ISE’s Student Development survey 2025 shows how school and college leavers progress over three years with salaries by sector and region.
Salaries are a key component of developing and retaining early career hires and recognising their contribution. It is important to understand how employers strategically use development programmes and salary progressions.
This year’s ISE Student Development Survey 2025 gathered detailed insights from 148 employers across a range of sectors and organisation types. It shows that salary progression for graduates and school and college leavers demonstrates notable growth over three years.
You can read about how graduate salaries progress over three years in an earlier article. Here we focus on progression of school and college leavers. On average, the majority of school and college leavers (84%) were enrolled on an apprenticeship.
What are their next steps?
Following the completion of an early career programme, 83% of employers reported offering a salary increase and 73% a new job title to their school and college leavers, reflecting a pattern similar to the previous year.
While 31% of employers allocated people to a suitable role others must take a more proactive approach.
Over a third suggest their hires need to apply for a permanent position within their organisation, while 26% suggest school and college leavers must apply for a specific role of interest.
What are average salaries over 3-years?
The salary progression for school and college leavers shows notable growth over three years. In 2025, school and college leavers began with a salary of £23,000 (median), rising to £31,500 (median) after three years, marking a 37% increase.
Comparatively, in 2024, the salary growth was less pronounced. School and college leavers saw their salaries grow from £22,000 to £29,500 over the same period, representing a 34% increase.
Although this suggests an improvement in salary progression in 2025, this trend appears to be partly driven by stagnant starting salaries rather than an overall enhancement of pay structures.
Between 2024 and 2025, starting salaries saw only a modest increase from £22,000 to £23,000. This lack of growth in initial salaries may have contributed to a steeper percentage increase in earnings over three years, rather than reflecting a broader shift in employer pay strategies.
Sector and regional differences
A significant difference can be seen across sectors when we look at percentage changes in starting salaries and salaries after three years.
The most significant salary increase by far is in the Retail, FMCG & Tourism sector (82% increase to £40,000). Also significant were in Built Environment (49% rise to £29,000) and in Energy, Engineering and Industry (48% to £38,750).
The smallest salary increases were in the Legal sector (20% increase to £30,000) and Charity and Public Sector (25% rise to £28,678).
A significant difference can also be seen across regions when we look at percentage changes in starting salaries and salaries after three years.
Northern Ireland leads with a 40% salary increase to £30,500, suggesting a strong upward trend in that region. Not far behind were Scotland (35% rise to £29,700) and the South East (33% to £30,000).
On the other hand, Yorkshire and the Humber reports the smallest increase at 24%, indicating more limited salary progression in that area.
For detailed sector and regional salary breakdown download ISE’s Student Development Survey 2025