With two leading universities, four further education colleges, and specialist institutions like the JCB Academy and the Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire Institute of Technology, the region provides a highly skilled talent pool.
Keele University is a campus university with more than 13,500 students, nestled in 600 acres of Staffordshire countryside. More than 80% of Keele’s research is rated as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ and in 2022, it was ranked as number one in the UK based on student feedback.
University of Staffordshire has campuses in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford and London, and has more than 21,000 students. In 2023, the university was ranked in the top 10 for career prospects.
With great schools and colleges, a far higher proportion of the workforce have Level 1 qualifications (RQF1 and above) than the regional and national figures.
Percentage of Workforce with RQF1+ Qualifications
Staffordshire: 93.3%
West Midlands: 87.5%
Great Britain: 89.0%
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29,350 students in full and part-time study |
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Over 13,000 apprentices trained each year |
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5,000+ postgraduate degrees awarded annually |
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42% rise in adults with degree-level qualifications since 2011 |
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As of 2023, 3.9% of Staffordshire's working-age population had no formal qualifications, lower than the West Midlands average of 7.3% and the Great Britain average of 6.5%. |