The following statistics are classified as official statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, rather than being classed as national statistics and approved as such by the United Kingdom Statistics Authority. The statistics are included for transparency purposes.
Data in this section refers to 2021/22 and was first published in March 2023. Data for 2022/23 is planned to be released in March 2024.
The National Achievement Rate Tables (NARTs) present detailed tables of provider level Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs) that we use for performance management and informed choice purposes. Additionally we provide some national summary tables to show overall performance in the sector with a three year time series to enable comparison of change in performance over time. Whilst NARTs provide data on 19+ provision for performance management purposes, 16-18 provision is also included to give a complete view of individual provider performance.
In March 2020, the Secretary of State announced that the summer 2020 exam series in England would be cancelled to help fight the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). This announcement also stated that Government will not publish any school, college or provider-level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for the 2019/20 academic year.
In February 2021, given the continued disruption, it was confirmed this would also be the case for the 2020/21 academic year. As a consequence of the disruption to the assessment process, the government announced a change to its school and college accountability approach, stating providers will not be held to account on the basis of exams and assessment data from summer 2020. This release will therefore only contain provider level data for 2021/22.
Headline figures at a national level are available to provide a three-year time series, showing data from 2019/20 to 2021/22. That historical data has not been re-calculated and is shown as originally published in March 2022.
Data for years prior to 2019/20 can be found in the Statistics: national achievement rates tables collection.
Apprenticeship achievement rate statistics are available in the Apprenticeships and traineeships statistics publication.
Headline facts and figures
Overall achievement rates within the 19+ Education and Training cohort have increased from 85.5% in 2020/21 to 86.2% in 2021/22, an increase of 0.7 percentage points. Compared with 2019/20 they are up by 0.2 percentage points.
Things you need to know about this release
Care should be taken when comparing outcomes with previous years.
The purpose of releasing national level achievement rate data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 is to maintain the continuity of information and to provide context alongside the achievement volumes found elsewhere in this publication. It is important to maintain transparency by presenting the national level data for this cohort of learners whilst recognising the extraordinary circumstances surrounding 2019/20 and 2020/21 achievement rates, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Care should be taken when comparing with previous years due to the effects of the pandemic such as disruption to exams and assessments.
Significant change in the way some assessments happened in 2019/20, and to a lesser extent in 2020/21, compared to previous years. Additionally, a significant change in some qualifications with the size of the cohort participating. As a result, care should be taken when comparing data with previous years.
19+ Education and Training achievement rates by sector subject area
Different sectors have been affected in different ways and as a result, care should be taken when comparing data with previous years.
The largest sector is Preparation for Life and Work (674,040) making up 47.2% of the total. 86.8% of this activity is below level two.
The sector with the highest achievement rate in 2021/22 is Arts, Media and Publishing with 91.1%.
The sector showing the highest increase in achievement rate since last year is Leisure, Travel and Tourism with an increase of 15 percentage points from 63.9% in 2020/21 to 78.9% in 2021/22.
The sector with the largest decrease is Science and Mathematics, decreasing by 7 percentage points from 86.4% in 2020/21 to 79.4% in 2021/22.
Use our table tool to explore this data further by level and qualification type, by pressing the green “Explore Data” button.
19+ Achievement Rates by Learner Characteristics
Overall achievement rates by ethnicity
The figures in this section cover the achievement rates for those learners who are from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). Please note the figures for “White ethnic groups” includes white minorities.
In 2021/22, learners aged 19+ from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) had an overall education and training achievement rate of 85.9%, an increase of 1.1 percentage points from 84.8% in 2020/21.
The number of learners from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) was 587,000 which represents 41.2% of all learners. The take up of education and training for learners from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) varies according to the sector subject area.
The sector with the highest proportion of learners from minority ethnic groups (excluding white minorities) was Preparation for Life and Work where 54.9% of learners were from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). The sector with the lowest proportion was Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care at 10.1%.
Caution should be used interpreting simple averages because differences in provision mix across sectors will lead to change in overall averages. Press the green ‘Explore data’ button above to look at the data by age, level, sector subject area, qualification type.
Background information
National achievement rate tables are based on underlying Qualification Achievement Rates (QAR) data. Information about the process surrounding QARs can be found here:
Introduction to Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs)
How rates are calculated
Information about how QARs are calculated can be found here:
Qualification achievement rates 2021 to 2022
Redactions
We have redacted three providers from our formal performance tables (NARTs) where we are unable to form a reliable QAR. This is done where the data we hold does not allow us to calculate a reliable estimate and therefore provides an unfair measure of performance. We publish headline information for these providers separately for transparency, but they do not constitute a formal QAR and should not be used to compare performance. The underpinning data is included in our national achievement rates to provide a complete view of performance.
Details can be found in the ‘Education and Training Achievement Rates – Transparency Redactions.pdf’ supporting file in the Additional supporting files accordion.
Additional featured tables
The following featured tables offer more detailed breakdowns and combinations of characteristics and are available in our create your own tables tool:
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Demographics
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Ethnicity
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Learners with a learning difficulty and or disability
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Provider
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Sex
To view achievement rates by provider, with provider type, please see the supporting 'Education and Training Achievement Rates - By Provider with Provider Type’ file in the Additional supporting files accordion.
UPDATED APRIL 2023 - We have amended the Learning Aim Title column to now include the Learning Aim Reference. This is to allow differentiation between those learning aims which have identical names. This is available within the Create your own tables tool, in the “Achievement Rates - Subject by Age, SSA T1, Qualification type, Level, Learning aim title” option.
We have also made this available as a downloadable CSV file with the learning aim reference available as a separate column in the Additional supporting files accordion.
