16-19 destination measures
Students sustaining an education, apprenticeship or employment destination after 16-19 study in England. Includes disadvantage, ethnicity and other breakdowns.
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Headline facts and figures
Sustained education, apprenticeship or employment
77.5%
1.5 percentage point decrease since last year
Which students are included?
Students who reached the end of 16 to 19 study in 2024 regardless of level of qualification studied. This statistic is for state-funded mainstream schools and colleges.
Sustained education destination
43.4%
0.1 percentage point increase since previous year
What is an education destination?
Includes all students who had six months of continuous activity in higher and further education institutions and other settings between October and March in 2024/25 academic year.
Sustained apprenticeships
7.0%
0.4 percentage point decrease since last year
What is an apprenticeship destination?
Includes all students who had six months of continuous apprenticeship activity in the 2024/25 academic year.
Sustained employment destination
27.2%
1.1 percentage point decrease since previous year
What is an employment destination?
Includes all students who had six months of continuous employment activity between October and March in 2024/25.
This publication is about the destinations for pupils from state funded mainstream schools and colleges who left 16 to 19 study in 2023/24 and follows their destinations in 2024/25.
The headline destination rate was 77.5% for students that were deemed to have reached the end of 16 to 19 study in 2024 this is 1.5 percentage points lower when compared to the previous academic year.
This continues a year on year decrease in the percentage of students sustaining a destination since the 2021 leavers cohort.
- 43.4% of pupils were in sustained education, this shows a 0.1 percentage point increase since last year.
- 7.0% of pupils were in sustained apprenticeship, this shows a 0.4 percentage point decrease since last year.
- 27.2% of pupils were in sustained employment, a 1.1 percentage point decrease since last year.
School and college level data
Compare school and college performance (CSCP) (opens in new tab) will close soon. From autumn 2026, you will be able to use a new service. Data on CSCP will not be updated past the 2024/25 academic year.
However, you can also view the latest data in this release via the table tool by following these steps:
- At the top of the release, select Explore and download data
- Scroll down to "Data sets: download or create tables" and click "Create table" under "16-19 study leavers institution level destinations".
- Use the search box to find a school or college by name or unique reference number (URN). Select the required schools and colleges using the tick boxes. You can select multiple schools or colleges. Click "Next step".
- Select the required time period and click "Next step".
- Under "Choose your filters", select the measures you wish to view. the headline destination measure is "Sustained education, employment & apprenticeships". You can also select pupil characteristics and qualification level at this stage.
- Click "Create table" to view the data.
You can also download the complete datasets via the same link above.
What are destination measures?
Destination measures provide information on the success of schools and colleges in helping young people continue in education, apprenticeships or employment
Destination measures show the percentage of students going to or remaining in an education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the academic year after completing 16 to 19 studies (finishing year 13, usually aged 18).
The most recent data reports on students who completed this stage in the 2023/24 academic year and identifies their main activity in the following academic year (2024/25).
What is a ‘sustained’ destination?
To be counted in a destination, young people have to be recorded as having sustained participation for a 6 month period in the destination year. This means attending for all of the first two terms of the academic year (October 2024 to March 2025) at one or more education providers; spending 5 of the 6 months in employment or a combination of the two.
A sustained apprenticeship is recorded when 6 months continuous participation is recorded at any point in the destination year (between August 2024 and July 2025).
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disruption
Destination outcomes in 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years were affected by the disruption to the economy and educational settings caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 2020, 2021 and 2022 leavers (with destination outcomes 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23) were also impacted by changes to grading approaches during these years as well as the ongoing uneven impacts of the pandemic on different schools, colleges and pupils,
Change across the years
Making comparisons over time
When viewing changes over time, users should also account for the fact that certain cohorts of students will have been impacted by measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and associated disruption to education settings and the wider economy.
The overall sustained destination rate for this cohort of 16 to 19 study leavers was 77.5%, driven by drops in apprenticeship and employment destinations since last year. The rate has been decreasing each year since the 2020/21 academic year leavers cohort.
5.4% of 2024 study leavers sustained a further education destination, this is similar to the proportion sustaining in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 cohorts but 2.9 percentage points lower than the peak seen in the 2020/21 leavers cohort, although the 2020/21 cohort would have received CAGs/ TAGs and were more likely to go into education.
Student characteristics
Disadvantage status
Disadvantaged students were less likely to have a sustained destination than non-disadvantaged students
Students who were eligible for pupil premium in year 11 (just under a quarter of the cohort in all state funded mainstream schools and colleges) were 15.9 percentage points less likely to have an overall sustained destination when leaving 16 to 19 study in 2024 compared to all other students. This gap in the previous year was 14.8 percentage points and continues a widening trend since the 2021 cohort of leavers.
Disadvantaged students were less likely to progress to higher education than non-disadvantaged students
While 40.0% of students not known to be disadvantaged leaving 16 to 19 education progressed directly to higher education, the rate for disadvantaged pupils was 27.5% (12.5 percentage points lower). 6.7% of disadvantaged students continued in further education, compared to 5.0% of all students not known to be disadvantaged.
The gap between those sustaining an employment destination is 3.1 percentage points, 27.9% for students not known to be disadvantaged and 24.8% of those identified as being disadvantaged.
Sex
Female students were more likely to have an overall sustained destination than male students
Overall, 80.8% of female students leaving 16 to 19 study in 2024 had a sustained destination compared to 74.4% of male students. This is a difference of 6.4 percentage points, this gap widened from a gap of 5.7 percentage points in the previous academic year cohort and continues the widening trend over time.
Female students were more likely to continue in education than males (48.3% compared to 38.5%) and were less likely to take up apprenticeships (5.5% compared to 8.4%) after 16 to 19 study than male students.
The gap between male and female students is most pronounced in progression to higher education. While 42.3% of female students went to higher education, 31.9% of male students did so. This is a difference of 10.4 percentage points. This is a slight increase of 0.4 percentage points than the difference of 10 percentage points observed in the previous academic year's cohort.
Ethnicity
Destination outcomes varied by ethnicity, particularly at the level of minor ethnic group
Overall sustained destinations showed relatively little variation between the five identified major ethnic groups (a variation of around 4.6 percentage points from 75.2% to 79.8%) for 16 to 19 study leavers in 2023/24.
However, 37.3% of students within the white major ethnic group sustained an education destination, between 10.6 and 25.4 percentage points below the other identified major ethnic groups. They are however, twice as likely to sustain an apprenticeship (8.6% vs 3.5%) and employment destination (32.3% vs. 16.0%) compared to the rest of the cohort. Regional effects may interlink with major ethnic groups and education destinations, as London (the region with highest sustained education destinations) is the only region where less than half of students within this year's cohort are within the white major ethnic group.
Overall sustained destinations varied significantly when looking at minor ethnic groupings. Students of Chinese ethnicity were most likely to have a sustained destination (88.8%).
Students who identified as Irish traveller or Gypsy / Roma (52.5% and 47.3% respectively) are least likely (out of all students with an identified ethnicity) to have a sustained destination. However, these groups are relatively small and their outcomes are volatile between years.
Special educational needs (key stage 4 status)
This sections covers students special education needs (SEN) status as at key stage 4 (KS4), rather than during 16 to 19 study. As schools and colleges record SEN differently, including KS4 SEN status allows a better view across the whole cohort and this section relates to all state-funded mainstream schools and colleges. SEN status is identified only for students who completed key stage 4 in England.
Data for 16 to 19 study leavers with identified special educational needs (SEN) during 16 to 19 study, specifically from state-funded mainstream schools, are available in the underlying data.
The cohort covered by the key stage 4 breakdown below differs from the 16 to 19 SEN breakdown which only covers schools and has a different qualification level breakdown. Comparisons across the two breakdowns should therefore be avoided.
Students with special educational needs (SEN) at key stage 4 were less likely to have a sustained destination overall than students with no identified special educational needs
Students who had education, health and care plans (SEN with EHC plan or statement) were as likely to have a sustained education destination (44.9% of study leavers) than students with no identified special educational needs (44.8%). However, the type of education destination differs between the two groups. The most common education destination for students with SEN with EHC plan or statement was further education (29.7%). The most common education destination for student with no identified SEN was higher education (39.6%).
Students leaving 16 to 19 study who had SEN support at key stage 4 were as likely to sustain an employment destination as students with no identified SEN, with 27.7% of all students finding employment in the academic year following study compared to 27.6% for students with no identified SEN.
Learners with learning difficulties or disabilities (LLDD)
The learning difficulties or disability indicator is only recorded for college students so data in this section is specifically for 16 to 19 study leavers from state-funded mainstream colleges.
College students identified as learners with learning difficulties or disabilities (LLDD) were less likely to have an overall sustained destination compared to students with no identified learning difficulties or disabilities.
Students identified as having learning difficulties or disabilities were 9.3 percentage points less likely to have an overall sustained destination than those students with no identified learning difficulties or disabilities (LLDD) (64.6% compared to 73.9% respectively).
College students with identified learning difficulties or disabilities were also less likely to sustain a destination for each of the headline destinations individually (education, apprenticeship or employment) compared to those without any identified learning difficulties or disabilities.
Geographical location
Sustained activity varies by region
North East England had the lowest rate of overall sustained destinations (75.1%) for 16 to 19 study leavers in 2023/24, while South East and East Midlands had the highest overall rate of 79.4%, a gap of 4.3 percentage points, this gap has steadily narrowed since 2017 leavers (6.3 percentage points).
The North East had the highest rate of students progressing to apprenticeships (10.3%) with London having the lowest (3.5%) .
There are higher rates of higher education destinations in London
Around half of all students (50.0%) leaving schools and colleges in London progressed to sustained higher education within a year. There was more than a 12.0 percentage point gap between London and East Midlands, the region with the second highest higher education rate, and over 22.5 percentage points from South West England, the region with the lowest higher education rate.
Qualification level studied and prior attainment
What are qualification levels?
Most qualifications have a difficulty level. The higher the level, the more difficult the qualification is. The changes to the cohort last year had a much bigger effect on students studying lower levels so any comparisons across years should be avoided.
Just over 73% of young people who reached the end of 16 to 19 study at state-funded mainstream schools and colleges in England took qualifications at level 3. A levels, T levels, applied general qualifications and tech levels are all level 3 qualifications.
Just under 15% of students who reached the end of 16 to 19 study had taken predominantly level 2 qualifications. These include GCSEs at grades above 3 as well as other, vocational level 2 qualifications.
The rest of the 16 to 19 leavers fall into the ‘all other’ category (around 13%). 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, 84.8% of all students who studied mainly at level 3 had a sustained destination, compared to 60.4% of students who studied at level 2 and 55.2% of students who studied any other qualification.
Level 3 students mostly continued in education, while students studying at lower levels tended to go into employment and apprenticeships
54.5% of level 3 students sustained an education destination after 16 to 19 study. Of those who mainly took level 2 courses, 14.4% sustained an education destination, 10.6% sustained an apprenticeship and 35.4% sustained employment.
Well over a quarter (30.9%) of students who predominately took qualifications other than level 2 or 3 (including those below level 2) sustained an employment destination, 11.8% sustained an education destination and 12.6% sustained an apprenticeship. Almost a third (32.6%) of all students who took courses that were not Level 2 or 3 did not sustain any activity for 6 months in the academic year following study.
For the first time this year the level 3 cohorts are broken down by qualification type and available in the underlying data.
Prior attainment
Attainment for this cohort of students is available for two sets of assessments - the end of key stage 2 (KS2), when children take national tests in reading, maths, and grammar, punctuation and spelling (age 11); and at the end of key stage 4 (KS4), when most pupils take GCSEs or other equivalent qualifications (age 16).
The measures indicating whether students have met key thresholds are published by the Department for Education as outcomes from, and accountability measures for, these key stages. Although some students make faster or slower progress during secondary school, attainment at the two key stages is closely correlated.
Pupils are allocated into three prior attainment groups based on their key stage 2 results - for low, middle, and high prior attainers. This cohort of leavers reflects the policies in place at the time that the cohort completed key stage 2, and are not affected by the 2016 changes to KS2 national curriculum tests. We continue to refer to national curriculum levels in the table.
Key stage 4 attainment shows whether pupils achieved a grade of either 4 or above in English and maths GCSEs.
Prior attainment at key stage 4 (age 16)
Students who achieved grades 4 or above in English and maths at key stage 4 were more likely to have a sustained destination after 16 to 19 study
Students who achieved grades 4 or above in English and maths at key stage 4 were more likely to have a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination (84.3%) than students who did not (60.7%). The difference is largely due to students who achieved grades 4 or above in English and maths were more likely to have a sustained education destination (50.2%) than those who did not (23.7%).
Students who did not achieve grades 4 or above in English and maths were more likely to have a sustained employment destination
Students who did not achieve grades 4 or above in English and maths were more likely to have a sustained employment destination (30.9%) in comparison to students who did achieve these grades (26.5%).
Institution type
Comparing school and college destination outcomes
When comparing destination outcomes between schools and colleges, it is important to take account of the differences in their student populations. Compared to schools, a higher proportion of students leave colleges having taken mainly qualifications at level 2 and below. These students tend to have lower prior attainment which is related to their likelihood of sustaining an education destination.
Destinations of students from different provider types are likely to reflect differences in the kinds of courses studied, differences in prior attainment, as well as student preferences.
Destinations for college and school students
Level 3 college leavers were more likely to go to apprenticeships and employment
College students completing level 3 study were less likely to have a sustained education destination than students in schools (44.7% compared to 61.9% ), but more likely to sustain an employment destinations (30.9% compared to 20.5%) after completing 16 to 19 study.
Students who mainly took level 2 qualifications at colleges were more likely to have a sustained destination overall compared to schools
College students who completed level 2 study this year were more likely to have a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment outcome than the equivalent students in schools. The largest gap between the two was for education (2.6 percentage points).
Destinations by provider type
16-19 Sponsor Led academies and converter academies had the highest number of pupils sustaining an overall destination, but with different patterns of destinations between the two types.
Overall, 85.4% of all students leaving local authority (LA) maintained schools sustained a destination compared to 87.0% of students leaving converter academies. Their outcomes were similar in terms of the proportion of students sustaining an education, apprenticeship or employment destination.
Other further education sector colleges had the lowest percentage of pupils sustaining a destination overall with 68.7% of students sustaining a destination, with 33.3% sustaining an employment destination. This is likely impacted by the intake of students at Other further education colleges, with a much higher proportion of students at level 2 or below study compared to other provider types.
University Technical Colleges had the highest proportion of students going to apprenticeships
16.2% of students leaving University Technical Colleges (UTCs) went on to a sustained apprenticeship destination. This is more than twice the national average for students sustaining an apprenticeship destination (7.0%).
6.5% of students leaving UTCs sustained an apprenticeship destination at level 4 or above (level 4 apprenticeship is equivalent to a foundation degree). This is compared to the national average of 1.2% of school and college leavers sustaining an apprenticeship destination at level 4 or above.
Destinations of special school leavers
Over half of all students that reached the end of 16 to 19 study in special schools continued in education in the following year
This is likely to be related to the higher proportion of students with EHCP in these schools and their high education destination rate. Of these 24.4% remained in specialist provision whilst 26.2% went into further education at level 1 study or below.
Special school leavers were less likely to enter apprenticeships or employment than students leaving state-funded mainstream providers.
Additional information
API data sets
All of the underlying data files associated with this publication are now available via our new API, which allows users to connect to data directly from data manipulation and visualisation tools such as PowerBI, Python and R. View the available data products in the data catalogue or read our API documentation (opens in new tab). For instructions of how to connect Excel to the API please see this video (opens in new tab).
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If you have a specific enquiry about 16-19 destination measures statistics and data:
Destination measures
Email: Destination.MEASURES@education.gov.ukContact name: Daniel Brown
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