Attainment in Scotland has traditionally been measured in terms of passes at course level. However, there is a growing appreciation of the need to measure attainment at unit level (the 'building blocks' for all Scottish qualifications). The drivers behind this desire are firstly that unit achievement is in itself important and provides students with recognition for any aspects of a course that have been successfully completed - even if the candidate does not complete the course. Secondly, there are a growing number of candidates who enrol in certain units with no intention of undertaking the overall course. This attainment is not captured within the existing course based measure.Additionally, there is much interest in Scotland in understanding and quantifying the impact on attainment of gender and other socio-economic differences. Course attainment only reveals part of the answer and unit attainment can provide additional intelligence and allow for a deeper understanding of the relative levels of attainment.A consistent and robust mechanism for measuring attainment at unit level has, until recently, been unavailable. This changed with the development of the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF), which has brought Scottish qualifications into a single unifying framework. combines qualifications across academic and vocational sectors in a single credit-based framework. In this Framework, qualifications are described in terms of their level and their credit value as defined by a number of SCQF credit points. Credits are earned by unit and as such can be used to measure the volume of unit attainment within a consistent framework.This paper describes the SCQF and the mechanisms that allow for consistent comparison between units and levels. Analysis of trends are then made between course and unit attainment to firstly show the validity of the framework and secondly to highlight how our understanding of attainment in Scotland - particularly in the key areas of gender and social disadvantage - are enhanced by this approach.