The score is a weighted average of the highest level of qualification achieved by school leavers, for all leavers within a data zone and intermediate zone, over three academic years. The score is based on the SCQF Level of qualifications gained by leavers in National Qualifications and Skills for Work. These statistics are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. See the 'Description' box for more information.
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The score presented in this dataset is a weighted average of the highest level of qualification achieved by school leavers, averaged across all leavers within a certain geographical area, over 3 academic years. The qualifications included are National Qualifications and Skills for Work, and the level refers to the SCQF level of the qualifications. The geographical areas considered are data zones and intermediate zones. The COVID-19 pandemic will have affected these statistics for some years. Please see the relevant text below.
The score is a weighted average. To calculate it, we first assign each school leaver an individual score, based on the highest level of qualification they achieved at grades C to A in National Qualifications or Skills for Work while at school. A school leaver who achieved a Level 3 qualification as their highest level of qualification while at school is given an individual score of three. A school leaver who achieved a Level 4 qualification as their highest level while at school is given a score of four. A school leaver who achieved a Level 5 qualification as their highest level while at school is given a score of five. A school leaver who achieved a Level 6 qualification as their highest level while at school is given a score of six. A school leaver who achieved a Level 7 qualification as their highest level while at school is given a score of seven. Where a school leaver’s highest qualification was at a grade D, this is scored as being a qualification at the SCQF level below. For example, if a leaver’s highest qualification was a grade D in an SCQF Level 6 qualification, we have scored this as though their highest qualification was an SCQF Level 5 qualification and given them a score of five. (This adjustment for grade D only applies to qualifications at SCQF levels 4 to 7). The individual scores are then added together for all the school leavers within a geographic area (a data zone or an intermediate zone), and the total score divided by the total number of school leavers in that area, to get the average score for the area.
The qualifications we consider for this score are National Qualifications and Skills for Work. For more information on these qualifications, see the guide to National Qualifications from the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the SQA, at: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/97077.html. The levels refer to the level of each qualification as defined by the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). For more information on SCQF Levels, see the SQA’s guide to SCQF levels, at: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/71387.html.
Please note that this score is based on the highest qualification each school leaver attained, not the number of qualifications they attained. For example, a pupil who leaves school with four Level 3 qualifications will score three, and a pupil leaving school with one Level 5 qualification will score five.
COVID-19 pandemic: these statistics will be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to changes in how qualifications were assessed in 2020 and 2021. In particular, the cancellation of exams and external assessment of coursework in 2020, and the use of the Alternative Certification Model in 2021, will have affected the attainment of many pupils in those years. It may also have affected some pupils’ decisions on when to leave school, which affects the number of school leavers in any one year. Pupils’ decisions on when to leave school may also have affected the highest level of qualification some of them achieved before leaving. These effects should be borne in mind when looking at changes in the data over time. Users should be careful about making comparisons between data for groups of years affected by COVID-19 (for example, 2017/18-2019/20, and 2018/19-2020/21), and groups of years before COVID-19 (for example, 2016/17-2018/19). For more information on the impact of COVID-19 on school leaver attainment, please see the 2021 and 2022 editions of the publication ‘Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations', which can be accessed from: https://www.gov.scot/collections/school-education-statistics/.
The data on National Qualifications and Skills for Work achieved by each school leaver are obtained by Scottish Government from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and are post-appeals data. These data are linked to the pupil information from the Scottish Government’s school leavers dataset, using each pupil's Scottish Candidate Number. The school leavers dataset is based on information provided to the Scottish Government by Skills Development Scotland. For more information, please see the background notes to the publication ‘Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations', at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-attainment-and-initial-leaver-destinations-data-sources-and-methodology-2025/pages/introduction/.
Data is based on an average of three years. The year relates to the academic year. For example, 2018/19 refers to August 2018 to June 2019.
The data includes all school leavers from publicly funded secondary schools and publicly funded special schools in Scotland. Data on leavers from independent schools is not included, as the Scottish Government does not collect it.
The weighted average scores are calculated for data zones, and for intermediate zones. Data zones are small geographical areas which typically contain between 500 and 1,000 household residents. Following the 2011 Census, there are 6,976 data zones in Scotland. For more information on data zones, see the Scottish Government webpage on data zone boundaries at: https://spatialdata.gov.scot/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/7d3e8709-98fa-4d71-867c-d5c8293823f2. Intermediate zones are larger geographical areas which are made up of data zones. Intermediate zones typically contain between 2,500 and 6,000 household residents. Following the 2011 Census, there are 1,279 intermediate zones in Scotland. For more information on intermediate zones, see the Scottish Government webpage on intermediate zone boundaries at: https://www.spatialdata.gov.scot/geonetwork/srv/api/records/389787c0-697d-4824-9ca9-9ce8cb79d6f5. A pupil is assigned to a geographical area (data zone and intermediate zone) based on their home address. If their postcode is missing from our data set, their school’s postcode is used. Information on a pupil's home address and school address are taken from the Scottish Government's annual pupil census. Where a geographical area contains fewer than 5 school leavers in a 3 year period, we have chosen not to show any data for that area. This is to protect against disclosing personal information. Some geographical areas may have no school leavers in a 3 year period.
In some geographical areas, there were no school leavers in the school years considered; therefore a rate could not be determined. These geographical area have been removed from the dataset. For disclosure reasons data zones where there are less than 5 school leavers over the 3 years, have been removed from the data set.
Quality checks are conducted by Scottish Government.
Quality checks are conducted by Scottish Government. The data are based on three census collections: the Scottish Government's annual pupil census, post-appeals qualifications data submitted by SQA, and the school leaver dataset supplied by Skills Development Scotland. The known gaps in the data are qualifications for independent school pupils.
Scotland has a different set of qualifications to the rest of the UK and comparisons cannot be made directly.
These data are from the same sources and follow the same quality assurance processes as the school leaver attainment statistics in the National Statistics publication 'Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations', which can be accessed from the webpage: https://www.gov.scot/collections/school-education-statistics/
This indicator is based on pupils' qualifications at the point of leaving school. The qualifications included are National Qualifications and Skills for Work. Other qualifications at equivalent Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels - for example, National Progression Awards and National Certificates - are not included in this measure. Information on school leavers' attainment in other qualifications can be found in the National Statistics publication 'Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations', which can be accessed from the webpage: https://www.gov.scot/collections/school-education-statistics/
The Scottish Government only collects information on pupils in publicly funded schools, therefore this indicator does not include information on pupils attending an independent school.
A 3-year rolling average dataset, starting with the 3-year period 2011/12 - 2013/14. It is updated on an annual basis.
These data are not subject to planned major revisions. The revisions policy follows the Scottish Government Statistics Group Revisions Policy.
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http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/dimension#refArea
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Measure Type
http://purl.org/linked-data/cube#measureType
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Linked Data is stored in graphs. We keep dataset contents (the data) separately from the metadata, to make it easier for you to find exactly what you need.
The data in this dataset are stored in the graph: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/educational-attainment-of-school-leavers
The data structure definition for this data cube dataset is stored in the same graph as the data: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/educational-attainment-of-school-leavers
All other metadata about this dataset are stored in the graph: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/educational-attainment-of-school-leavers/metadata
A breakdown by type of the 80,793 resources in this dataset's data graph.
| Resource type | Number of resources |
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| Collection | 2 |
| Component specification | 5 |
| Data set | 1 |
| Data structure definition | 1 |
| Observation | 80,784 |
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