SCOTLAND has lower rates of young people not in employment, education or training than the rest of the UK. Or does it?
At first glance, the figures seem to paint a rosier picture north of the Border. But experts consulted by the Sunday National say that a direct comparison is tricky.
The conversation around so-called Neets (young people not in employment, education or training) exploded last week after an investigation by former health secretary Alan Milburn found Britain was failing the “bedroom generation”.
Launching his report on Thursday, the New Labour-era former Cabinet minister said: “At the very point when they should be starting adult life, gaining confidence, building skills, learning the habits of work and taking their first steps towards independence, too many are becoming detached from education and employment altogether.
“We are at risk of a lost generation.”
The report lays bare the scale of the challenge, which is estimated to cost the UK around £125 billion a year, with the number of Neets hitting one million for the first time since 2013.
But Milburn’s review makes clear that the picture “differs” in Scotland.
Across the UK, the rate of young people aged not in employment, education or training is at 12.8%, while in Scotland, the rate sits at 6.7%. But there is an important caveat, according to academics who spoke to the Sunday National.
While the UK statistics refer to those aged between 16 and 24, the range in Scotland, as cited in a Skills Development Scotland report from August 2025, is much narrower, covering only those aged between 16 and 19.
Dr Chris Playford, a quantitative sociologist at Exeter University, told the Sunday National that Scotland’s narrower age range captured people who mostly would still be at school.
The Milburn review itself notes that the rate nearly trebles at 18, and the problem is especially concentrated at the ages of 21 to 24.
However, other statistics are available. Dr Luke Munford, a lecturer in health economics at Manchester University, shared research he had carried out which found that Scotland’s Neet rate, accounting for the full 16-24 age range, was lower than in Wales and all English regions other than the south east and the east of England at 11.3% in the year ending 2024.
Dr James Robson, director of Oxford University’s Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance, said that aside from the difficulties in comparing the Scottish and UK-wide figures, there were “genuine and significant” differences in approaches north and south of the Border.
He said: “Ultimately, Scotland has tended to maintain a more co-ordinated approach to school-to-work transitions, with stronger local employability partnerships, more integrated careers guidance, and a larger role for further education colleges in supporting young people who are not following traditional academic routes.
“England, by contrast, has experienced a long-term weakening of vocational and transitional pathways, alongside increasingly fragmented post-16 governance, major policy churn, and the increasing development of a post-16 qualifications jungle.”
This is evidence of England’s “market-based approach” in contrast with the more directed approach taken in Scotland, the academic argued.
Dr Robson added: “Probably most importantly in my view, is that for the last decade at least, Scotland has been developing an integrated tertiary education system.
"This deliberately aims to treat further education, higher education, apprenticeships and skills policy as a connected post-school system rather than separate sectors, with greater collaboration between institutions and greater co-ordination from the state in line with both social and economic needs.
“In contrast, England has doubled down on a market-based approach for education and training, essentially viewing competition as the mechanism to drive quality of provision and skills alignment.
"The result has been significant destabilisation of the institutions that should be there to support young people to develop and transition into work as they compete for students and funding.”
However, he said he would be “cautious” about arguing whether Scotland’s potentially lower Neet rate was the virtue of policy or a statistical issue.
Dr Robson added: “Ultimately, England under Labour is moving towards a much more joined-up, integrated, and co-ordinated approach rooted in systems thinking that is much closer to the Scottish model.”
Kevin Ralston, a sociologist at Edinburgh University, said it should come as no surprise to Labour that the rate of Neets has risen to the extent it has.
He told the Sunday National: “If you are a government and you’ve had the Great Recession of 2008, then never-ending austerity from 2010, you have an energy shock as a policy, when Russia invades Ukraine, then you do a Budget where you increase National Insurance contributions for employers employing young people, and then you tactically support a war in the world’s major fossil fuel producing region, then I would be very surprised if the Neet rate dropped in the year following that Budget.”
