Outcomes for learners in post-16 education affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: August 2019 to July 2020

The statistics are published as experimental statistics because they use new methods to understand the academic outcomes for post-16 learners during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. They are not comparable with the statistics in the ‘consistent performance measures for post-16 learning’, nor the ‘learner outcome measures for work-based learning and adult learning’ reports.

Main points

• Outcomes for learners in post-16 learning were very different depending on the type of learning being taken.
• There were large improvements in outcomes for learners in general education (A levels) and level 3 vocational education, but outcomes have been worse during the pandemic for learners on other vocational programmes and apprenticeships, and most adult learning stopped altogether.
• Full time post-16 completers in 2019/20 were as likely to stay in post-16 learning as in previous years, but AS completers were more likely to continue onto A2 than in previous years.
• Part time vocational learners were less likely to stay in post-16 learning after completing their programme. 27% of part time learners in 2018/19 stayed on the next year, 17% did in 2019/20.
• There was no change in the proportion of learners who went on to post-16 learning after completing Year 11 in 2020, but they were more likely to be doing AS levels, or level 3 vocational programmes than in previous years.
• The largest changes in A2 outcomes was the increase in learners getting at least three Bs or Cs.
• The changes in outcomes for learners of different ages, deprivation, ethnicity and gender also depended on the type of learning being taken. This is explored in sections 7 to 10 of the report.
• More A2 learners got at least three As across all ages, ethnicities, genders and levels of deprivation, but groups that tended to get high grades previously saw bigger increases. Groups that tended to get lower grades saw bigger increases in learners getting at least three Cs.