School leaver attainment and destinations

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published ‘Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 1: 2019 Edition’.

 Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, (National Statistics) results show that 94.4% of 2017/18 school leavers were in a positive destination three months after leaving school; the highest rate since 2009/10. Compared to the previous school leaver cohort (2016/17) there was an increase in the proportion of leavers in Higher Education, from 40.7% to 41.1%, and in Employment from 22.0% to 22.7%.

The proportion of 2017/18 school leavers with one pass or more at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Level 4 or above was 96.2% (similar to 2016/17, 96.3%); attainment at SCQF Level 5 or above has decreased slightly (from 86.1% to 85.9%) whereas attainment at SCQF Level 6 or above had increased (from 61.2% to 62.2%).

The figures released today were produced in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

 Background

These statistics are sourced from ‘Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 1: 2019 Edition’. The publications use the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) post-review results and school leaver destination data supplied by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) from the "Opportunities for All shared dataset.” 

Further school statistics are available within the School Education section of the Scottish Government website.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff in line with the standards of official statistics in Scotland.