What are qualification levels?
Most qualifications have a difficulty level. The higher the level, the more difficult the qualification is.
Over two thirds of young people who reached the end of 16 to 18 study at state-funded mainstream schools and colleges in England took qualifications at level 3. A levels, applied general qualifications and tech levels are all level 3 qualifications.
Approximately 15% of students who reached the end of 16 to 18 study had taken predominately level 2 qualifications. These include GCSEs at grades above 3 (or grades A*, A, B and C) as well as other, more vocational level 2 qualifications.
The rest of the 16 to 18 leavers fall into the ‘all other’ category. These are students who took qualifications at level 1 or entry level, or qualifications that had no assigned level. These include lower level vocational qualifications and essential and functional skills qualifications.
Qualification levels
Students who took lower level qualifications were less likely to have a sustained activity
Overall, 87.6% of all students who studied at level 3 had a sustained destination, compared to 71.9% of students who studied mainly at level 2 and 57.2% of students who studied below level 2.
Level 3 students mostly continued in education, while students studying at lower levels tended to go into employment and apprenticeships
58.3% of level 3 students sustained an education destination after 16 to 18 study. Of those who mainly took level 2 courses, 25.4% sustained an education destination, 14.8% sustained an apprenticeship and 31.7% sustained employment.
Over a quarter (25.7%) of students who took courses below level 2 sustained an employment destination, 18.5% sustained an education destination and 13.0% sustained an apprenticeship. Almost a third (30.2%) of all students who took courses below level 2 did not sustain their activity for 6 months.
A substantial proportion of students who took qualifications below level 2 were not captured in the data
12.6% of students in the ‘All other qualifications’ category were not matched to any education, apprenticeship or employment data sources. This is 8.9 and 6.2 percentage points greater than level 3 students and level 2 students, respectively.
Prior Attainment at Key stage 2 (age 11)
Students who achieved above level 4 at key stage 2 were more likely to sustain a destination
Overall, 88.6% of students who achieved above level 4 at key stage 2 sustained an education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after 16 - 18 study. In comparison, 80.2% of students who achieved level 4 at key stage 2 and 67.5% of students who achieved below level 4 at key stage 2 sustained an education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after 16 - 18 study.
59.2% of students who achieved above level 4 at key stage 2 sustained an education destination, whereas 40.1% of those who achieved a level 4 at key stage 2 and 33.3% of those who achieved below level 4 at key stage 2 sustained an education destination.
Students who achieved level 4 at key stage 2 were most likely to sustain an apprenticeship or employment destination
Contrastingly, students who achieved level 4 or below level 4 at key stage 2 were more likely to sustain an apprenticeship than those who achieved above level 4 (11.0%, 8.1% and 7.3%, respectively). The students who achieved level 4 or below level 4 at key stage 2 were also more likely to sustain an employment destination than those who achieved above level 4 (29.1%, 26.1% and 22.0%, respectively).
Prior Attainment at Key stage 4 (age 16)
Students who achieved grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths at key stage 4 were more likely to sustain a destination
Students who achieved grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths at key stage 4 were more likely to sustain an education, apprenticeship or employment destination (88.1%) than students who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths (70.7%). This was predominately driven by students who achieved grades 9-4 in English and Maths at key stage 4 were more likely to sustain an education destination (56.4%) than those who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths (33.3%).
Students who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths were more likely to sustain an apprenticeship or employment destination
Students who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths were more likely to sustain an apprenticeship or an employment destination (9.3% and 28.2%, respectively) in comparison to students who did achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths (8.2% and 23.5%, respectively).
Non-disadvantaged students who had attained grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths (E&M) at key stage 4 were most likely to sustain a destination
Overall, 89.1% of non-disadvantaged students who had attained grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths at key stage 4 sustained a destination, compared to 83.5% of disadvantaged.
Disadvantaged students who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths at key stage 4 were least likely to sustain a destination
In total, 75.7% of non-disadvantaged students who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths at key stage 4 sustained a destination, whereas only 62.0% of disadvantaged students who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths sustained a destination. This is a gap of 13.7 percentage points.
There were similar proportions of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students sustaining an education destination
Once prior attainment had been controlled, there was very little difference between the proportion of non-disadvantaged and disadvantaged students who sustained an education destination. When students had attained grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths the difference was 2.0 percentage points. When students had not attained grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths the difference was 2.5 percentage points.
Similarly, there was very little difference between the proportion of non-disadvantaged and disadvantaged students who had achieved grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths and who sustained an apprenticeship destination (8.5% and 6.8%, respectively) or an employment destination (23.8% and 21.9%, respectively). However, there was a larger difference between the proportion of non-disadvantaged and disadvantaged students who did not achieve grades 9 - 4 in English and Maths and who sustained an apprenticeship destination (10.8% and 6.5%, respectively) or employment destination (30.6% and 23.9%, respectively).