Local Government Candidates Survey 2022

A voluntary demographic survey of candidates running in the Scottish Local Government elections of 2022


10. Education and Qualifications

Candidates were asked to state the highest level of educational qualification they had achieved, selecting from a pre-defined list which adheres to the Scottish Vocational Qualification descriptors[9]. Analysis was then undertaken to identify the distribution of qualifications which is presented below in figure 16.

Figure 16: Highest qualification of respondents

Bar chart visualising proportion of respondents split by their highest qualification. The chart shows that the majority of respondents has a degree level qualification or above.

As we can see from the above, the majority of respondents (67%) had a qualification above SVQ level 4 which is equivalent to a degree level or above qualification and only 3% of respondents having no qualifications at all.

Figure 17: Highest qualification of respondents compared to overall Scottish population

Bar chart visualising the percentage difference between respondents and the Scottish population with regards to qualifications. The chart shows that there was a higher percentage of respondents with degree level qualifications or above as compared to the Scottish population.

Comparing this to the Scottish population as in figure 17 we can see that there were a far greater number of respondents with degree level qualifications compared to the Scottish population in total (34% percentage point difference) and far lower numbers with lower level qualifications or no qualifications at all.

Figure 18: Electoral outcome by highest qualification

Bar chart visualising qualification level of respondents split by electoral outcome (i.e. who was successfully elected). Chart shows that the majority of individuals who were successfully elected had a degree level qualification or above.

Nonetheless there did not appear to be a notable difference in the qualification distributions of those candidates who were successfully elected and those who were not, with only minor differences in the educational profile of both groups as set out in figure 18 above.

Contact

Email: Arfan.Iqbal@Gov.Scot

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