At Learning Plus UK we’re always interested in what the data tells us about how young people are doing in the education system.  With the current debate focusing on Level 2 qualifications and the perennial question of how young people from poorer backgrounds are performing, we’ve taken a look at some of the figures on attainment.

The gap in achievement has been narrowing since 2005, both across the country and across each region.  However, in some regions the gap is starting to plateau and even reverse.

Our first infographic shows the percentage points by which the gap in the Level 2 achievement has decreased in each region over time. The regions are ordered according to which has the highest change across the five years between 2007-2012. Here we measure the amount of narrowing of the gap, not the actual size of the gap.

On average, all regions narrowed their Level 2+ gap by around ten percentage points. But there were some important regional differences. In the South West the gap had narrowed by 10% whilst the East Midlands only managed a 6% reduction.

To get a clearer picture, it is necessary to look at the actual sizes of the FSM gap. The second picture depicts all regions and the values of the FSM gap between 2007 and 2012. The region with the largest gap, East Midlands, is at the top, while London, with the smallest gap, is at the bottom.

While all the regions narrowed their Level 2+ attainment FSM gap by roughly the same percentage, the actual sizes of the FSM gaps vary greatly. By 2012, London had a gap of only 9% whilst young people in the East Midlands still had a gap of 24% between the achievement of those not eligible for FSM and those who were.  This indicates that despite the good overall picture, there are still some significant regional differences that impact on outcomes for young people and their futures.

Click here to view the Big Numbers infographic

Source: Department for Education, Statistical First Release, 2012.