Destinations of school pupils after key stage 4 (usually aged 16 years)

Published

Last updated 9 February 2018 - see all updates

This page corrects mistakes in a previous version. See details.

1. Main facts and figures

  • in 2014/15, over 90% of pupils from nearly every ethnic group went into education, employment or training for at least two terms after key stage 4 – the exceptions were White Gypsy/Roma and White Irish Traveller pupils, where the figure was about two-thirds

  • in 2014/15, a higher percentage of pupils from every ethnic group went into education, employment or training compared to 2010/11 – the percentage of all pupils doing this went up by 5 percentage points over this period (from 89% to 94%)

  • Chinese and Indian pupils were consistently the most likely to stay in education, employment or training every year from 2010/11 to 2014/15

  • White British pupils and Mixed White and Black Caribbean pupils were less likely to stay in education in 2014/15, compared to the national average for all pupils

  • in 2014/15, White Gypsy/Roma and White Irish Traveller pupils were the least likely to stay in education (at 62% and 58% respectively), but the most likely to go into employment or training (at 6% and 9% respectively)

Things you need to know

This data only includes the immediate destinations of pupils in the year after finishing key stage 4 study, not at longer term outcomes. It doesn’t measure the quality of the education or employment engaged in, for example, whether work or study is full or part time, the level of pay, or the level of study.

The data comes from administrative sources recording enrolment in schools and colleges in England and universities in the UK, matched tax and benefit data and some local authority records of young people's activity.

To be counted as having been in education, pupils must have had sustained education participation recorded for 6 months from October to March immediately after key stage 4. Students who combined education and employment are counted as being in education.

To be counted as having been in employment or training, pupils must have had sustained employment or training participation recorded in 5 out of 6 months from October to March, and to also been in employment or training in April, if not in March.

Pupils who completed some education or employment from October to March immediately after stage 5, but for less than the required time, are counted as having no sustained education or employment.

Not all destinations could be captured - for example, if people went into work or study overseas or attended a school or college in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, their destination would be unknown. Destinations were captured for 97% to 99% of all ethnic groups except Gypsy/Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage pupils, where the figure was 92%.

In 2014/15 an additional data source was introduced which increased employment outcomes by around one percentage point.

The Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires Department for Education (DfE) to take reasonable steps to ensure that their published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality.

For more information about DfE’s disclosure control procedures for its statistical releases please see DfE’s statistical policy statement on confidentiality

To help preserve confidentiality, numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5.

What the data measures

This data shows the destinations of pupils who completed key stage 4 in state-funded mainstream schools in England in 2014, based on what they did in the first 2 terms of the following academic year (October to March).

The total of all pupils who completed key stage 4 was used to calculate percentages of outcomes for each category.

Key stage 4 covers school years 10 and 11, when children are aged 14 to 16 years. Most pupils work towards national qualifications – usually GCSEs.

The data shows destinations by ethnic group and time (5 school years from 2010/11 to 2014/15).

There are 3 main categories that show whether pupils:

  • stayed in education
  • went into employment or training
  • didn’t stay in education or go into employment for at least 2 terms

There’s an extra category to show where this information wasn’t captured.

The ethnic categories used in this data

This data uses categories from the Department for Education’s school census, which is broadly based on the 2001 national census, with 3 exceptions:

  • Traveller of Irish Heritage and Gypsy/Roma pupils have been separated into 2 categories
  • Sri Lankan has been added to the Asian/Asian British group but is not reported separately
  • Chinese pupils have been assigned a separate category

These changes were made after consultations with local authorities and lobby groups.

The categories in the school census are as follows:

White:

  • British
  • Irish
  • Gypsy Roma
  • Irish Traveller
  • Any Other White background

Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups:

  • White and Black Caribbean
  • White and Black African
  • White and Asian
  • Any Other Mixed/Multiple ethnic background

Asian/Asian British:

  • Indian
  • Pakistani
  • Bangladeshi
  • Sri Lankan
  • Any Other Asian background

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:

  • African
  • Caribbean
  • Any Other Black/African/Caribbean background

Chinese

Other ethnic group

Unclassified (where no ethnicity is recorded)

Information about destinations is provided for both detailed and broad ethnic groups where possible and when the data is available.

The 6 broad categories used are as follows:

  • White
  • Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
  • Asian/Asian British
  • Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
  • Other ethnic group
  • Chinese

2. Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity

Location:
England
Time period:
2014/15
Source:
Destinations of KS4 and KS5 pupils: 2015 (revised)
Percentage of pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity
Ethnicity Education, employment or training Education Employment No sustained education/employment Unknown
% % % % %
All 94 91 3 5 1
Asian 95 94 1 4 1
Bangladeshi 94 94 1 4 1
Indian 97 96 1 2 1
Pakistani 94 93 1 5 1
Asian other 95 95 1 3 2
Black 94 94 1 4 1
Black African 95 95 0 3 1
Black Caribbean 93 92 1 6 1
Black other 94 93 1 5 1
Chinese 97 97 0 1 1
Mixed 93 90 2 6 1
Mixed White/Asian 94 92 2 5 1
Mixed White/Black African 93 92 2 6 1
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 91 88 3 8 1
Mixed other 94 92 2 5 1
White 94 90 4 6 1
White British 94 90 4 6 1
White Irish 93 91 2 6 1
White Irish Traveller 67 58 9 25 8
White Gypsy/Roma 68 62 6 24 8
White other 92 91 2 5 3
Other 93 92 1 4 3
Unknown 92 89 3 7 2

Download table data for ‘Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity’ (CSV)

Summary of Destinations of school pupils after key stage 4 (usually aged 16 years) Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

  • overall, most pupils went into education (91%) after completing key stage 4 in 2014/15; 3% went into employment or training and 5% didn’t enter sustained education or employment

  • Chinese and Indian pupils were most likely to stay in education, at 97% and 96% respectively

  • White British pupils (90%) and Mixed White and Black Caribbean pupils (88%) were less likely to stay in education in 2014/15 compared to the national average for all ethnic groups (91%)

  • White Gypsy/Roma and White Irish Traveller pupils were the least likely to stay in education (62% and 58% did so respectively), but the most likely to go into employment or training (6% and 9% respectively)

  • Black African and Chinese pupils were least likely to go into employment or training, at less than half a percent each (due to rounding, these show as 0% in the table and chart)

  • White Gypsy/Roma and White Irish Traveller pupils (at 24% and 25% respectively) were much more likely to have no sustained education or employment compared with the national average (5%)

3. Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity over time

Location:
England
Time period:
2010/11 to 2014/15
Source:
Destinations of KS4 and KS5 pupils: 2015 (revised)
Percentage of pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity over time
[None] 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
% % % % %
All 89 89 91 92 94
Asian 92 92 94 94 95
Bangladeshi 92 91 93 94 94
Indian 95 95 96 97 97
Pakistani 90 90 91 93 94
Asian other 94 93 94 95 95
Black 91 91 93 94 94
Black African 92 92 95 95 95
Black Caribbean 89 89 92 92 93
Black other 89 91 93 93 94
Chinese 96 97 97 98 97
Mixed 88 88 90 91 93
Mixed White/Asian 90 90 93 93 94
Mixed White/Black African 87 88 91 92 93
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 86 86 87 89 91
Mixed other 89 89 91 92 94
White 89 89 90 92 94
White British 89 89 90 92 94
White Irish 89 89 91 91 93
White Irish Traveller 59 50 60 55 67
White Gypsy/Roma 67 60 62 68 68
White other 90 89 91 91 92
Other 91 90 92 93 93
Unknown 86 87 90 91 92

Download table data for ‘Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity over time’ (CSV)

Summary of Destinations of school pupils after key stage 4 (usually aged 16 years) Pupils going into sustained education, employment or training by ethnicity over time Summary

This data shows that:

  • in 2014/15, a higher percentage of pupils from every ethnic group went into education, employment or training, compared to 2010/11 – the total percentage of pupils going into education, employment or training went up by 5 percentage points over this period (from 89% to 94%)

  • from 2010/11 to 2014/15, there was a 5 percentage point increase in pupils from the White and Mixed broad ethnic groups going into education,employment or training – the biggest increase of the broad ethnic groups

  • Chinese and Indian pupils were most likely to stay in education in 2014/15, at 97% and 96% respectively – these groups have had the highest percentage of pupils staying in education, employment or training every year since 2010/11

  • the percentages of White Gypsy/Roma and White Irish Traveller pupils going into education, employment or training varied substantially over the years between 2010/11 and 2014/15 – however, they were consistently the lowest among all ethnic groups

4. Methodology

Data from the national pupil database (NPD) is used to calculate education destinations. The NPD links pupil and student characteristics (for example, age, gender, and ethnicity) to school and college learning aims and attainment information for children in schools in England. Five administrative data sources are used in compiling the NPD and have been used to determine pupils’ education destinations:

  • individualised learner record (ILR) covering English further education providers and specialist post-16 institutions
  • school census covering English schools (including pupil referral units)
  • awarding body data
  • alternative provision census
  • Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) data covering UK universities

In 2014/15, employment data and out-of-work benefit data were linked to the national pupil database to form the longitudinal education outcomes (LEO) dataset.

Along with local authority data, LEO data is used to calculate employment destinations.

Employment data came from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Out-of-work benefit data came from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

For all years, information on employment, training and NEET (not in education, employment or training) comes from local authority data from the National Client Caseload Information System (NCCIS).

The matching of these databases was undertaken at individual level using personal characteristics such as name, date of birth and postcode.

Suppression rules and disclosure control

Suppression is applied to the destination data to ensure that individual pupils cannot be identified, as follows:

  • any total with fewer than 11 pupils has had all of their data suppressed
  • figures referring to outcomes for 1 or 2 individuals have been suppressed – in some cases, more figures are suppressed if publishing them would affect the suppression of those figures referring to outcomes for 1 or 2 individuals

Zeros remain zeros unless they reveal information about employment destinations.

These rules are also applied to percentages relating to small numbers, so that numerators of less than 3 are suppressed. Percentages are calculated using unrounded data. The Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires the Department for Education (DfE) to take reasonable steps to ensure that their published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality.

For more information about DfE’s disclosure control procedures for its statistical releases please see DfE’s statistical policy statement on confidentiality

To help preserve confidentiality, numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5.

Percentages are calculated using unrounded data.

Rounding

All pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5.

Quality and methodology information

5. Data sources

Source

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Department for Education

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The data is collected to help provide clear and comparable information on the success of schools and colleges in helping their young pupils continue in education, employment or training.

6. Download the data

Destinations of pupils after key stage 4 (usually aged 16 years) - Spreadsheet (csv) 131 KB

This file contains: ethnicity, year, destination, value, numerator and denominator

Publication release date: 10 October 2017

Updated: 9 February 2018

full page history
  1. further and more comparable commentary for Gypsy/Roma added
  2. Technical change: Updated url to match page title.
  3. First published

From: Department for Education

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