Improvements Made in Numbers of D&G Young People Going on to Work and Study

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) have published the most recent data on the participation in education, training or employment of Dumfries and Galloway’s young people.

In 2019/20, the participation of the region’s 16–19-year-olds was 93.1%. This is 0.9% above the national average and shows the highest year-on-year increase of any local authority in Scotland.

One of the priorities for D&G schools this year was to improve the number of young people who were recorded within this data as ‘unconfirmed’ – this has improved and now stands at 3.7% from last year’s rate of 5.5%.

The Annual Participation Measure is used to inform policy, planning and service delivery, and to assess progress of the commitment by the Education and Learning Directorate to offer a place in learning or training to all 16 to 19-year-olds in Scotland who are not in employment, education or training.

This will continue to be prioritised by Headteachers, working with partners in the Council, Skills Development Scotland, and Developing Young Workforce to make sure young people move on from school to further and higher education, training or a job.

Chair of the Education and Learning committee, Jeff Leaver said: “This report highlights the great work being done to ensure all 16–19-year old’s have the opportunity to learn or participate in training and/or employment. This is especially important given the past 18 months and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. We should be very proud that D&G has seen this increase during these unprecedented times.”

Vice Chair Ros Surtees said: "I’m delighted to see this recent report and that we are continuing to deliver high standards in Dumfries and Galloway through partnership working. These participation rates give indication that we are doing well above the national average, and this should be commended.”