Education & Qualifications
A person’s level of education has a major role in shaping their health and wellbeing over a lifetime. Education has a wide impact on health and wellbeing in terms of developing values, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and social functioning skills and should not just be focused on formal qualifications. Socioeconomic inequality can be seen across the education system, from early years to higher education and beyond (Public Health Scotland, 2025).
16-19-year-olds
95.3% of school leavers in Midlothian (2023-24), were in a positive destination e.g. training, employment, volunteering and further and higher education approximately three months after the end of the school year. (95.7% in Scotland) ( Scottish Government, 2025).
Between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025,
93.9% of 16–19-year-olds in Midlothian were participating in education or employment (93.3% in Scotland)
- 63.2% were in education (70.5% in Scotland)
- 27.7% were in employment (20.7% in Scotland) (Skills Development Scotland, 2025).
Over the last ten years, Midlothian has consistently exceeded the national proportion of young people entering employment and it is currently higher for males (29.6%) compared to females (25.8%), (Skills Development Scotland, 2025).
There is no current data to define what proportion of these young people are entering ‘good work’ (see definition in Employment and Income)
Participation varies across Midlothian. As of 2025, Dalkeith has become the Midlothian intermediate zone with the lowest participation rate (86.4%), compared to the highest of Dalhousie (98.3%), (Skills Development Scotland, 2025). In Midlothian a 6.6%-point gap exists between participation in the 20% most deprived (90.7%) and the 20% least deprived areas (97.3%), (Skills Development Scotland, 2024). This deprivation data is taken from 2024, as the 2025 data contains low numbers so has been suppressed.
Unemployment 16-19 year olds in Midlothian
- 1.9% - unemployed and not seeking employment (in 2025 compared to 2.2% in 2024).
- 1.9% - unemployed and seeking employment (in 2025 compared to 1.6% in 2024)
- 2.4% - unknown status in 2025 (Skills Development Scotland, 2025)
Qualification Levels
- 52.1% of the working age population of Midlothian have a qualification at NVQ level 4 or above as of 2024, (53.7% in Scotland) (Office For National Statistics, 2024).
- There is a lower proportion of people in Midlothian with HNDs, degrees, or degree-level qualifications (SCQF level 8 & 9) than in Scotland (Office for National Statistics, 2022; Scottish Government, 2023).
- 4.4% of Midlothian school leavers have no qualifications (7.8% in Scotland).
4,566 people from Midlothian enrolled at Edinburgh college in 2022-23. This is an increase from 3,8214 in 2021-2022 (Midlothian Profile, 2024-25 ).
- 28% of students were aged 25 and over
- 28% of students had a disability (Midlothian Profile 2024-25).
Adult Literacy
The Midlothian Council Lifelong Learning & Employability Additional Learning Needs Service worked with 153 adults in the year 2021/22 (Midlothian Profile, 2024-25).
Most participants were female (72%).
The most common first language of people attending these courses was Polish or Arabic - these figures pre-date the Ukraine visa schemes (Midlothian Profile, 2024-25).