70% of Great Yarmouth school leavers won't go to university

Fewer than three in 10 Great Yarmouth school leavers go on to higher education, which makes this stretch of the Norfolk coast one of the hardest places in England to get from a sixth-form desk to a lecture theatre. BBC analysis of Office for Students data found that more than 70% of 19-year-olds in the town do not progress into higher education at all.

That gap sat behind every envelope opened on Thursday, as A-level results landed across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Nationally the mood was confident: UCAS expected a record number of 18-year-olds to land their first-choice place, and record numbers to go through clearing. Sector leaders told ITV News that money is now a decisive factor, with more students planning to live at home and work alongside their course.

In Great Yarmouth, that calculation gets made earlier and answered differently. The BBC followed four teenagers from the town — a self-employed hairdresser, an engineering apprentice, a musician still hunting for steady work, and a medical student heading to Bristol on a scholarship. Between them they show the 70% is not one story about low ambition. It's several stories about cost, distance and second attempts.

What the numbers say about Great Yarmouth school leavers

The pressure starts long before sixth form. In the Great Yarmouth and Northern Villages area, 41.9% of pupils from Reception to Year 13 are eligible for free school meals, according to the Norfolk Insight neighbourhood profile. Across Norfolk schools as a whole the figure is 22.6%. Put plainly, a child here is close to twice as likely to be growing up in a low-income household as the county average.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council has flagged the knock-on effect. In 2022, more than a third of pupils in Years 10 and 11 were identified as being at risk of ending up not in education, employment or training — about 10% higher than the Norfolk rate. Nelson ward, in the town centre, carries the borough's highest unemployment rate at 11.2%. Deprivation locally has been worsening relative to other areas for years.

Four teenagers, four very different exits

What the statistics flatten out, the individual routes make obvious. None of these four followed the standard sixth-form-to-campus path, and only one of them is heading to a university this autumn. All four are working towards something.

The hairdresser who backed herself at 18

Jessica Flaxman, 18, is Great Yarmouth born and bred and admits she "didn't have a clue" what she wanted to do. She took a college hairdressing course, came out with a distinction, and now works self-employed at the Colours and Reveal salon in Bradwell. "It was nerve-racking at the start," she told the BBC. The upside, she said, is making her own money and building a name for herself.

The apprentice who was turned down twice

Callum Payne, 19, is an apprentice at Armultra, a Great Yarmouth engineering firm working in the nuclear, gas and wind sectors. He didn't get in first time. He went back to college, picked up a welding qualification, and applied again. His advice to anyone rejected is simply to keep going back with better qualifications. "I've loved every bit of it so far," he said.

The medic who can't take a student loan

Olivia Ojeman, 18, has lived in Great Yarmouth with her foster mother since she was 16 and has a conditional offer to study medicine at Bristol. Because her asylum status leaves her ineligible for student finance, she is funded by a scholarship, with support from the education charity IntoUniversity. She was inspired by the American neurosurgeon Ben Carson. "It was a necessity to get to where I want to be," she said.

The job hunt that stops at the bus stop

Reece Pasby, 19, is picking up short-term work while his band records an album. His obstacle isn't qualifications or willingness — it's geography and the price of getting out of it.

All the jobs are in Norwich and it'd be a lot of money to get the bus every day for a job.

Why the bus timetable shapes careers here

Norwich sits about 20 miles away, and for a teenager on entry-level pay a daily return fare can swallow a serious slice of a shift's wages before tax. That's the quiet mechanism behind a lot of the local numbers. A seaside economy leaning on seasonal tourism produces summer work that thins out by October, while the steadier office and graduate roles cluster inland. Transport cost turns a 40-minute journey into a career filter.

Is turning down a degree actually a bad bet?

Not necessarily. Tuition in England now runs above £9,500 a year before living costs, and apprentices earn while they train rather than borrowing. Armultra-style engineering work tied to offshore energy is precisely the kind of skilled, local, non-graduate route that policymakers keep saying they want more of. The worry in Great Yarmouth isn't that teenagers choose apprenticeships — it's whether enough good places exist for those who want one.

What to do if today's grades didn't land

If Thursday didn't go to plan, nothing is closed off yet. Clearing stays open into October, so there is time to think rather than panic-accept.

• Ring the university directly, even if you missed the conditions — admissions teams often still take you.
• Search live apprenticeship vacancies on the government's find-an-apprenticeship service, including degree apprenticeships that pay while you study.
• Ask your college about T-levels, BTECs or resits before writing off the year.
• Use the free National Careers Service helpline for one-to-one advice.
• Check what local charities and youth programmes in the borough can offer, including coaching for 16- to 19-year-olds.

The thing worth watching over the next few weeks isn't the national pass rate — it's whether Great Yarmouth school leavers who want an apprenticeship can actually find one within reach of a bus route they can afford. If you're deciding this weekend, put the travel cost into the sum before you accept anything, and make one phone call today rather than three next month.