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Key stage 4 destination measures
View latest data: Academic year 2022/23This is not the latest data
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See all updates (1) for Academic year 2018/19
Release updated with revised 2018/19 destinations data. Adjustment made to the processing of further education destinations data.
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Introduction
These statistics show the percentage of pupils continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing key stage 4 study (after year 11).
The release also provides information on destination outcomes for different groups of pupils and education providers.
This data was revised in January 2021 to include the latest available results data. This data is used to identify pupils who continued their studies in independent schools. The revision led to no overall change in the national headline but it did raise sustained rates of 580 individual providers.
The revision was also used to make an adjustment to how further education data is processed. This led to an overall 3 percentage point decrease in general FE destinations and a corresponding 3 percentage point rise in sixth form college destinations (state-funded mainstream school leavers).
Headline facts and figures - 2018/19
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What are destination measures
Key stage 4 destination measures follow pupils who were at the end of key stage 4 study (GCSE and equivalent qualifications) in 2017/18, and reports their destinations in the following academic year (2018/19).
They show the percentage of pupils going to an education, apprenticeship or employment destination. To be counted in a destination, young people have to have sustained participation for a 6 month period in the destination year. Full details are provided in the methodology document that accompanies this release.
The headline statistics refer to pupils leaving state-funded mainstream schools in England.
Not all pupils achieve a sustained destination by staying in education, employment or apprenticeships for at least two terms, but in most cases some data exists on their activity in the destination year. Overall, there is activity information on 99% of the cohort.
Changes over time
In the 2018/19 academic year, 94% of pupils had a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing key stage 4, the same as reported in 2017/18. Consistent with previous years, the majority of pupils continued in education (87%), 4% went into a sustained apprenticeship and 3% were in sustained employment.
Sustained education destinations have remained stable in recent years. They increased by 5 percentage points between 2010/11 and 2013/14 (up from 82% to 87%). The rise is driven by the raising the participation age (RPA) policy which was introduced in 2013/14.
Apprenticeships have remained broadly constant, fluctuating between 4% and 5%.
Employment destinations have been constant at 3% since 2014/15 when Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) employment data was added.
Many of the pupils not counted as being in a sustained destination will have some participation in the year after finishing key stage 4 but is not sustained throughout the required 6 month period.
Pupil characteristics
Girls are more likely than boys to have a sustained education destination
- In state funded mainstream schools, 95% of girls and 94% of boys had a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination.
- Girls (89%) were more likely to have an education destination than boys (85%) and boys (5%) more likely to have an apprenticeship destination than girls (3%).
Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) are less likely to have a sustained destination
- Pupils with special educational needs were less likely to have any sustained destination than those with no identified SEN. 90% went onto education, employment or apprenticeships compared to 95% of those with no identified SEN.
- SEN pupils overall were also less likely to go into any sustained education destination (81%) than all other pupils (88%) although those with an education, health and care (EHC) plan or statement of SEN were nearly as likely (87%) to go into a sustained education destination.
- Destinations varied by the type of need. Pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs were least likely to go to sustained education (73%) and more likely not to have a sustained destination (16%) compared to all other types of need.
Disadvantaged pupils are less likely to have a sustained destination
- Disadvantaged pupils (those eligible for pupil premium (opens in a new tab) funding) were less likely to have a sustained destination (89%) than all other pupils (96%).
- The most common destination for disadvantaged pupils was further education (43%), compared to a school sixth form destination (42%) for all other pupils.
- Disadvantaged pupils were more likely to enter an employment destination and less likely to go into a sustained apprenticeship than all other pupils. They were also more likely not to sustain a destination (10%) compared to all other pupils (3%).
Destination outcomes vary by ethnicity
- Pupils from Gypsy Roma and Irish traveller backgrounds had very distinctive destinations compared to all other pupils. Only 54% of Gypsy/Roma and 58% of Irish traveller pupils continued in education (mostly in further education providers). They were more likely than other ethnic groups to go into sustained employment or not sustain a destination.
- Pupils from Chinese and Indian backgrounds had the highest rate of sustained education, employment or training destinations overall, at 98%. The majority of them continued in school sixth forms.
- Across the majority of ethnic groups disadvantaged pupils had a lower percentage of sustained destinations than non-disadvantaged pupils. The largest gap was 9 percentage points for pupils of white ethnic background.
Prior attainment
Attainment and destinations are closely linked
Pupils’ attainment both at the end of key stage 4, and at the end of primary school (key stage 2), have a strong relationship with the likelihood of staying in education, apprenticeships or employment, and with the specific destinations to which they progress.
Attainment at different points in time
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.
The prior attainment thresholds referenced reflect the policies in place at the time the cohort completed those key stages and may differ from current benchmarks.
Further information on the prior attainment levels at key stage 2 and key stage 4 can be found in the methodology section of this release.
Attainment at key stage 2 (age 11)
The majority (97%) of those with high key stage 2 prior attainment in reading, writing and maths at age 11 had a sustained destination, compared to 93% of those in the middle prior attainment band, and 89% of those with low key stage 2 prior attainment.
Those with higher prior attainment were much more likely to attend school sixth forms and sixth form colleges at 16, and less likely to attend further education colleges and other providers.
Attainment at key stage 4 (age 16)
The majority (98%) of those achieving grade 4 and above in English and maths had a sustained education, employment or apprenticeship destination compared to 88% of those who did not.
Those achieving grade 4 or above were much more likely to attend school sixth forms (51%) and sixth-form colleges (17%), and less likely to attend further education colleges and other providers (24%) compared to students who did not achieve grade 4 and above (12%, 7% and 56% respectively). This may in part reflect conditions of entry, or the wider range of qualifications, including at level 2 or below, on offer at many FE colleges.
Students not achieving grade 4 or above were more likely to progress to sustained employment (6%) or apprenticeships (6%) compared to students achieving (2% and 3% respectively).
Disadvantaged and all other pupils have similar patterns of destinations by prior attainment
Disadvantage and prior attainment at key stage 2
Disadvantaged and non disadvantaged pupils show similar patterns of destinations when split by prior attainment at key stage 2 but the gap between them remains across all prior attainment levels.
High and middle achieving disadvantaged pupils were less likely to go into a school sixth form or a sixth from college and more likely to go into a further education college than equivalent non disadvantaged pupils.
Low attaining disadvantaged pupils were less likely to go into sustained apprenticeships (3 percentage point gap) and much more likely not to sustain their destination (8 percentage point gap) than low attaining non disadvantaged pupils.
Disadvantage and prior attainment at key stage 4
95% of disadvantaged pupils who achieved grade 4 and above in English and maths went on to stay in education, employment or training for two terms, 3 percentage points less than other pupils who had achieved this (98%).
The gap between disadvantaged and other pupils widens when looking at those who did not achieve a 9-4 pass in English and maths at key stage 4. Only 83% of disadvantaged had any sustained destination, compared to 91% of all other pupils – an 8 percentage point gap.
Mainstream institution type
Destinations for state-funded mainstream institutions by funding type
Included in this publication are further breakdowns by type for state-funded mainstream institutions and include local authority maintained schools, academies, free schools and further education colleges with 14-16 provision.
UTCs, Studio schools and FE colleges
School and college types are reported on the basis of schools open at the start of the 2017/18 academic year (when these pupils began their last year of key stage 4 study).
There are small numbers of UTCs and studio schools and small numbers of pupils in FE colleges with 14-16 provision included in this publication so the data may be subject to volatility for these institution types.
Overall education, employment and apprenticeship destinations for local authority (LA) maintained schools, converter academies, free schools and university technical colleges (UTC) are broadly in line with the national average of 94%. Sponsored academies (91%), studio schools (91%) and further education (FE) colleges (81%) are below the national average.
For information about different provider types visit Get information about schools glossary (opens in a new tab).
The type of education destination differs between school types with pupils in converter academies, free schools and UTC's more likely to go on to school sixth forms, compared to the national average of 38%, while LA maintained schools, sponsored academies and studio schools pupils are less likely to do so. This may partly reflect the higher likelihood of schools of these types having their own sixth-form provision.
LA maintained schools (18%) have the highest proportion going into sixth form colleges.
Sustained apprenticeship and employment destinations for UTCs (9% and 5%) and studio schools (8% and 7%) are above the national average (4% and 3%) in both categories. All other school types are broadly similar to the national average except for FE colleges where students are more than twice as likely to go in to employment (8%) when compared to the national figure of 3%.
Other institution types
Special schools
A number of pupils go to schools specifically for pupils with special educational needs – ‘special schools’. These pupils may either go to state-funded special schools, or non-maintained special schools where state-funding follows the learner. The different types of special school are not shown separately.
Of pupils in special schools, 89% had an overall sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination compared to 94% for pupils in state-funded mainstream schools.
Over half of pupils from special schools (53%) stayed in the special school sector.
Alternative provision (AP)
State place funded AP includes pupil referral units, academy and free school alternative provision and hospital schools.
Other alternative provision includes education funded by the local authority outside of state place funded schools, including independent schools, non-maintained special schools, and providers who do not meet the criteria for registration as a school
Less than 2% of pupils who completed key stage 4 were mainly attending state place funded AP or other type of alternative provision. 60% of pupils from alternative provision went to a sustained destination, compared with 94% from state-funded mainstream schools.
Over a third (34%) of pupils in any AP provision had no sustained destination. A larger proportion of AP pupils had no activity captured compared to mainstream pupils (6% compared to 1%).
AP pupils were more likely to go on to employment (10% compared to 3% in mainstream schools).
Geography
Overall sustained activity after key stage 4 is broadly similar across all regions
Looking across all regions the percentage with a sustained education, apprenticeship and employment destination had very little variation. This ranged from 92% in the North East to 95% in the East of England, London, South East and South West. But there are variations when looking across the different destinations.
London has the highest percentage of pupils going to an education destination after key stage 4
92% of pupils leaving state funded mainstream schools in London went onto a sustained education destination the following year, the highest of all regions. This compares to North East which has the lowest at 83%. London had the lowest rates going to apprenticeship (1%) and employment (2%) destinations.
North east, South west and Yorkshire and the Humber have the highest percentage of pupils going to an apprenticeship destination
6% of pupils went to a sustained apprenticeship destination in the North East, South West and Yorkshire and the Humber, 2 percentage points above the national average.
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Methodology
Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.
Official statistics
These are Official Statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:
- managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
- meet identified user needs
- produced according to sound methods
- well explained and readily accessible
Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
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If you have a specific enquiry about Key stage 4 destination measures statistics and data:
Destination measures
Email: Destination.MEASURES@education.gov.ukContact name: Daniel Brown
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