The future remains bright for local school leavers

The School Leaver Destination Return (SLDR) is a statistical return undertaken by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) on behalf of the Scottish Government.

During the 2014/2015 period, East Dunbartonshire had 1,316 school leavers from mainstream secondary school, with a huge 96.7 per cent (1,273) going on to a so-called ‘positive destination’ - either work, higher education, further education, training or voluntary work. It compares favourably with a national average of 92.9 per cent.

Convener of Education, Councillor Eric Gotts, said: “Once again, East Dunbartonshire is leading the way in steering its young people in positive directions when they leave school.

“Our schools work extremely hard to prepare pupils for when they leave school; running a senior phase partnership programme which sees pupils getting involved with college courses during their time at school; assisting with university and college applications and working with organisations to develop work placements.

“It is really encouraging to see the positive outcome of this work with so many pupils furthering their education or pursuing training or employment opportunities after they complete their school education.”

The majority of school leavers went on to higher education - a total of 60.9 per cent.

A further 16.3 per cent went on to further education, while 16.6 per cent went straight into employment, 2.2 per cent into training and 0.3 per cent into voluntary work.