THE number of teenagers finding work after school reached its lowest level for a decade in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, figures show.
Scottish Government statistics revealed that more than twice as many youngsters in the least deprived areas went to university after school, as compared to those from the poorest parts of the country. Overall, a total of 92.2% of those who left school in 2019-20 were in college, university, training or a job by April 2021.
This was down slightly from the 92.9% of school leavers who achieved this the previous year.
University was the most common choice for those leaving school in 2019-20, with 42.9% ending up in higher education – higher than the 38.4% the previous year – and is the largest share since consistent records began in 2009-10. The figures showed that in the most deprived parts of Scotland just over a quarter (27%) of school leavers last year went on to university, compared to almost two thirds (62.6%) in the most affluent communities.
In the poorest parts of Scotland college was the most common destination, with 31.5% of leavers heading for further education, while 20.5% went into work, but one in 10 (10.8%) were out of work.
This compares to just 3.6% of leavers from the least deprived areas being out of work by April 2021.
And the proportion of youngsters who went into work after leaving school also fell from 28% in 2018-19 to 21.3% – the lowest figure since 2009-10.
The news comes as Scotland's unemployment rate increased slightly in the last quarter, according to the latest figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate between February and April for those aged 16 and over was 4.2%, a 0.1% increase on the previous quarter. This was below the UK-wide rate of 4.7% for over-16s.
The employment rate for those aged 16 to 64 in Scotland was 74.2%, a 0.1% drop on the previous quarter.
There were 2657 million people aged 16 and over in employment between February and April this year, while 117,000 in that age range were unemployed.
Scotland’s Employment and Fair Work Minister Richard Lochhead said: “These figures reflect some of the challenges faced in Scotland’s labour market to date but they do not reflect the full impact of coronavirus or the outlook for employment.”
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