Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many 16 to 19 year olds withdrew from their (a) sixth form and (b) further education courses in academic years (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23 to date.

The department has published retention data for students at the end of 16-18 study by institution type. The latest data available is for the 2020/21 academic year, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results/2020-21. The retention rate is the proportion of students who are retained to the end of the ‘core aim’ (or main learning aim) of their study programme at a school or college.

Retention data for 2021/22 will be published on 30 March 2023 in the next update and will be available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results-2022-revised--2.

Since 2010, the department has put in place a range of policies that have significantly reduced the quantity of young people designated as ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). The proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds NEET in 2022 was 12.3%, which is down 3.2 percentage points since 2010. This information can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief/2022.