Staffordshire offers companies a high-quality workforce, with a rich talent pool for manufacturing, technology and health.
Within a 45 minute drivetime of Staffordshire, you can access:
● 7 million people
● 4 million of working age
● 15 universities
Locating your business in Staffordshire puts you at the centre of a strong catchment area of 300,000 technology workers; more than 350,000 health-related roles and a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs.
The pipeline of future skills and talent is strong too with Staffordshire being home to two great universities and several colleges.
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%
Source: ONS annual population survey (2023)
For higher qualifications, more than 200,000 people in Staffordshire are educated to degree level and more than half a million have A’Levels and above.
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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%. |
