Vocational Attitudes Survey 2026: How do attitudes change around England?

For the third wave of the Vocational Attitudes Survey, Enginuity collected responses from 1,000 parents and young people in regions across England. We asked about their views on vocational education, and whether it’s seen as a viable alternative to academic study both at home and at school.

In previous articles discussing the survey we have noted how opinions have shifted up and down over the last two years, and looked at potential background reasons explaining the changes. This time as we break down survey responses by region, we might yet uncover more differences in opinion.

Family enthusiasm versus school support in the North East and East Midlands

Q1. Given the expense of university, how interested, if at all, are you in other more vocational routes for your children to enter their chosen career?

Positive responses by year:

Region	2024	2025	2026	24 - 25 %  Difference	25 - 26%  Difference
North East	83.30%	93.10%	95.10%	9.80%	2.00%
North West	89.70%	92.50%	93.20%	2.80%	0.70%
West Midlands	94.40%	86.40%	91.20%	-8.00%	4.80%
Greater London	91.00%	90.60%	90.80%	-0.40%	0.20%
East Midlands	92.70%	90.20%	89.70%	-2.50%	-0.50%
Yorkshire and the Humber	85.20%	89.80%	88.10%	4.60%	-1.70%
East of England	100.00%	100.00%	85.70%	0.00%	-14.30%
South West	71.40%	91.70%	84.10%	20.30%	-7.60%
South East	89.90%	89.20%	84.10%	-0.70%	-5.10%

Q6. Given the cost of university, how interested, if at all, are you in other more vocational routes to enter your chosen career?

Positive responses by year:

Region	2024	2025	2026	24 - 25 %  Difference	25 - 26%  Difference
East Midlands	86.10%	92.20%	91.80%	6.10%	-0.40%
East of England	65.20%	100.00%	89.30%	34.80%	-10.70%
Greater London	82.90%	89.60%	89.00%	6.70%	-0.60%
North West	85.40%	87.30%	87.60%	1.90%	0.30%
West Midlands	84.40%	89.10%	86.00%	4.70%	-3.10%
South East	81.50%	86.50%	85.50%	5.00%	-1.00%
Yorkshire and the Humber	80.90%	87.80%	84.90%	6.90%	-2.90%
North East	82.00%	89.70%	83.60%	7.70%	-6.10%
South West	76.80%	87.50%	80.70%	10.70%	-6.80%

North East parents and East Midlands youngsters are the groups most keen on discovering more information about going the vocational route. Support from parents in the North East has always climbed, while interest from young people in the East Midlands has cooled slightly since last year.

Q11a. At school, I feel that students are signposted towards university courses more than they are towards vocational routes.

Positive responses by year:

Region	2024	2025	2026	24 - 25 % Difference	25 - 26% Difference
East Midlands	63.90%	62.70%	69.10%	-1.20%	6.40%
West Midlands	63.10%	60.00%	64.70%	-3.10%	4.70%
North West	65.70%	62.70%	57.80%	-3.00%	-4.90%
Greater London	65.50%	74.60%	66.10%	9.10%	-8.50%
Yorkshire and the Humber	61.80%	66.30%	55.60%	4.50%	-10.70%
East of England	65.20%	63.00%	51.20%	-2.20%	-11.80%
South West	58.00%	66.70%	52.30%	8.70%	-14.40%
South East	59.30%	70.30%	55.80%	11.00%	-14.50%
North East	60.70%	74.10%	54.10%	13.40%	-20.00%

Despite their enthusiasm for learning about all things vocational in school, almost 7 in 10 students from the East Midlands feel like schools are putting more focus on university study instead.

Q11b. I have noticed my school talking about wider options for students when it comes to vocational routes post exams.

Positive responses by year:

Region	2024	2025	2026	24 - 25 % Difference	25 - 26% Difference
Greater London	61.90%	69.30%	64.20%	7.40%	-5.10%
Yorkshire and the Humber	63.60%	61.20%	63.50%	-2.40%	2.30%
West Midlands	66.40%	58.20%	63.20%	-8.20%	5.00%
North West	54.00%	63.40%	62.70%	9.40%	-0.70%
East of England	52.20%	66.70%	61.90%	14.50%	-4.80%
South West	56.50%	68.10%	61.40%	11.60%	-6.70%
North East	67.20%	67.20%	57.40%	0.00%	-9.80%
South East	60.50%	56.80%	57.20%	-3.70%	0.40%
East Midlands	59.70%	74.50%	52.60%	14.80%	-21.90%

Furthermore, fewer than six in ten young people agree with the sentiment that schools are discussing post-exam vocational options in three different English regions as of 2026.

• The East Midlands has experienced a climb of nearly 15 percentage points followed by a drop of over 20, leaving them at a lower level than in 2024 with barely half in agreement.
• Positive responses in the South East have gained slightly following an initial drop to 2025 figures.
• Support for the statement in the North East has dropped by almost 10 percentage points with no movement prior.

11c. My school talk to us about both university and vocational routes to make us aware of all choices available when we leave school.

Positive responses by year:

Region	2024	2025	2026	24 - 25 % Difference	25 - 26% Difference
West Midlands	72.10%	59.10%	75.00%	-13.00%	15.90%
Greater London	66.50%	73.50%	71.60%	7.00%	-1.90%
North West	65.70%	72.40%	69.60%	6.70%	-2.80%
South West	62.30%	63.90%	67.00%	1.60%	3.10%
East of England	82.60%	63.00%	66.70%	-19.60%	3.70%
South East	55.60%	70.30%	65.90%	14.70%	-4.40%
East Midlands	62.50%	74.50%	64.90%	12.00%	-9.60%
Yorkshire and the Humber	68.20%	60.20%	63.50%	-8.00%	3.30%
North East	63.90%	75.90%	57.40%	12.00%	-18.50%

The East Midlands and the North East again find themselves in the bottom three regions ranked by the balance of university and vocational route promotion.

Between 2024 and 2025 the North East rose to become the number one-ranked region for agreeing with the sentiment. But between 2025 and this year support for the sentiment cratered, sending it down to the bottom of English regions and even lower than initial 2024 figures.

It is very interesting to note that North East parents are the ones most enthusiastic about their children exploring vocational routes, while North East young people are among the least interested.

Does young people’s low enthusiasm cause colleges and schools to respond in kind, or does the low level of promotion of vocational routes in colleges and schools cause young people to feel a low level of interest?

Strong support in the South West

Another huge change in opinion that formed over the previous 12 months happened when parents were asked if they’d support their children in considering an apprenticeship over a university degree.

The South West’s share of parents went from barely half of responses agreeing (53.6%) in 2024, up to 59.7% where it ranked second from bottom, before rocketing to the top of the rankings in 2026 with 77.3% in support.

Young people in the South West also registered by far the biggest change in 12 months for the question on getting guest speakers into school to discuss more vocational careers. In 2025, only 51.4% agreed it happened but in 2026 the number increased by 11.1 percentage points to 62.5% in 2026. It’s such a huge swing for a positive response – three regions lost more than 11 percentage points in the last 12 months (South East -11.3%, East Midlands -11.8%, Greater London -11.9%).

Additionally, the South West took another big swing in opinions over time when 52.3% agreed that schools signposted university more than vocational courses for students. This was a decrease of 14.4 percentage points on 2025’s figure of 66.70%. This drop from two-thirds to just over half shows more young people in the South West are coming round to the potential of vocational routes.

These encouraging signs in some regions are tempered by the ‘chicken or egg?’ problem in others, around vocational visibility in schools and colleges potentially affecting young people’s enthusiasm to seek alternatives to university – or vice versa.

At Enginuity we want to give vocational learning the same consideration and celebration as academic study, which is why together with EAL we created Vocational Celebration Day.

Download our Vocational Attitudes Survey and learn more about the differences in vocational potential between different regions.

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