Student experience research

Youth Voice Census 2025: The College Experience

The Youth Voice Census is Youth Employment UK’s annual survey of young people, capturing a diverse range of insights on young people’s experiences of and attitudes towards education, employment and their wider lives. 

The survey captured responses from more than 8,200 young people across the UK, including more than 2,000 college and sixth form students.

In January 2026, Youth Employment UK partnered with the Association of Colleges (AoC) to produce a report summarising some key findings from the 2025 Youth Voice Census. These findings, detailed in this report, focus on: 

• Young people’s overall experience of college - what is going well and what are they finding challenging?
• Young people’s absences from college - how much are they missing college, what are the reasons for this absence, and how is this shaping the risk of them discontinuing their studies?
• Future prospects for young people in college - what careers support have students accessed at their college, what further support would they like, and how prepared are they feeling for their next steps?

Read the report Read the AoC press release