This statistical publication provides information on the educational attainment and initial destinations of 2024-25 school leavers from publicly funded schools in Scotland.
Initial destinations
- 95.7% 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% 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%) but decreased since 2018-19 (85.5%).
- 68.6% 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%) and 2018-19 (64.3%).
- 40.8% 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%) and 2018-19 (36%).
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% 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%) and from 2018-19 (95.9%).
- 84.1% 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%) but a decrease from 2018-19 (85.1%).
- 58.4% 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%) but a decrease from 2018-19 (60.5%).
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).
