This data was revised in January 2022 to include the latest available results data
These official 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 2022 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 data.
View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool
Browse and download open data files from this release in our data catalogue
Learn more about the data files used in this release using our online guidance
Download all data available in this release as a compressed ZIP file
All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:
Institution level data showing the sustained destination of students in the year after completing key stage 4 study.
Key stage 4 destination measures follow pupils who were at the end of key stage 4 study (GCSE and equivalent qualifications) in 2018/19, and reports their destinations in the following academic year (2019/20).
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.
Impact of COVID-19 on destination measures
As this publication is looking at activity in the first two terms of the 2019/20 academic year it is mostly unaffected by the COVID-19 disruption. The only exception to this is data for students progressing to apprenticeships, this is because the methodology takes into account whether students have sustained an apprenticeship for 6 months at anytime in the 2019/20 academic year (August 2019 and July 2020), rather than the first two terms for other destinations. Please see the ‘constructing the measure’ section for full details on destination definitions.
Girls are more likely than boys to have a sustained education destination
Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) are less likely to have a sustained destination
Overall sustained activity after key stage 4 is broadly similar across all regions
Looking across all regions the proportion of pupils with a sustained education, apprenticeship and employment destination has very little variation. This ranges from 92.4% in the North East to 95.2% in both the East of England and Outer London. But there are variations when looking across the different destinations.
Outer London had the highest percentage of pupils going to an education destination after key stage 4
92.1% of pupils leaving state funded mainstream schools in Outer London went onto a sustained education destination the following year, the highest of all regions. This compares to North East which had the lowest at 83.8%. Inner London had the lowest rates going to apprenticeship (0.8%) and employment (1.2%) destinations.
North East, South West and Yorkshire and The Humber have the highest percentage of pupils going to an apprenticeship destination
5.2% of pupils progress onto a sustained apprenticeship destination in the North East and 5% in Yorkshire and The Humber and the South West.
Compared to previous years, destination rates for state-funded mainstream leavers remained stable in 2019/2020
In the 2019/20 academic year, 94.0% of pupils had a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing key stage 4. Consistent with previous years, the majority of pupils continued in education (87.2%), 3.7% went into a sustained apprenticeship and 3.1% were in sustained employment.
Sustained education destinations have remained stable in recent years. They increased by 4.3 percentage points between 2010/11 and 2013/14 (up from 82.4% to 86.7%). The rise is driven by the raising the participation age (RPA) policy which was introduced in 2013/14.
Apprenticeships have dropped slightly, continuing the trend of recent years. This trend is consistent with the apprenticeship participation seen in other statistics.
Employment destinations have been constant at around 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 (5.0% in 2019/20) will have some participation in the year after finishing key stage 4 but is not sustained throughout the required 6 month period.
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.
The majority (97.0%) of those with high key stage 2 prior attainment in reading, writing and maths at age 11 had a sustained destination, compared to 92.8% of those in the middle prior attainment band, and 88.4% 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 in their destination year than those with lower prior attainment, while those with lower prior attainment were more likely to attend FE colleges.
The majority (97.6%) of those achieving grade 4 and above in English and maths had a sustained education, employment or apprenticeship destination compared to 87.2% of those who did not.
Those achieving grade 4 or above were much more likely to attend school sixth forms (50.5%) and sixth-form colleges (16.2%), and less likely to attend further education colleges and other providers (25.2%) compared to students who did not achieve grade 4 and above (11.6%, 6.6% and 57.3% 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 (5.8%) or apprenticeships (5.0%) compared to students achieving grades 9 - 4 at key stage 4 (1.7% and 3.0% 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 form college and more likely to go into a further education college than equivalent non disadvantaged pupils.
Low attaining disadvantaged pupils were less than half as likely to go into sustained apprenticeships (2.9 percentage point gap) and more than twice as likely to not sustain their destination (7.4 percentage point gap) than low attaining non disadvantaged pupils.
Disadvantage and prior attainment at key stage 4
95.2% 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, 2.9 percentage points less than other pupils who had also achieved grade 4 and above in English and Maths (98.1%).
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 82.2% of disadvantaged students had any sustained destination, compared to 90.6% of all other pupils – an 8.4 percentage point gap.
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.
University technical colleges (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 University technical colleges (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 94.0%. Sponsored academies (91.2%), studio schools (89.8%) and further education (FE) colleges (81.2%) are below the national average.
For information about different provider types visit Get information about schools glossary (opens in a new tab).
Sustained apprenticeship and employment destinations for UTCs (7.6% and 5.1%), FE colleges (4.8% and 6.7%) and studio schools (6.8% and 6.7%) are above the national average (3.7% and 3.1%) in both categories. All other school types are broadly similar to the national average, except for Free schools which have a higher proportion of education destinations than other types.
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 37.2%, 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 (18.7%) have the highest proportion going into sixth form colleges.
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, 89.3% had an overall sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination compared to 94.0% for pupils in state-funded mainstream schools.
Over half of pupils from special schools (52.8%) stayed in the special school sector.
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. 62.0% of pupils from alternative provision went to a sustained destination, compared with 94.0% from state-funded mainstream schools.
Nearly a third (32.4%) of pupils in any AP provision didn't sustain their destination for the required 6 month period, this compares to 5.0% of students from state funded mainstream schools. A larger proportion of AP pupils had no activity captured compared to mainstream pupils (5.6% compared to 1.0%).
AP pupils were more likely to go on to employment (9.9% compared to 3.1% in mainstream schools).
Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these 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:
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.
If you have a specific enquiry about Key stage 4 destination measures statistics and data:
If you have a media enquiry:
Telephone: 020 7783 8300
If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:
Telephone: 037 0000 2288
Opening times:
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays)