The percentage of Scots holding post-secondary school qualifications continues to be the highest in Europe, figures suggest.
In 2019 – the latest year for which comparable statistics are available - more than half (50.4 per cent) of the country’s 25- to 64-year-olds had completed courses categorised at levels five to eight under the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED).
Scotland was also number one between 2011 and 2019 for the percentage of 25- to 64-year-olds educated to tertiary level.
The SNP has seized on the figures, which were published by Eurostat.
READ MORE: College students offered free breakfast to ease cost of living pressures
Kaukab Stewart, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, said they highlighted the "startling improvement in education since the SNP came to office – and blow out of the water bogus claims made by opposition parties".
She added: “We have an incredibly talented and well-educated workforce, which is hugely important for attracting inward investment - another success story under the SNP which exposes the dubiety of opposition claims.
"Our universities are continually ranked amongst the very best in the world and we have a reputation for innovation.”
SNP leaders also said that, while there are no separate figures for England, comparisons with Wales, Northern Ireland and the UK as a whole show Scotland has widened the performance gap since 2007 – the year in which their party came to power.
READ MORE: Scotland 'should consider new-look school week'
Ms Stewart added: “We are at the cutting edge of industries of the future – Glasgow builds more satellites than anywhere outside of Houston – and our life sciences cluster is one of the biggest in Europe.
“All of this is underpinned by a continually improving performance of our tertiary education system under the SNP Scottish Government.
“While the opposition continue to talk down Scotland, the SNP will continue to support a highly-educated workforce ready to take its place on the world stage when we become an independent country.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel