Prospects for school leavers in Dumbarton and Alexandria are worse now than they were over the last five years.
That’s according to figures on how many are in positive destinations within three months of finishing school.
Data presented to members of West Dunbartonshire Council’s education meeting last week laid bare the situation.
Officials told that work is being undertaken by West Dunbartonshire Council to address the drop in school leavers reaching a “positive destination” in 2019/20.
Records show that the percentage of young peoples going on to further or higher education, training, volunteer work, personal skills development activity or employment was 89.6 percent, which is 3.7 percent below the national figure and almost a four percent decrease from West Dunbartonshire’s previous financial year.
Council leader Jonathan McColl said: “Obviously last year’s figures are concerning because there has been a significant drop in places that you wouldn’t expect to see. We have been surprised by the cohort of young people that this has impacted.
“What work has been done or is planned in terms of making individual contact with people? We need to know what has happened here and why they haven’t ended up in a positive destination and why the action plan hasn’t been affective.
“It will need tweaked based on the evidence we get. What sort of learning have we had there?”
At the Vale of Academy, almost 88 percent of leavers for 2019/20 went on to a positive destination which could include further education, training or work, compared with over 92 percent in 2017/18.
Some 95.77 percent of those who had left Dumbarton Academy in 2017/18 went onto a positive destination but this figure had dropped to 89.41 percent last year.
And the stats were most stark at Our Lady and St Patrick’s with 97.16 percent of students heading for a positive destination having left following the 2018/19 term. This had fallen dramatically to 88.41 percent last year.
An action plan to help school leavers reach their full potential has been set up by West Dunbartonshire Council.
A snapshot recorded in October last year revealed that most young people in a negative destination had not been in a positive destination since leaving school.
Council officer Andrew Brown said: “At two of our schools, half of the young people that ended up in a negative destination on October 6 had actually been in a positive destination before that but they haven’t sustained it.
“They have not been left to their own devices they are being supported to help them move forward.”
Councillor McColl added: “It is good to hear that we are being proactive in terms of finding out what went wrong but most importantly working with the young people and Skills Development Scotland that those people are helped.
“We can’t let these young people be forgotten while we move onto the next year and I appreciate that.”
Education convener Karen Conaghan addressed the issue at a meeting of the infrastructure, regeneration and economic development meeting the following day.
She said: “It does seem to be something that was down to the pandemic.
“The young people who haven’t gone onto positive destinations or who had and had fallen out of this were not people who were generally on our ‘at risk’ radar.
“It’s something where we need to maybe take a wider look.”
The education spokeswoman said that attention needed to be paid on how the council was communicating the support available for young people to their parents and carers.
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