Pupils are opting to stay in education

Nearly 60 per cent of school leavers in South Lanarkshire last year continued in education, according to the latest figures.

Data that went to a council education committee yesterday, Tuesday, showed 39.3 per cent of students were going on to complete academic degrees or professional qualifications at university or some colleges.

A further 19.9 per cent went on to further education at colleges and other facilities.

The statistics were part of a wider paper on the destination of the 3,469 school leavers from 2015/16, with 92.1 per cent going on to what is termed a “positive destination”.

However, 230 teenagers found themselves unemployed when they left school, although 46 of them were not seeking employment.

Nearly 30 per cent of leavers went straight into employment, the highest in the past five years, with others going in to training, activity agreements or voluntary work.

The employment rate for young people aged 16 to 19 in South Lanarkshire up to March this year was 47.7 per cent, 8.4 per cent higher than the national average.

The percentage of pupils going on to positive destinations in the region has increased from 89.5 per cent in 2011/12 and South Lanarkshire now out performs the national average of 91.4 per cent.

Crucially, the gap in leaver destinations between students living in the lowest 30 per cent data zones and the whole school leaver cohort has decreased from 7.1 per cent to 4.4 per cent since 2011.Council officers will now sit down with schools in to discuss the