Two reports, one clear picture that reveals not just what students want, but why. Drawing on a national survey and behaviour data from over 20 million student career searches across 152 colleges, these are the most comprehensive student insight reports available in FE.
The FE landscape is shifting. Students are navigating cost-of-living pressures, anxiety about AI in the workplace, and a labour market that looks very different to five years ago. Understanding what that means for enrolment, course choice and career aspiration has never been more important.
This year's reports bring together two distinct lenses on the student experience:
The FE Student Choices Survey captures what students say about their confidence, their motivations, the people who influence them, and their concerns about the future. Over 1,300 students responded, covering every region of England and Wales.
Pathways Usage Data shows what students actually do. 20 million occupation views and 16.7 million subject page interactions, captured in real time across 152 colleges. There is no comparable behavioural dataset in the FE sector.
Together, they build a picture that no single source could provide on its own.
What you'll find inside:
- Student confidence. How assured are students about their choices, and what's undermining that confidence?
- Course and career decision-making. What really drives a student to choose one path over another
- Cost of living. How financial pressure is shaping ambition and course selection
- AI and the future of work. How students are thinking about automation, and what it means for the careers they're pursuing
- The most-viewed careers and subjects. What 20 million searches tell us about where student interest is heading
- Regional breakdowns. National trends and how they play out differently across England and Wales
- Year-on-year shifts. What's changed since 2025, and what that signals for 2026/27 planning
Why this data is different:
Most insight into student decision-making comes from surveys alone. This report combines survey responses with real behavioural data, tracking the careers students search for, the subjects they browse, and the information they engage with at the moment of decision. Across 152 colleges and over 42,000 embedded course pages, there is no other dataset in FE that captures student career curiosity at this scale.
