Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the proportion of students who left school in summer 2021, aged 18, who did not go onto further and higher education.

The sustained destinations of students who completed 16-18 study in summer 2021 are not yet available. The latest available data is for those students who completed 16-18 study in summer 2019. To be counted as having a sustained destination, the student must have had six contiguous months of activity in their destination year. The main destinations for this cohort are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/477e260e-ac3a-40d5-a7a9-b1e7a596c2c8.

Of the 55.2% of students that did not sustain a further or higher education destination: 2.6% were in other education, 24.9% in employment, 8.4% in apprenticeships, 13.8% did not sustain a destination, and activity was not captured for the remaining 5.5%.

In addition to destination measures, the participation in education and training and employment publication may also be of interest: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/participation-in-education-and-training-and-employment.

This release provides official measures of participation and not in education, employment or training (NEET) for 16-18 year olds. The estimates relate to a snapshot of activities at the end of the calendar year, and proportions are given as that of the population. Estimates for end 2021 will be published in June 2022.