example) can count as achieving literacy or numeracy at that level. With unit-based courses, a pupil who did not pass the full course, but did achieve the relevant units, would be counted as achieving literacy or numeracy at that level.

Mandatory unit assessments were removed from National 5s in 2017-18 and from Highers in 2018-19. This means that it is no longer mandatory for a pupil to complete unit assessments in order to achieve National 5 and Higher qualifications. This change is likely to have an effect on the literacy and numeracy attainment figures over time.

In addition, as described in Section 1.4, there were changes in how many qualifications were assessed and graded in the years 2020 to 2023, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore care should be taken when making comparisons between 2023-24 and earlier years. Any increase or decrease should not be interpreted as indicating improving or worsening performance without further evidence.

At SCQF Level 3 or better, 95.8 per cent of 2023-24 school leavers attained literacy and 95.5 per cent attained numeracy. At SCQF Level 4 or better, 93.2 per cent of school leavers attained literacy and 90.7 per cent attained numeracy. At SCQF Level 5 or better, 81.3 per cent of school leavers attained literacy and 71.8 per cent attained this level in numeracy.

A full time series for school leaver attainment in literacy and numeracy since 2012-13 can be found in Supplementary Table 13.

Chart 14: School leaver attainment in literacy is higher than in numeracy

Secondary school leaver attainment in literacy and numeracy by SCQF Level, percentage of leavers, 2023-24

Section 6.2 Developing the Young Workforce

The Scottish Government established the independent Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, led by Sir Ian Wood, in January 2013. Its remit was to explore the development of a modern, responsive and valued system for vocational training and to emulate the labour markets of the best performing European countries. More information on the Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce strategy.

Tables Z2.1a and Z2.1b in the supplementary tables show attainment in vocational qualifications at SCQF Levels 2 to 7, by local authority. These vocational qualifications include National Certificates, Higher National Qualifications, Scottish Vocational Qualifications, National Progression Awards and Skills for Work.

35.0 per cent of 2023-24 mainstream and special school leavers achieved one or more vocational qualifications at SCQF Level 5 or better. This compares to 30.4 per cent in 2022-23, and to 7.3 per cent in 2013-14.

Section 6.3 Foundation Apprenticeships (Official Statistics in Development)

Foundation Apprenticeships (FA) have been designed and developed with Skills Development Scotland (SDS), industry and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), and are aligned to key sectors of the economy with current skills shortages and projected future jobs growth. They provide work-based learning opportunities with industry-recognised qualifications in the senior phase.

For more detail on how this data has been collected please refer to the Methodology document (Section 5.3).

Supplementary Table Z1.1 covers the number of school leavers between 2019-20, and 2023-24 who have achieved a Foundation Apprenticeship by subject. The statistics in this table have been labelled as Official Statistics in Development reflecting the fact that work to ensure and improve their accuracy is ongoing.

In 2023-24, 1,335 Foundation Apprenticeships were achieved by school leavers. This represents an increase on 2022-23. The largest group of these were in social services: children and young people (470) followed by business skills (244) and social services and healthcare (204).

Note that attainment in Foundation Apprenticeships is not included in attainment statistics presented in Section 4 which covers National Qualifications only. The National Certificate and National Progression Award components of Foundation Apprenticeships do however contribute to the All SCQF measure (Section 5) and to the Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce measure (Section 6.2).