Raymond Robertson, the Education Minister, described the national figure of 45 per cent moving on to further and higher education as “good news for the economy”.
Mr Robertson said: “This represents an increase of three per cent over the past three years and a huge advance on the 24 per cent of school leavers who went on to full-time education in 1980.”
He added that most other young people were successful in gaining a job or a full-time place.
