Stay positive - it’s about the journey, not the destination

More than 148,000 pupils received the results of 1.5 million exam papers and pieces of coursework on Tuesday.

Education Secretary Mairi McAllan described it as a “proud day for Scotland’s young people and our education system”, and said: “My congratulations go to everyone receiving their results. I know how much hard work and resilience it takes to get here, and you all deserve enormous credit.”

Now after all the hard work comes the decision on what to do next. Many will have places lined up, others will have a good idea of what they want to do with their lives but for some this could be a challenging time as they try to figure out what the best path is for them.

And those looking for encouragement about the journey they are about to embark upon can take heart from the fact that most school leavers in Scotland have gone to a positive destination.

The latest available figures for Scotland in 2024-25 showed that 93.5 per cent of school leavers were in a positive follow-up destination - the joint highest figure on record alongside 2021-22.

A ‘positive destination’ is defined by the Scottish Government as being in higher education, further education, training, employment or voluntary work.

The most common likely destination was Higher Education, accounting for 40.2 per cent of school leavers. The number of 18-year-olds who qualified for a place at university reached a record high this year. According to Ucas, the total number of students aged 18 who achieved the grades for the 2026 academic year is 17,920, up from 17,350 last year.

Employment was the next most popular destination, at 26.5 per cent. The proportion of school leavers in employment fell in 2024-25 compared to last year and has now dropped below figures seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, although this is likely due to the increasing numbers going into higher education or training.

The proportion of school leavers who were unemployed nine months after leaving school decreased slightly in 2024-25 compared to the previous year and was similar to levels seen in the years just before the pandemic.

The statistics also showed that staying on and completing school makes a big difference, with pupils who left school in S6 the most likely to be in a positive follow-up destination, and those who leave in S4 the least likely.

In 2024-25, 96.8 per cent of those who left school in S6 were in a positive follow-up destination. This is up from 96.5 per cent last year and 96.6 per cent in 2018-19. Only 86.4 per cent of S4 leavers were in a positive follow-up destination, up from 85.8 per cent in 2023-24 and 83.5 per cent in 2018-19.

The gap between results for those from the most and least deprived areas of Scotland continues to be a cause of concern, but the figures show improvements are being made, if slowly.

This year the number of youngsters from deprived areas who qualified for a place at university saw a 7% increase to 2,090, which the Scottish Government says is the highest on record for this stage in the cycle, and acceptances across all ages were 32,370.

In 2024-25 the gap between the most and least deprived leavers in a positive follow-up destination was 7.6 percentage points, which had closed compared to both the previous year (8.3 percentage points) and 2018-19 (8.4 percentage points).

Of course where you go immediately after finishing school is just the first step, and the figures show, unsurprisingly, that a school leaver’s follow-up destination, nine months after they leave school, can be different to their initial destination, three months after they leave school.

In 2024-25 the proportion of school leavers in a positive initial destination was 95.7 per cent. A smaller proportion of school leavers were in a positive follow-up destination (93.5 per cent), a decrease of 2.2 percentage points compared to the initial figure.

It’s also worth remembering that the journey through education, employment and all the other challenges of life is long and hard. What’s most important is finding something you have a passion for, as it will help you navigate what can often be a very rocky road.