WIREDGOV

An Accredited Official Statistics publication for Scotland.

Statistics have been released today on the destinations and attainment of 2024-25 leavers from Scotland’s publicly funded schools.

Initial destinations

95.7 per cent of 2024-25 school leavers were in a positive destination three months after the end of the school year. This is the same as last year (2023-24) and the second highest figure (alongside 2021-22) since 2009-10.

Positive destinations include higher education, further education, employment, training, personal skills development and voluntary work.

Attainment in All Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (All SCQF) qualifications

All SCQF qualifications includes the National Qualifications, other qualifications provided by Qualifications Scotland (formerly SQA) and qualifications and learning programmes from other providers (for example the Open University).

84.3 per cent of school leavers left with five or more passes at Level 4 or better in all SCQF qualifications. This proportion has increased compared to 2023-24 (84.1 per cent) but decreased since 2018-19 (85.5 per cent).

68.6 per cent of school leavers left with five or more passes at Level 5 or better in all SCQF qualifications. This proportion has increased compared to both 2023-24 (66.6 per cent) and 2018-19 (64.3 per cent).

40.8 per cent of school leavers left with five or more passes at Level 6 or better in all SCQF qualifications. This proportion has increased compared to both 2023-24 (39.0 per cent) and 2018-19 (36.0 per cent).

Attainment in National Qualifications

National Qualifications include the National Courses (National 3, National 4, National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher) and Skills for Work.

94.8 per cent of school leavers left with one pass or more at SCQF Level 4 or better in National Qualifications in 2024-25. This is a decrease from 2023-24 (95.2 per cent) and from 2018-19 (95.9 per cent).

84.1 per cent of school leavers left with one pass or more at SCQF Level 5 or better in National Qualifications in 2024-25. This is an increase from 2023-24 (83.5 per cent) but a decrease from 2018-19 (85.1 per cent).

58.4 per cent of school leavers left with one pass or more at SCQF Level 6 or better in National Qualifications in 2024-25. This is an increase from 2023-24 (57.4 per cent) but a decrease from 2018-19 (60.5 per cent).

National Improvement Framework Key Measures

The statistics in this report inform seven of the 16 National Improvement Framework key measures.

Initial positive leaver destinations

The gap between the proportion of school leavers in positive destinations from the most and least deprived areas is 4.7 percentage points, wider than the previous year (4.3 percentage points) but narrower than in 2018-19 (5.4 percentage points).

All Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (All SCQF) qualifications (five or more passes)

The gap between the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas attaining five passes or more at SCQF Level 4 or better in All SCQF Qualifications was 19.5 percentage points. This is wider than in 2023-24 (19.0 percentage points) and 2018-19 (17.8 percentage points).

The gap between the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas attaining five passes or more at SCQF Level 5 or better in All SCQF Qualifications was 33.6 percentage points. This is narrower than in 2023-24 (35.0 percentage points) and 2018-19 (36.3 percentage points).

The gap between the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas attaining five passes or more at SCQF Level 6 or better in All SCQF Qualifications was 40.0 percentage points. This is wider than in 2023-24 (39.7 percentage points) and 2018-19 (37.4 percentage points).

National Qualifications (one or more pass)

The gap between the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas attaining one pass or more at SCQF Level 4 or better in National Qualifications was 8.0 percentage points. This is wider than in 2023-24 (7.3 percentage points) and 2018-19 (6.7 percentage points).

The gap between the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas attaining one pass or more at SCQF Level 5 or better in National Qualifications was 21.4 percentage points. This is narrower than in 2023-24 (22.7 percentage points) but wider than in 2018-19 (20.2 percentage points).

The gap between the proportion of school leavers from the most and least deprived areas attaining one pass or more at SCQF Level 6 or better in National Qualifications was 37.7 percentage points. This is narrower than in 2023-24 (38.4 percentage points) but wider than in 2018-19 (35.8 percentage points).

Background

The destinations and attainment of 2024-25 leavers statistics cover publicly funded schools in Scotland.

The figures released today were produced by professionally independent statistical staff in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Accredited Official Statistics are official statistics that have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and confirmed to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

These statistics are sourced from ‘Summary statistics for attainment and initial leaver destinations, no. 8: 2026 edition’. The publication uses Qualifications Scotland (formerly Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)) post-review results, data received from other organisations who deliver qualifications and learning programmes on the SCQF, and school leaver destinations data supplied by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) from the Opportunities for All shared dataset. 

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is Scotland’s national qualifications framework. The SCQF has 12 levels, which, in ascending order (SCQF Level 1-12) indicate the level of difficulty of a particular qualification. The SCQF allows for broad comparisons to be made between qualifications to allow learners, employers and the public to understand the range of skills and learning that should be achieved at each level. More information can be found on the SCQF website. 

For further details on the differences between the National Qualifications attainment measure and the All SCQF attainment measure, please refer to the methodology document.