Final Report of the Evaluation of the Pupil Learning Credits Pilot ...

28
Aspirations for the future
Pupils were asked when they thought they might leave full-time education; their
responses are presented in Table 6.
Table 6. Education and pupils’ future plans
I expect to leave fulltime
education…
PLC schools
(N=1650)
Year 9
% pupils
Comparison
schools
(N=1597)
PLC
schools
(N=2152)
Year 11
% pupils
Comparison
schools
(N=1087)
At the end of Year 11 16 17 12 12
At age 17, after one year
in college or in the 6 th
form
8 7 5 5
At age 18, after two
years in college or in 6 th
form
In my early 20s after
taking a university or
other higher education
course
13 14 22 20
31 29 38 41
Not sure yet 33 34 23 22
Sample sizes are less than 1793 and 1745 for pupils in PLC schools and pupils in comparison schools
in Year 9 and 2348 and 1174 respectively in Year 11 as not all respondents answered the question.
Percentages do not always equal 100 because of rounding.
As can be seen from Table 6, in both year groups small minorities of pupils expected
to be leaving full-time education at the end of Year 11. At the other end of the
spectrum, just under a third of Year 9 pupils and around four out of ten Year 11
pupils surveyed anticipated progressing into some form of higher education. In terms
of plans for their future education, there were no statistically significant differences
between pupils in PLC and comparison schools.
When asked about their parents’ views on education, over three-quarters of pupils
surveyed agreed with the statement that their parents wanted them to stay in education
‘as long as possible’ (78 per cent and 75 per cent of pupils in PLC and comparison
schools in Year 9 and 81 per cent and 76 per cent respectively in Year 11). 30 Year 11
pupils in PLC schools tended to agree with this statement more than pupils in
comparison schools.
30
Sample sizes are 1720 and 1669 for pupils in PLC and comparison schools in Year 9, and 2235
and 1123 respectively for Year 11.