Accountability Agreement 2025 to 2026

Local and national priorities and needs analysis

Coventry is a growing City with an estimated population of 355,600 residents. According to the Census 2021, 55.3% of Coventry’s total population is White British. This is notably lower than West Midlands (71.8%) and England (73.5%) and shows the proportion of the city population who are of White British ethnicity has fallen from 66.6% in 2011.

It means that Coventry’s population is made up of a notably higher percentage of people from ethnic heritage backgrounds compared to the national average.

Coventry has a strong economy with good growth and high levels of employment. The employment rate between July 2024 and June 2025 was 76% compared to 75% nationally in the same period.

Educational attainment in Coventry is slightly lower than national average. For the period 2021 (Census data), 19.4% of Coventry’s population aged 16+ had no formal qualifications compared to 18.2% nationally. The proportion of young people not in employment, education or training is lower than the national average (around 3.2% compared to 4.6% nationally), the rate is increasing at approximately 0.7 percentage points year-on-year, and longstanding disparities remain within the city, particularly in more deprived areas.

One of the challenges in Coventry is to increase the number of adults with at least a Level 3 qualification. Only 58.7% hold NVQ Level 3 or above, compared to 61.5% nationally. Currently, some areas, such as Foleshill and Wood End, have comparatively high levels of adults without any qualifications, and large numbers of the workforce have little more than Level 2 (e.g., GCSE grades 9 to 4 or A to C; Level 2 NVQ, intermediate apprenticeship).

(Source: Coventry City Council – Residents by Qualification Level report)

Service data

In 2024 to 2025 the service had 7,512 enrolments from 3,712 learners. Seventy-six per cent of learners were female and 24% male. Learners living in each of the 5 most deprived deciles of the IMD participate at rates higher than the Coventry population average (in total, 32% of the Coventry population and 44% of learners).

Further headline figures for Coventry include:

• estimated population of 365,500
• 30% Local Super Output Areas (LSOAs) rank in the top 10% of most deprived LSOAs nationally
• Coventry employment rate of 75%, compared to 76% nationally
• high educational attainment
• people aged 16 to 65 with no formal qualification in Coventry is 8%, compared to 7% nationally
• Coventry has 62% of residents qualified to at least level 3, compared with 68% nationally
• there has been an increase of adults with at least a level 3 qualification
• Coventry has a high level of adults without a qualification. Large numbers of the workforce have little more than level 2 (for example, GCSE grades 9 to 4 or A* to C, level 2 NVQ, intermediate apprenticeship)