If you work in school recruitment, or if you are a teacher weighing up your next move, understanding where demand is concentrated right now is more useful than any generic career advice. The education job market in 2026 is uneven. In some areas and subjects, schools have been advertising the same post for months with little response. In others, strong candidates have their pick of roles.
Here is a clear picture of where the demand is, based on current data and what we are seeing day to day across schools in the Midlands and beyond.
STEM: Still the Biggest Gap, With No Easy Fix in Sight
Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science remain the most persistently under-filled teaching subjects in England. In 2024/25, England missed its secondary teacher training targets in Physics, Maths and Computing for the fifth consecutive year. The shortfall in Physics alone exceeded 70% of the funded target. Physics recruitment reached only 30% of its target in 2024, while Computing managed roughly a third.
The reason is structural. Graduates with strong STEM qualifications have more options than most. Technology, finance and engineering firms compete directly for the same people, often with higher starting salaries and different working conditions. Schools are rarely able to win that competition on pay alone.
The government has responded with training bursaries of up to £29,000 for Physics and other shortage subjects in 2026/27, alongside targeted retention incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax for early career teachers in shortage subjects. These help, but they have not closed the gap. If you hold a STEM specialism, you are in one of the strongest positions in the teaching job market right now.
SEN Roles: Demand Is Growing Faster Than Supply
Special educational needs is one of the fastest-growing areas of demand in UK education, and it is not close to being met. Six children in every classroom are now being identified with additional needs. The number of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan has doubled since 2016. That growth is driving consistent, urgent demand for SEN teaching assistants, specialist SEN teachers, and SENCOs in schools across every region.
What makes SEN recruitment particularly challenging for schools is the combination of high need and limited supply. Many SEND roles require specific expertise in conditions like autism, ADHD, speech and language difficulties, or complex communication needs, and that specialist knowledge takes time to build. Schools are increasingly willing to hire candidates with strong potential and train them on the job, but experienced SEN professionals are commanding genuine market power right now.
SENCO vacancies specifically have more than doubled between 2019 and 2024. The National Award for SEN Coordination is a requirement for any teacher taking on a SENCO role without already holding it, which limits the available pool further. Schools that identify and develop their own SENCO pipeline from within their existing staff tend to be in a stronger position than those trying to recruit externally at short notice.
Teaching Assistants and Learning Support: Volume Demand Across All Settings
Teaching assistant roles are the single most applied-for job title in UK education, with over 249,000 applications recorded in the last year according to CV-Library data. SEN Teaching Assistants generated over 49,000 applications in the same period, and Learning Support Assistants over 37,000.
The volume of applications reflects genuine and broad demand. Schools need teaching assistants across all year groups, all key stages and a growing range of specialist settings. The difference between a school that supports its teaching assistants well and one that treats them as low-cost cover is significant, and word gets around quickly in local education communities. Schools that invest in the development and wellbeing of their support staff find it considerably easier to fill these roles with strong candidates.
Modern Foreign Languages: A Growing Shortage That Often Gets Overlooked
While STEM dominates the conversation around shortage subjects, MFL is quietly one of the most difficult areas to staff in secondary schools. Spanish is in particularly high demand, with both primary and secondary schools struggling to find qualified teachers as the language grows in popularity among pupils and parents. French and German maintain steady demand, and the introduction of language learning from Year 3 in many primary schools has created hundreds of new positions that did not exist five years ago.
Secondary Leadership: Harder to Fill Than Schools Admit
Headteacher and deputy headteacher vacancies are an area of growing concern that sits beneath the surface of most public conversations about teacher supply. Schools rated inadequate by Ofsted experience teacher turnover up to three times higher than outstanding schools, and that pressure concentrates heavily at leadership level. The government's 6,500 additional teachers pledge focuses on classroom teachers in secondary and special schools, but the leadership pipeline is equally stretched in many regions.
For ambitious teachers in the Midlands, this creates genuine opportunity. The route from head of department to senior leadership is structurally accessible and, in many schools, actively encouraged. Schools in areas of high vacancy or historical underperformance are often the most willing to invest in developing internal candidates for leadership roles.
What This Means If You Are Looking for Your Next Role
If you are a STEM specialist, a SEN professional, an experienced teaching assistant looking to develop, or a middle leader ready to step up, you are operating in a market where schools are actively competing for your skills. Being selective about fit, about culture, about what a school will invest in you, is a reasonable position to take.
If you are a school navigating vacancies in any of these areas, the honest answer is that waiting for the right CV to arrive unsolicited is rarely a strategy that works. The candidates you want are already in roles. Reaching them requires a different approach.
At Link3 Recruitment, we work with schools across the Midlands to fill exactly these kinds of roles, through direct permanent recruitment, supply and flexible staffing, and as an approved supplier on the RM6376 Supply Teachers and Education Recruitment framework across both Lot 1 and Lot 2.
Whether you are a school or a candidate, we would love to talk.
Get in touch with the Link3 Recruitment team today. Visit: www.link3recruitment.co.uk | Call: 0115 6972550
Link3 Recruitment is an award-winning education recruitment agency and approved supplier on the RM6376 Supply Teachers and Education Recruitment framework across both Lot 1 and Lot 2, working with nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools, academies and Multi-Academy Trusts across the Midlands.
