Insight briefing: Learner career readiness in 2025/26

The Future Skills Questionnaire (FSQ) is The Careers & Enterprise Company’s (CEC) national learner survey of career readiness. In its fifth year, with more than half a million learners from nearly 2,000 secondary education settings across England completed FSQ.

Key findings at a glance

• Career readiness increases between Years 7 and 11, but low starting points in career knowledge, pathway awareness and essential workplace skills leave substantial headroom for earlier intervention.
• While most learners develop clear plans for their future by Year 11, confidence to take action and employer connections do not always keep pace.
• Career readiness scores can reflect different challenges across regions and learner groups, highlighting the value of a common measure to identify local needs and target support where it is most needed.

Three themes from this year’s data

1. Build career readiness earlier

The findings show the importance of supporting young people from an early age.

Career readiness is relatively low among students in Years 7 and 8. Although confidence in some essential skills improves over time, Year 11 learners report lower confidence in teamwork, listening and leadership than Year 7 learners, highlighting the need for sustained development of these skills throughout secondary education.

Young people's understanding of education and training pathways improves throughout secondary school, with awareness of apprenticeships more than doubling. However, gaps remain in understanding vocational routes, particularly T Levels, underscoring the need to broaden awareness and early consideration of all available options.

2. Turn understanding into action

Young people develop plans for their future earlier than they have the confidence and connections to act on them.  

The jobs and sectors learners are interested in change substantially throughout their secondary education, and young people say that work experience does not always shape ideas about jobs and next steps.  84% of Year 11s report having work experience, but only 65% of these learners say it helped shape their ideas about next steps.  

3. Use a common measure to target support

Similar levels of career readiness across regions can mask distinct local challenges in understanding pathways, support and employer connections. The findings also reveal gaps among disadvantaged learners, including those who are White British and eligible for free school meals (FSM) and learners with special educational needs (SEN) who are also eligible for FSM. This highlights the importance of targeted support that responds to learners' needs and local circumstances.

Why it matters

This report represents the voice of more than half a million learners reflecting on their hopes, challenges and ambitions for the future. Their feedback is helping shape more equitable, targeted and effective careers support across the country.

As this year’s findings show, starting early, connecting learning with real-world opportunity, and targeting support for those who need it most are the foundations of a system that prepares learners for the future of work.

FSQ Insight Briefing Data Tables.

If you have any questions, please contact: research@careersandenterprise.co.uk.