SFA: national achievement rates tables 2014 to 2015
Source: data.gov.uk (2017-03-20)

Apprenticeship and education and training national achievement rates tables

National Achievement Rate Tables are produced annually in arrears of the production of the qualification achievement rate reports.
Their purpose is to give providers and the sector as a whole summary indicators of overall performance against which individual providers can contextualise their own targets and actual performance.

The release of the 2014 to 2015 apprenticeship national achievement rates tables replaces the data for 2011 to 2012 to 2013 to 2014 published in 2015. The data used in this release is a cascade of the information first made available in the March 2016 statistical first release supplementary tables. 

The release of the 2014 to 2015 education and training national achievement rates tables replaces the data for 2013 to 2014 published in 2015. The data used in this release is a cascade of the information first made available in the March 2016 statistical first release supplementary tables.

Skills Funding Agency 
 
Cheylesmore House, Quinton Road, Coventry,  CV1 2WT  
T xx-xxxx-xxxx  www.skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk 
A partner organisation of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills 
 
Education and training national achievement rates tables 
for the 2014/2015 academic year  
 
Guidance notes 
  
 
Date of issue 
10 May 2016  
 
 
Contents 
Section 1 - Introduction ........................................................................................................... 2 
Purpose of this document ...................................................................................................... 2 
Purpose of the education and training national achievement rates tables ........................... 2 
Location of national achievement rates tables ...................................................................... 2 
Changes to the education and training national achievement rates tables for 2014/2015 ... 2 
Section 2 – Education and training national achievement rates tables worksheets ....... 3 
Contents of the tables ............................................................................................................ 3 
Format of the education and training national achievement rates tables ............................. 4 
Headline report ................................................................................................................... 4 
Qualification level report ..................................................................................................... 4 
Institution report for overall measure ................................................................................. 5 
Institution report for timely measure................................................................................... 5 
Excluded qualifications report ............................................................................................ 5 
GCSE pass rate and achievement rate report ................................................................... 5 
Section 3 – Education and training national achievement rates tables open data files.. 6 
Format of education and training national achievement rates tables open data files ........... 6 
Section 4 – Contents of national achievement rates tables ................................................ 7 
Report columns ...................................................................................................................... 7 
Institution type .................................................................................................................... 7 
Age group ........................................................................................................................... 8 
Qualification level ............................................................................................................... 8 
Qualification type ................................................................................................................ 8 
Qualification codes ............................................................................................................. 8 
Report measures .................................................................................................................... 8 
Overall qualification achievement rate ............................................................................... 9 
Timely qualification achievement rate ................................................................................ 9 
Overall retention rate .......................................................................................................... 9 
Overall pass rate ................................................................................................................ 9 
Overall and timely cohorts .................................................................................................. 9 
Section 5 – Exclusions from the national achievement rates tables ............................... 10 
Excluded qualifications ......................................................................................................... 10 
Excluded cohorts, suppression rules and rounding rules .................................................... 10 
Section 6 – Choosing information on the national achievement rates tables ................ 10 
Further information and help ................................................................................................ 11 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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Section 1 - Introduction 
Purpose of this document 
1. This document provides information about the education and training national 
achievement rates tables for the 2014/2015 academic year.   
 
Purpose of the education and training national achievement rates tables   
2. The education and training national achievement rates tables set out levels of success, in 
terms of the achievement of qualifications, of further-education institutions in England for 
the 2014/2015 academic year. We publish national achievement rates tables every year.  
 
3. The information in the tables is comparable with the Education and Training qualification 
achievement rates reports for 2014/2015 made available to each institution. It expands 
upon the national achievement rates published in the statistical first release (at 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/learner-participation-outcomes-and-level-of-
highest-qualification-held). 
 
4. Education and training national achievement rates tables help institutions to raise the 
standard of their work. They allow institutions to assess their performance, and help them 
to plan action programmes to improve their qualification achievement rates, retention 
rates and pass rates. 
 
5. Throughout this guidance we refer to ‘national achievement rates tables’ rather than 
'benchmarking data'. National achievement rates tables allow for comparison, and are not 
a standard of best practice. 
 
Location of national achievement rates tables 
6. The national achievement rates tables for 2014/2015 are on our website (at 
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/sfa-national-achievement-rates-
tables-2014-to-2015). 
 
Changes to the education and training national achievement rates tables for 
2014/2015  
7. The main changes made to the education and training national achievement rates tables 
to those produced for 2013/2014 are as follows.  
 
 
The information from the 2014/2015 apprenticeships qualification achievement rates 
reports has been added to the national achievement rates tables for 2014/2015. 
 
Only data for academic years 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 are present in the reports. 
Data for year 2012/2013 is not present as a different achievement rate methodology 
was applied. The change in the education and training achievement rates 
methodology causes a break in the time series of these statistics and means that the 
qualification achievement rates for 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 cannot be directly 
compared to 2012/2013. 
 
The Excel format for the 2014/2015 NARTs have changed. All spreadsheets will be 
produced as Microsoft Excel 2010. 
 
The names of two rates have changed on the 2014/2015 qualification achievement 
rate reports and have been applied to the national achievement rate tables. The 
consultation on the outcome based success measures identified that there are other 
equally important factors that determine the successful outcome of learning. In 
preparation for the introduction of a broader range of success measures, we are 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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changing the name ‘Success Rates to ‘Achievement Rates.’ The 2013/2014 
‘achievement rate’ has also been renamed ‘pass rate.’ 
 
Workplace learning aims have been included with classroom learning aims for the 
2014/2015 qualification achievement rates.  
 
A spreadsheet showing GCSE pass rates and achievement rates for maths and 
English has been included in the national achievement rate tables. This has been 
added as a separate spreadsheet with worksheets at a headline level and by 
institution.  
 
A worksheet showing Access to HE qualification types have been included on a 
separate worksheet in the qualification spreadsheet for the 2014/2015 national 
achievement rate tables.  
 
Qualification achievement rates for the qualification types have been added to the 
institution spreadsheet of the national achievement rate tables as separate 
worksheets for overall and timely achievement rates.  
 
The derivation of the qualification type ‘Functional Skills SfL’ has changed and has 
been replaced by ‘Basic Skills Maths and English.’ 
 
The qualification achievement rates show 2014/2015 qualification types only as the 
derivation of the qualification types for 2014/2015 is different to that for 2013/2014.  
 
UPIN is no longer the primary identifier of an institution and has been removed from 
the national achievement rates tables for 2014/2015. 
 
Percentile data does not provide essential information and has been removed from 
the 2014/2015 national achievement rate tables. 
  
8. The rationale for the change of education and training achievement rate methodology is 
available on the gov.uk website (at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-
qualification-success-rates-rationale-for-2013-to-2014).  
 
9. Because of the change to the overall and timely methodology, it is not advisable to make 
comparisons between the qualification achievement rates for 2013/2014 and 2014/15 
with those published in the 2012/2013 national achievement rate tables. 
 
 
Section 2 – Education and training national achievement rates 
tables worksheets 
Contents of the tables 
10. Our aim in publishing the education and training national achievement rates tables is to 
provide a useful but manageable amount of information, drawing on existing statistics. 
 
11. The information in the education and training national achievement rates tables has been 
created from institutions' Individualised Learner Record (ILR) returns, and the tables 
provide a range of national-level and institution-level statistics for achievement, retention 
and pass rates. The method of calculating qualification achievement rates is available on 
the gov.uk website (at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-qualification-
achievement-rate-2014-to-2015). 
 
12. The education and training national achievement rates tables contain qualification 
achievement rates for academic years 2013/2014 and 2014/15. The information for the 
2013/2014 academic year is sourced from the qualification success rates dataset 
produced for 2013/2014, calculated using the method that applied to the 2013/2014 
academic year. The information for the 2014/15 academic year is sourced from the 
qualification achievement rates dataset produced for 2014/15, calculated using the 
method that applied to the 2014/15 academic year.  
 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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Format of the education and training national achievement rates tables  
13. The education and training national achievement rates tables are published as seven 
compressed files. Each compressed file holds a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that 
contains a number of worksheets. The separate spreadsheets are:  
 
headline report; 
 
qualification level report; 
 
institution report for the overall measure; 
 
institution report for the timely measure; 
 
excluded qualifications report;  
 
GCSE pass rates and achievement rates report and 
 
timely national report. 
 
The contents of the spreadsheets are shown below.  
 
Headline report 
14. The headline report contains separate worksheets that show national qualification 
achievement rates, pass rates and retention rates at a headline level, which is an 
overview of all national qualification achievement rates. This report also presents the 
qualification achievement rates, pass rates and retention rates by: 
 
qualification type; 
 
gender; 
 
ethnic background; 
 
learning difficulty or disability; 
 
sector subject area tier 1, qualification type and qualification level;  
 
learners’ Local Enterprise Partnership;  
 
delivery Local Enterprise Partnership; and 
 
learners’ region;  
 
delivery region.  
 
learners’ local authority (based on the learners’ home postcode);  
 
delivery local authority for where the learning is delivered (based on the postcode of 
the institutions’ delivery location);  
 
 
Qualification level report 
15. The qualification level reports contain worksheets that show the national qualification 
achievement rates, pass rates and retention rates for individual qualifications. For each 
qualification the worksheets show: 
 
qualification code; 
 
qualification type; 
 
qualification level;  
 
qualification title; and 
 
sector subject area tier 1;  
 
16. The qualification level report is split into four worksheets containing: 
 
A-levels, AS-levels and GCSEs;  
 
QCF qualifications, which consist of QCF units, awards, certificates and diplomas; 
 
ESOL and Basic Skills Maths and English 
 
Access to Higher Education; and 
 
other qualifications.  
 
17. Data suppression rules mean that qualifications delivered at a single institution are not 
shown in the reports.  

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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Institution report for overall measure  
18. The institution report contains worksheets that show the overall qualification achievement 
rates, pass rates and retention rates of each institution, by: 
 
qualification level; 
 
qualification type;  
 
gender;  
 
ethnic background;  
 
learning difficulty or disability;  
 
sector subject area tier 1;  
 
delivery local authority for where the learning is delivered (based on the postcodes of 
the institutions’ delivery locations);  
 
delivery Local Enterprise Partnership; and 
 
delivery region.  
 
Institution report for timely measure  
19. The institution report contains worksheets that show the timely qualification achievement 
rates of each institution, by: 
 
qualification level; 
 
qualification type;  
 
gender;  
 
ethnic background;  
 
learning difficulty or disability;  
 
sector subject area tier 1;  
 
delivery local authority for where the learning is delivered (based on the postcodes of 
the institutions’ delivery locations);  
 
delivery Local Enterprise Partnership; and 
 
delivery region.  
 
Excluded qualifications report 
20. Due to the suppression rules described in section 5, the full coverage of qualifications 
delivered is not available in the qualification level spreadsheets. The excluded 
qualifications are included in the excluded qualification report to allow the full scope of 
qualification delivery to be seen.  
 
GCSE pass rates and achievement rates report 
21. The GCSE pass rates and achievement rates report contains worksheets that show the 
overall pass grades, pass rate, achievement grades and achievement rates for maths 
and English, by: 
 headline; and  
 institution 
 
 
Timely National report 
 
22. The timely national report contains a worksheet that shows the national timely 
qualification achievement rates by age band and qualification level. 
 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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Section 3 – Education and training national achievement rates 
tables open data files  
Format of education and training national achievement rates tables open data 
files 
23. The education and training national achievement rates tables are also published in a non-
proprietary format to meet the ‘three-star open data standard’. The comma-separated 
variable (CSV) file is our preferred non-proprietary format. For more information on open 
data, see the published white paper written by the Cabinet Office (at  
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-white-paper-unleashing-the-
potential). 
24. The education and training national achievement rates tables open data files are 
published as 37 separate compressed files. The contents of each file, and which report 
the information comes from, is shown below.  
 
File 
number 
File contents 
Source report 
NART101 
Headline overall achievement rates 
Headline 
NART102 
Overall achievement rates by qualification type 
Headline 
NART103 
Overall achievement rates by gender 
Headline 
NART104 
Overall achievement rates by ethnic background 
Headline 
NART105 
Overall achievement rates by learning difficulties or 
disabilities 
Headline 
NART106 
Overall achievement rates by sector subject area 
Headline 
NART107 
Overall achievement rates by learners’ Local Enterprise 
Partnership 
Headline 
NART108 
Overall achievement rates by delivery locations’ Local 
Enterprise Partnership 
Headline 
NART109 
Overall achievement rates by learners’ region 
Headline 
NART110 
Overall achievement rates by delivery locations’ region 
Headline 
NART111 
Overall achievement rates by learners’ local authority 
Headline 
NART112 
Overall achievement rates by delivery locations’ local 
authority 
Headline 
NART113 
Overall achievement rates by qualification 
Qualifications 
NART114 
Overall excluded qualifications 
Excluded 
qualifications 
NART115 
Headline overall achievement rates for institutions 
Overall institution 
NART 116 
Overall achievement rates for institutions by qualification type 
Overall institution 
NART117 
Overall achievement rates for institutions by gender 
Overall institution 
NART118 
Overall achievement rates for institutions by ethnic 
background 
Overall institution 
NART119 
Overall achievement rates for institutions by learning 
difficulties or disabilities 
Overall institution 
NART120 
Overall achievement rates for institutions by sector subject 
area tier 1  
Overall institution 
NART121 
Overall achievement rates by delivery locations’ Local 
Enterprise Partnership 
Overall institution 
NART122 
Overall achievement rates by delivery locations’ region 
Overall institution 
NART123 
Overall achievement rates by delivery locations’ local 
authority 
Overall institution 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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File 
number 
File contents 
Source report 
NART124 
Headline timely achievement rates for institutions 
Timely institution 
NART 125 
Timely achievement rates for institutions by qualification type 
Timely institution 
NART126 
Timely achievement rates for institutions by gender 
Timely institution 
NART127 
Timely achievement rates for institutions by ethnic 
background 
Timely institution 
NART128 
Timely achievement rates for institutions by learning 
difficulties or disabilities 
Timely institution 
NART129 
Timely achievement rates for institutions by sector subject 
area tier 1 
Timely institution 
NART130 
Timely achievement rates by delivery locations’ Local 
Enterprise Partnership 
Timely institution 
NART131 
Timely achievement rates by delivery locations’ region 
Timely institution 
NART132 
Timely achievement rates by delivery locations’ local authority 
Timely institution 
NART133 
Timely national achievement rates 
Timely national 
NART134 
Overall GCSE pass rates 
GCSE pass rates 
and achievement 
rates 
NART135 
Overall GCSE pass rates by institution  
GCSE pass rates 
and achievement 
rates 
NART136 
Overall GCSE achievement rates 
GCSE pass rates 
and achievement 
rates 
NART137 
Overall GCSE achievement rates by institution 
GCSE pass rates 
and achievement 
rates 
 
 
Section 4 – Contents of national achievement rates tables  
25. This section describes selected columns in the education and learning national 
achievement rates table worksheets. 
 
Report columns 
Institution type 
26. Each institution is classified into one of six institution types. The institution types are: 
 
 
General further-education or tertiary college 
 
Private-sector publicly funded institution 
 
School 
 
Sixth-form college 
 
Specialist college  
 
Other publicly funded institution  
 
27. The ‘specialist college’ category includes agriculture and horticulture colleges, and art, 
design and performing arts colleges. An ‘all institution type’ summary is also available on 
some of the worksheets. 
 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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Age group 
28. The age group of a cohort is based on their age as at 31 August in the year they started 
their learning aim. Learners of unknown age are included in the 19 and over age group. 
Learners under 16 are included in the 16 to 18 age group. All tables show the information 
divided into age groups:  
 
16 to 18 
 
19 and over 
 
All ages 
 
Qualification level  
29. Learning aims are grouped according to their qualification level recorded in our learning 
aims reference system (LARS). The levels are: 
 
 
Level 1 – qualifications at level 1 and level 'E' (entry level) 
 
Level 2  
 
Level 3  
 
Level H – all level 4 and level 5 qualifications 
 
Unknown – qualifications with unknown level ‘U’, mixed levels ‘M’, or classified as not 
applicable ‘X’. 
 
An ‘all levels’ category is also available. This combines all the levels listed above.  
 
Qualification type 
30. Learning aims are grouped according to their qualification type. The types are: 
 
 
A Levels 
 
Access to HE 
 
AS Levels 
 
Award 
 
Certificate 
 
Diploma 
 
ESOL 
 
Basic Skills Maths and English 
 
GCSE Maths and English 
 
GCSE Other 
 
Other Regulated 
 
Other Non-Regulated 
 
QCF Unit 
 
An ‘all types’ category is also available. This combines all the qualification types listed above.  
 
Qualification codes 
31. The qualification codes shown for the qualification levels come from the LARS hierarchy 
file (at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lara-learning-aim-reference-
application-hierarchy-file). If a qualification has a success rate map code in the LARS 
hierarchy file, this is used on the report. Otherwise the learning aim reference is used. 
 
Report measures 
32. The achievement rates, retention rates and pass rates are calculated in line with our 
education and training qualifications achievement rates business rules and methods (at 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-qualification-achievement-rate-2014-to-
2015). 
 
Overall qualification achievement rate 
33. The overall qualification achievement rate measures the percentage of learning aims 
achieved against the overall number of learning aims completed. The overall qualification 
achievement rate is based on the hybrid end year.  
 
34. The hybrid end year is the actual learning end year or the planned learning end year of 
an apprenticeship, whichever is later.  
 
Timely qualification achievement rate 
35. The timely qualification achievement rate measures the percentage of learning aims that 
were achieved by their planned end date, or within 90 days after their planned end date, 
against the number of learning aims that were expected to be completed. 
 
Overall retention rate 
36. The retention rate measures the percentage of learning aims successfully completed 
against the number of learning aims that have been completed.  
 
Overall pass rate 
37. The pass rate measures the percentage of learning aims that have achieved against the 
number of learning aims successfully completed.  
 
Overall and timely cohorts 
38. In the reports the term ‘cohort’ is used as shorthand for ‘learning aims completed by, or 
expected to be completed by, learners’.  
 
39. The full list of exclusions are detailed in the classroom-learning and workplace-learning 
achievement rates dataset specification (at 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-qualification-achievement-rate-2014-to-
2015). 
 
40. The ‘overall cohort’ column shows the number of learning aims that were planned to be 
completed, or have actually completed, within a given hybrid end year.  
 
41. The ‘timely cohort’ column shows the number of learning aims that are expected to be 
completed by their planned end date, or within 90 days of their planned end date, within a 
given academic year.  
 
42. The number of learning aims in a sub-cohort (a distinct group of learning aims within a 
cohort) may not add up to the total number of learning aims in the cohort because: 
 
the cohort is rounded to the nearest 10 at all levels; and 
 
small cohorts (fewer than five) are not included in the published tables.  
 
 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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Section 5 – Exclusions from the national achievement rates tables  
Excluded qualifications 
43. A number of learning aims are not included when calculating the qualification 
achievement rate. The main reasons for not including a particular learning aim are that it: 
 
 
relates to new activity that providers need time to get used to delivering;  
 
is delivered as part of a pilot programme; 
 
is not funded by us or the Education Funding Agency, or is not financed by a  
24+ advanced learning loan; 
 
is not a qualification;   
 
is affected by circumstances beyond the provider’s control (for example, if the learner 
is transferred to a new provider due to intervention from us or the Education Funding 
Agency.) 
 
44. The aims excluded from the education and training qualification achievement rate reports 
are also excluded from the education and training national achievement rates tables. The 
full list of exclusions are detailed in the education and training achievement rates dataset 
specification (at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-qualification-
achievement-rate-2014-to-2015).  
 
Excluded cohorts, suppression rules and rounding rules 
45. The rules on excluding small cohorts, suppressing figures and rounding figures in the 
achievement rate worksheets are listed below: 
 
Cohorts with fewer than five learning aims are not shown on any worksheets. 
 
Cohorts with five or more learning aims but fewer than 30 have the number 
replaced with a dash (–). 
 
If the cohort is five or more, but the number of completers is less than five, the 
achievement rate is replaced with a dash (–). 
 
The cohort is rounded to the nearest 10. This prevents the possibility of individual 
learners being identified.  
  
46. Where individual qualification achievement rates are reported, if a qualification is only 
delivered at a single institution, the qualification is not included in the report. This is to 
prevent individual achievements from being identified. Any qualifications that are 
excluded are listed in the excluded qualifications report, together with the reasons why 
they are excluded. 
 
47. Where individual qualification achievement rates are reported, the exclusion rules mean 
that the cohort reported for the individual institution types may be less than the number 
reported for the 'all institution type' row.  
 
 
Section 6 – Choosing information on the national achievement rates 
tables   
48. The qualification achievement rates, pass rates and retention rates are presented as a 
series of rows in Excel worksheets. Each row shows the qualification achievement rate, 
pass rate and retention rate of a specific cohort of learning aims. Summary information is 
shown at many levels (for example, all ages, all qualification levels and all institution 
types). All the columns in the worksheets contain drop-down menus that allow you to 
choose the information you want. 

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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49. The screenshot below shows an example of how the information will appear in the 
headline achievement rate worksheet.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
50. The drop-down menus are used to choose the level of information. The screenshot below 
shows the effect of using the drop-down menus to choose achievement rates for all ages 
and all qualification levels.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Further information and help 
51. We produce education and learning national achievement rates tables in line with our 
education and training qualification achievement rates business rules. The business rules 
and achievement rates dataset production specification are on the gov.uk website (at 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-qualification-achievement-rate-2014-to-
2015).  
 
52. If you need more information about the education and training national achievement rates 
tables, please phone our service desk on xx-xxxx-xxxx or email 
xxx@xxx.xx. Please provide a detailed explanation of your query.    

 
 
 
 
Education and Training National Achievement Rate Tables 2014/2015 - Guidance Notes  
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Published by: 
Skills Funding Agency 
Version: 
1.0 
Date: 
10 May 2016