Academic year 2024/25

Further education and skills

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See all updates (2) for Academic year 2024/25

  1. Added dashboard links

  2. Initial release of data covering the period August 2024 to October 2024

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Introduction

This release shows provisional in-year data on adult (19+) further education (FE) and skills in England reported for the academic year 2024/25 (August 2024 to October 2024) based on data returned by providers in December 2024. This includes apprenticeships in the overall FE and skills numbers, but for detailed statistics relevant to apprenticeships please see the ‘Apprenticeships release’. 

Changes to the structure of this release

The 2024/25 academic year introduces the Adult Skills Fund and other changes such as replacing Community Learning (CL) with tailored learning.  This causes a discontinuity to some of our long-running time series.  As announced in November 2024, this release therefore introduces a revised definition of Education and Training to incorporate community learning / tailored learning along with some other presentational changes to continue to provide transparency on adult FE provision.  Please see the “Changes to the reporting of Further Education and Skills” accordion for more detail.  Historical data are available in previous releases - see the Quick Links section.

We would welcome feedback on this new structure, please email us at FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk.

Please note that the ‘Explore data and files’ section contains the underlying files  and featured tables that underpin this release. You can also view featured tables or create your own table using the ‘create your own tables' functionality.

Related information

Releases in this series

View releases (11) for Further education and skills

Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2024/25

Explore data and files used in this release

  • View or create your own tables

    View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool

  • Data catalogue

    Browse and download open data files from this release in our data catalogue

  • Data guidance

    Learn more about the data files used in this release using our online guidance

  • Download all data (ZIP)

    Download all data available in this release as a compressed ZIP file

Additional supporting files

All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:

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View related dashboard(s)

The interactive tool (opens in a new tab) allows users to investigate Education and Training data (including Tailored Learning) by level, subject, provider, learner characteristics and geographical area.

There have been significant changes to the classification and reporting of Education and Training data in 2024/25, therefore the data in this dashboard is not comparable with that released in previous publications in this series. More information on these changes is provided in the ‘Changes to the reporting of Further Education and Skills’ section and the Methodology. 

Note: data cannot be downloaded directly from the interactive tool. The data within the tool is available via the underlying data in the ‘Additional supporting files’ section or the data catalogue.

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About these statistics

The 2024/25 academic year introduces the Adult Skills Fund and other changes such as replacing Community Learning (CL) with tailored learning. This causes a discontinuity to some of our long-running time series.  This release therefore introduces a revised definition of Education and Training to incorporate community learning / tailored learning along with some other presentational changes to continue to provide transparency on adult FE provision.  Please see the “Changes to the reporting of Further Education and Skills” accordion for more detail.  Historical data are available in previous releases - see the Quick Links section.

This statistical release presents provisional information on adult (19+) FE and skills participation and achievements in England for the 2024/25 academic year (covering August 2024 to October 2024).

A separate release covers apprenticeships data, please see ‘Apprenticeships release’, but note that adult apprenticeships are included in the overall FE and skills numbers in this release.

Individualised Learner Record (ILR) administrative data

The ILR is an administrative data collection system designed primarily for operational use in order to fund training providers for learners in FE and on apprenticeship programmes. We publish a high volume of FE statistics using provisional, in year data and use latest data as soon as available despite not being ‘final’. This enables us to provide the earliest picture of FE performance and allows users to assess the impact of government-funded provision and hold the ‘system’ to account.

The FE and skills data in this release are based on the fourth ILR data return from FE and apprenticeship providers for the 2024/25 academic year, which was taken in December 2024.

Quarterly release schedule:

  • Quarter 1: Data from August to October published in January
  • Quarter 2: Data from August to January published in March
  • Quarter 3: Data from August to April published in July
  • Full Year: Data from August to July published in November

Note: The academic year in the FE publications covers August to July.

National achievement rate tables data

Figures in the ‘national achievement rate tables’ section are as published in March 2024. These official statistics cover achievement rates for the 2022/23 academic year and would have been previously released as part of the standalone National achievement rate tables publication.

Provider reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic

Historic data in this publication covers periods affected by varying COVID-19 restrictions which will have impacted on further education including apprenticeship learning. Therefore, extra care should be taken in comparing and interpreting data presented in this release. It is likely to have impacted on provider behaviour in terms of the reporting of FE and apprenticeship learning during the affected period, and this could vary by provider.

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How to find data and featured tables in this release

The content of the publication contains charts and tables which highlight key figures and trends that give an overview of the national picture.

At relevant points within each commentary section there are links to "featured tables" that offer the next level of detail behind each of the tables embedded within the release. The table builder tool “featured tables” sit within, also enables the user to amend content, reorder and take away to meet their needs.

The user can also choose just to explore the data within this release by using the 'Explore data and files used in this release' section. Here the user can either select “view or create your own tables” to view all of the ready-made “featured tables” in a single list, or build their own table by selecting a datafile that underpins the release, or use one of the featured tables as a starting point.

There is also a dashboard that provides interactive presentation of our published data, with a number of different views on to data and ‘drilldown’ capability to allow users to investigate different types of FE provision. It is particularly helpful in viewing data across different geographical areas and providers. See the Interactive data visualisation tool accordion for the dashboard link.

This release also contains an ‘Additional supporting files’ accordion containing mainly csv files that can be downloaded, which provide some additional breakdowns including unrounded data. They are provided for transparency to enable analysts to re-use the data in this release. A metadata document is available in the same location which explains the content of these supporting files. Please note some of the files are too large for proprietary software such as Excel and may need specialist analysis software such as R, SQL, etc.

Feedback

We continually look to improve our data and statistics and your feedback is important to help us further improve and develop. To provide feedback on this release, please email us at FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk.

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Changes to the reporting of Further Education and Skills

There have been significant changes to adult education funding in England in 2024/25. The Adult Education Budget (AEB) has transitioned to a new Adult Skills Fund (ASF).

There are differences between the AEB and the ASF affecting eligibility to provision (outside of the legal entitlements). These relate to the prior attainment and the earning threshold eligibility criteria. Further details are available at this link (opens in a new tab).

In addition, the ASF brings together what was AEB community learning, formula-funded AEB non-regulated learning, and new employer-facing provision into a single funded element called Tailored Learning. 

These changes create a discontinuity in the time-series for Education and Training. In order to produce a consistent and comparable time series we have revised those historic figures to include community learning.  

Revised classifications

1.Education and Training

image showing regulated and non regulated aims

Tailored learning includes provision previously reported under Community Learning but additionally incorporates some formula-funded non-regulated learning.  To reflect these changes, we have updated our classification of Education and Training from 2024/25 to incorporate Tailored Learning.  The new Education and training series therefore contains all adult FE provision other than apprenticeships. From 2024/25 releases will use this definition and also provide a historical series using the new definition.

Tailored learning is largely made up of non-regulated provision. Historic learner participation in non-regulated provision within Education and Training is shown in the chart below, including how much was in Community Learning. 

 

2.Essential Skills

From 2024/25, new Tailored Learning essential skills aims have been made available.  To ensure a consistent time series we have retrospectively added equivalent Community Learning and some other non-regulated non-formula funded aims in essential skills subjects to our historical totals. These aims were not previously counted as essential skills.  

Further information about these changes can be found in Adult Skills Fund: Funding Framework (opens in a new tab) and in our methodology.

Composition of Adult Further Education and Skills

image showing changes to the composition of education and training

In previous releases, community learning was reported separately to Education and Training. From the 2024/25 release onwards, adult further education and skills is simply categorised as Education and Training, and Apprenticeships, with timeseries to enable comparisons over time.   

Structural changes to this release

image showing new structure

These changes create a discontinuity in the time-series for Education and Training. In order to produce a consistent and comparable time series we have revised those historic figures to include community learning.  Within the release we have chosen to show windows on to individual programmes but users should note that they are not mutually exclusive and will overlap.

 The new release structure comprises of:

  1. Full year, final data showing historic Education and Training volumes using the new definition.
  2. Latest in-year provisional data, with comparisons to recent years as reported at the same point in time.
  3. A new section which looks at trends in non-regulated, non-qualification provision and presents various breakdowns for the new Tailored Learning provision.
  4. Shows both historic and revised time series data based on the old and new definitions.
  5. Total Further Education and Skills volumes remain unaffected by these changes and continue to be reported in the section called “Total adult (19+) activity in further education and skills (including apprenticeships)”.
  6. The next release of achievement rate data is scheduled for March 2025 and will cover the 2023/24 academic year.

Feedback

We would welcome feedback on this new structure, please email us at FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk.

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Full-year adult (19+) education and training

As set out in the ‘Changes to the reporting of Further Education and Skills’ section, we have revised our definition of Education and Training in this release. This follows the introduction of the Adult Skills Fund and Tailored Learning in 2024/25.

To enable consistent reporting, historic Education and Training figures have been recast to reflect the new definition. They amalgamate what were separately reported Education and Training and Community Learning provision types into a single Education and Training category, reflecting all adult Further Education activity that is not apprenticeships. 

Breakdowns of Education and Training participation and achievements in regulated qualifications and in non-regulated provision have also been added to the data reported in this release.

The figures in this section cover adult (19+) education and training under the new definition and relate to full-year final data up to and including the 2023/24 academic year. They replace those originally published in November 2024 under the old definition of education and training.

Levels

Adult participation in Education and training increased by 2.3% to 1,233,930 compared to 2022/23; and has been steadily increasing since 2020/21. Participation remains 18.0% lower than seen in 2018/19.

Achievements have followed a similar trajectory, increasing by 3.0% from 2022/23 to 1,015,690 in 2023/24 but remaining 18.8% below 2018/19 achievements. 

From 2022/23, participation and achievements in Multiply and Skills Bootcamps courses are contributing to these totals and explain most of the increase seen in the last two academic years. (see the 'Non-regulated provision and Tailored Learning’ section for further information on enrolments, participation and achievements on the Multiply programme). 

Level 2 courses remain the most popular overall (424,610 learners) – with the vast majority participating in regulated qualifications (405,580). Of courses with a level assigned, Entry Level (293,080) and Level 1 (242,840) were the next most popular. 

Participation on non-regulated courses with no level assigned was 414,750 in 2023/24, rising by 2.8% from 403,520 in 2022/23. Participation in such courses saw a large rise in 2022/23, increasing from 316,840 in 2021/22, mainly due to the introduction of the Multiply programme.

Subjects

Community Learning (CL) aims introduced in 2023/24 do not have sector subject areas assigned to them, unlike similar CL aims in previous years. These are reported under purpose types instead (as is Tailored Learning from 2024/25 - see ‘Non-regulated provision and Tailored Learning' section). This means there is a substantial increase in aims recorded in the ‘Not Applicable / Not Known’ subject category in 2023/24 and decreases across other subject areas when looking at all Education and training enrolments and achievements.

Subject breakdowns for Education and training enrolments are therefore restricted to regulated qualifications only in the charts and summary statistics for subjects below.

Of the 1,317,300 enrolments on regulated qualifications in 2023/24:

  • Science, technology engineering and maths (STEM) subjects represented 15.2% of enrolments where sector subject area is known - an increase from 14.6% in 2022/23. Growth in the number of enrolments has been seen in construction (6.4% increase since 2022/23) and digital technology (3.5%).
  • Preparation for life and work was the most popular subject area, accounting for over two-fifths of all enrolments where subject area is known (41.7%), followed by health, public services and care (20.9%) and business, administration and law (8.6%).
  • Construction, planning and the built environment has seen year-on-year increases in enrolments in the last four years, increasing from 39,950 in 2019/20 to 59,480 in 2023/24. 
  • Entry and Level 1 courses together made up 48.5% of enrolments – 639,320 in total. The majority of these were in preparation for life and work (72.3%).
  • At Level 2 or above, over a third of enrolments were in health, public services and care (36.9%), followed by a similar share for business, administration and law (11.3%) and preparation for life and work (11.2%).

Demographics

Of the 1,233,930 learners participating in adult education and training in 2023/24: 

  • Females account for 64.1% (790,700). The share of female learners has declined in the last few years but is higher than in 2018/19, where their share was 62.6%.
  • Learners aged 19-24, 25-49, and 50 and over accounted for 16.9% (208,690), 59.4% (732,530) and 23.7% (292,420) respectively - broadly in line with the previous year.
  • Those declaring a learner learning difficulty and/or disability (LLDD) account for 21.8% (260,040) - a 5.7% increase in such learners from the previous year.
  • The proportion of White learners dropped to 64.5% from 66.5% in the previous year. All ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) increased their proportion of education and training participants in consecutive years since 2021/22.

Region

The North East consistently has the highest rates of education and training participation among adults when population size is taken into account. High participation rates for 19-24-year-olds and for level 1 and 2 courses are behind this. The South West, East of England and the South East have the lowest participation rates per 100,000 population. 

The North East consistently has the highest rates of education and training learner achievements among adults when population size is taken into account, because of high achievement rates for 19-24-year-olds level and for 1 and 2 courses. The South West, East of England and the South East have the lowest learner achievement rates per 100,000 population. 

Advanced Learner Loans

The number of learners participating with an advanced learner loan has fallen year-on-year to 42,210 in 2023/24.

Of the 42,210 learners participating with an advanced learner loan in 2023/24:

  • Most of the learners were at Level 3 (35,010).
  • Of those at Level 3, the highest participation was from the 31-40 age group (10,550) followed by the 19-23 age group (8,850).
  • Level 4 or above participation was 7,660.

Further information can be found in the following featured tables:

Education and training participation by ethnicity and sex
Education and training provider breakdowns
Education and training provider aims enrolments
Education and training subject aims enrolments by detailed level
Education and training learner characteristics by LLDD
Education and training learner characteristics by IMD quintile and age
Education and training learner participation and achievement by age
Advanced learner loans applications by age

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Latest in-year adult (19+) education and training

As set out in the ‘Changes to the reporting of Further Education’ section, we have revised our definition of Education and Training in this release. This follows the introduction of the Adult Skills Fund and Tailored Learning in 2024/25. 

To enable consistent reporting, historic Education and Training figures have been recast to reflect the new definition. They amalgamate what were separately reported Education and Training and Community Learning provision types into a single Education and Training category, reflecting all adult Further Education activity that is not apprenticeships. 

Summary in-year trends

The figures in this section cover adult (19+) education and training in the first quarter of the 2024/25 academic year (Aug to Oct) and shows corresponding data at the same time point for the previous three years.

  • Adult participation in Education and training reported to date has increased by 1.2% to 616,500 compared to 2023/24 (609,260).
  • Level 2 courses remain the most popular in the first quarter (213,930 learners participating), followed by no level assigned (171,540). 
  • There has been a large rise in participation on courses that have no level associated with them – 171,540 reported to date compared to 144,950 in 2023/24. Much of this rise is due to the Multiply and Skills Bootcamp programmes. In addition Tailored Learning has around 10,000 more participating learners with no-level assigned, compared to Community Learning last year.

Further information can be found in the following featured tables: 

Education and training participation by provider type in year comparisons
Education and training achievements by provider type in year comparisons
Education and training in year participation by English devolved area

Level 3 Free Courses for Jobs

We have simplified our presentation of Free Courses for Jobs (FCFJ) statistics, removing month-by-month comparisons back to 2018/19, and made a small adjustment to the methodology to more accurately determine whether a course is eligible for funding at the date the learner starts the course.

Previously, starts within a given month were based on whether the course was valid at the beginning of that month. We now use exact start and end dates for course funding eligibility in conjunction with the learning start-date. Some figures have changed slightly from those published in November 2024, but the impact is negligible.

All FCFJ figures are now based solely based on eligibility of learners and validity of courses that applied at the reported time and therefore run from April 2021 when FCFJ was first introduced. See methodology for further information. 

Since April 2021, adults aged 19 and over have been able to access a level 3 qualification for free under Free Courses for Jobs (opens in a new tab) (FCFJ).

A level 3 qualification (opens in a new tab) is equivalent to an advanced technical certificate or diploma, or A levels.

The criteria for adults who are eligible for the national offer have changed over time:

Between April 2021 and March 2022 – offer open to adults aged 19 or over who did not already have a full level 3 qualification.

Between April 2022 and July 2024 – as above and extended to adults aged 19 or over who were earning under the National Living Wage or were unemployed, irrespective of their prior attainment. 

From August 2024 – open to adults aged 19 or over, earning below £25,000 or unemployed.

Courses that are available under the offer come from the list of courses eligible for FCFJ funding (opens in a new tab), and have changed over time (within and between academic years) as some have been added or removed from the list.

In addition, devolved administrations (MCAs and GLA) have had the flexibility to use a proportion of their FCFJ funding to deliver Level 3 qualifications that are not on the FCFJ list. From April 2022 this was 20% of FCFJ funding, rising to 50% in April 2023. They also retain some flexibility over the eligibility criteria, for example, setting their own earnings threshold.

Note: 

  • Direct comparisons between academic years should be avoided, as both the eligibility criteria and the qualifications valid within the offer have evolved over time. 
  • There is a minor issue affecting provisional figures for 2024/25. Prior attainment is missing for some learners and this may have a small impact on some of our results. This will be rectified in the next publication update.

Figures reported up to the first quarter of the 2024/25 academic year show that, since the introduction of FCFJ:

  • The cumulative number of enrolments by eligible adults on FCFJ list courses stood at 95,400; with 12,120 of these reported in the 2024/25 academic year so far.
  • The cumulative number of achievements by eligible adults on FCFJ list courses stood at 53,770.
  • There have been a total of 13,450 starts on courses under MCA’s flexible arrangements for devolved administrations.

Further information can be found in the following featured table:

Cumulative enrolments and achievements of Free Courses for Jobs by subject and sex

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Non-regulated provision and tailored learning

Non-regulated education and training

We have split our education and training series to look at learning activity on regulated qualifications and in non-regulated provision.

Non-regulated learning aims are not subject to awarding organisation external accreditation in the form of a regulated qualification. Learning aims that have no awarding organisation have been classified as non-regulated. Community Learning (Tailored Learning going forwards) and the Multiply programme account for a substantial proportion of non-regulated courses.

Regulated qualifications are those regulated by government-recognised bodies such as Ofqual and lead to qualifications administered by an awarding organisation. 

The chart below shows historical learner participation, split into regulated qualifications and non-regulated provision.

Note: learners doing a mix of qualifications and non-regulated provision will appear in each category.

The majority of learners in education and training study at least one course that can lead to a regulated qualification. The numbers participating in regulated provision have remained at a similar level in the last five years, with just over 774,000 learners recorded in 2023/24.

There has been substantial growth in participation on non-regulated courses in recent years to just over 620,000 learners in 2023/24. Around half of learners did some form of non-regulated learning in this year. This growth follows a large decline in non-regulated participation during the period affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Participation in non-regulated provision remains below the levels seen before 2019/20, but in 2023/24 made up a higher percentage of overall learners.

Tailored learning

As part of the new Adult Skills fund (ASF), Tailored Learning that is ESFA-funded brings together what was:

  • Adult Education Budget (AEB) Community Learning
  • Formula-funded AEB non-regulated learning; and 
  • Any new employer-facing innovative provision that is not qualification based

In addition, it includes what was AEB Community Learning, and some of what was Formula-funded AEB non-regulated learning, in devolved areas.

Further details can be found in the methodology.

Tailored Learning's contribution to all non-regulated education and training

Tailored Learning makes up a large proportion of all adult education and training non-regulated learning (48.7% of all non-regulated enrolments for the first quarter reported so far in 2024/25). Community Learning made up 43.2% of non-regulated enrolments - based on reporting at the same point in 2023/24.

The breakdowns we provide below are for the entirety of provision funded through Tailored Learning (funding model 11 in the ILR (opens in a new tab)). While all Tailored Learning aims (LARS category code 75) are non-regulated, we are including numbers where providers have used flexibilities for tailored learning funding on ASF formula-funded provision to meet local demand. A small amount may be in regulated qualifications. Less than 0.1% of tailored learning reported so far in 2024/25 has been on aims that can lead to a qualification.

Tailored Learning participation

There were 147,920 learners participating in Tailored Learning, reported so far in 2024/25.

Note: This figure includes learners that used to be counted in Education and Training under the formula-funded part of the AEB. It is not comparable with participation in Community Learning as reported in the same quarter in previous years.

Tailored Learning Purpose

Tailored Learning is recorded against seven purpose types, related to the learner’s participation intent at the start of the course. Providers must determine one purpose per learner per learning aim and where learners have multiple purposes, they must pick the primary one. Learners on the same course may have different purposes. 

In the first quarter of 2024/25, three-in ten learners were participating with a purpose to improve essential skills. The next most popular purpose was preparation for further learning, followed by engaging / building confidence and health and well-being.

Demographics

Of the 147,920 learners participating in Tailored Learning in the first quarter 2024/25:

  • Just under three-quarters (72.5%) were females. 
  • 23.5% declared themselves as having a learning difficulty or disability (LLDD).
  • Ethnic minority (excluding white minority) learners made up two-fifths (40.8%) of tailored learning with Asian / Asian British (18.2%) and Black / African / Caribbean / Black British (10.0%) learners most prevalent.
  • Four in ten learners (40.3%) were aged 50 or over, 51.7% were aged 25-49 and 7.9% aged between 19 and 24.

Family Learning

Of the 147,920 learners participating in Tailored Learning in 2024/25, 5.6% (8,350 learners) were reported as participating in family learning.

Note: The collection of family learning in the ILR is not enforced through validation, but providers are expected to return this data where available to identify this type of delivery.

Employer-facing Tailored Learning

A set of Tailored Learning aims (opens in a new tab) for employer-facing provision have been introduced, based on sector subject areas. 

Of the 147,920 learners participating in Tailored Learning in the first quarter of 2024/25, 4,150 (2.8%) were reported as studying an employer-facing course. 

Tailored Learning Outcomes 

The primary purpose of tailored learning is to support learners into employment and to progress to further learning. It also supports wider outcomes including improving health and wellbeing, equipping parents / carers to support their child’s learning, and developing stronger and more integrated communities.

A new Tailored Learning outcome field has been added to the ILR for 2024/25. This records the outcome of the learning for the learner in one of eleven categories when they have completed or withdrawn from the planned learning activities.

It is recognised that once a learner progresses on a course, their desired outcome may change. The learner’s final outcome at the end of the course does not need to correspond with the initial purpose as reported above. In practice a learner may achieve more than one outcome area, but providers are required to record the main one only.

Most learning aims in Tailored learning for the first quarter of 2024/25 do not yet have tailored learning outcomes recorded by providers in the ILR. This is to be expected at this stage, with many learners having not completed learning and providers adapting to new reporting requirements. 

Of the 182,370 individual Tailored Learning courses recorded so far, 46% have an outcome recorded against one of the eleven categories. Improved skills for progressing to further learning is the most popular of the recorded outcomes followed by increased confidence and improved essential skills.

Tailored Learning outcomes, 2024/25 reported to date

Tailored Learning Outcome CategoriesAim enrolmentsParticipation
1. Increased confidence

         12,810 

         11,270 

2. Improved skills for progressing to further learning

         22,690 

         20,110 

3. Improved skills for work

         10,970 

           9,590 

4. Improved essential skills

         11,470 

         10,580 

5. Improved ability to support a child's learning

           7,280 

           6,550 

6. Improved physical health

           2,310 

           1,930 

7. Improved mental health and well-being

           6,410 

           5,580 

8. Improved skills to participate in community life

           1,400 

           1,360 

9. Increased understanding of democratic values

                50 

                50 

10. Improved skills for independent living

              440 

              420 

11. No outcome area 1-10 achieved

           8,140 

           7,330 

No outcome recorded to date

         98,400 

         84,790 

Total

       182,370 

       147,920 

Further information can be found in the following featured tables : 

Tailored learning participation by learner characteristics
Tailored learning participation and achievements by sex and age
Tailored learning participation and achievements by primary learning difficulty/disability
Tailored learning provider breakdowns and purpose type
Tailored learning provider breakdowns
Tailored learning comparisons by region

Multiply

Multiply is a government-funded programme, introduced from April 2022, to help adults improve their numeracy skills. It primarily covers non-regulated courses but also a small amount of regulated qualifications up to Level 2 (around 3% of Multiply enrolments in 2023/24).

There were 30,950 total enrolments on Multiply courses reported so far for the first quarter of the academic year 2024/25, with 26,540 learners participating. There were also 12,840 achievements recorded for the same period.

This does not include any activity not recorded on the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). People who participate in engagement events funded by Multiply do not need to be recorded in the ILR unless they participate in actual courses.

These figures include only learners funded by Multiply. There is a small overlap between these figures and those reported in the Essential Skills section below, which captures participation in Essential Skills courses across all further education and skills provision types – apprenticeships and education and training.

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Essential skills provision

Adult essential skills

Essential skills are courses that can help adults get English, numeracy or digital skills that are required for work and everyday life. English courses are split into two subjects - English (covering basic English and communication skills) and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), providing skills to help with life in England, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening. 

Essential skills provision supports adults aged 19 and over to improve English and maths skills up to level 2 (GCSE grade 4/C or equivalent) and ESOL, if English is not their first language, or they have low digital skills or little to no experience of using computers or other digital devices.

We have added selected non-regulated courses into our total measures of participation and achievements in English, Maths, ESOL and digital skills. From 2024/25, we have included new Tailored Learning essential skills aims and have retrospectively added equivalent Community Learning, and some other non-regulated essential skills aims to our historical totals. These aims were not previously counted as essential skills. 

This release includes a time-series of data based on this new wider definition of essential skills, which we will report on going forwards. It also provides new breakdowns of essential skills in regulated qualifications and non-regulated provision. 

We have included a time-series of data based on the historic definition of essential skills (that is, excluding the additional tailored learning/community learning non-regulated learning aims). This data is consistent with adult essential skills figures published in previous releases in this series.

More information on these changes is provided in the Methodology.

Comparing the new and historic definitions of adult essential skills for full year data

Based on the new definition (that is, including community learning aims), a total of 476,690 adults (aged 19+) participated in essential skills in the 2023/24 academic year. This is 50,790 more learners, or 11.9% higher, than the 425,890 reported under the historic definition (that is, excluding community learning aims).

Entry level learning aims account for the majority of the difference between the new and historic definitions. Based on the new definition, 231,500 adults participated in entry level essential skills in 2023/24, which is 49,000 (26.9%) higher than that the 182,500 reported under the historic definition. By comparison, level 1 participation was 7,380 (8.3%) higher under the new definition and level 2 participation 2,400 (1.2%) higher.

Full-year overall participation and achievements (new definition)

Participation

Based on the new definition, 476,690 adults (aged 19+) participated in essential skills in 2023/24, a slight increase of 1.4% (or 6,450 learners) from the 470,240 reported in 2022/23, but below the 501,690 reported in 2019/20.

Of those adults participating in 2023/24:

  • 230,370 participated on a maths course, down 7.9% from 250,230 in 2022/23.
  • 209,750 participated on an English course, down 8.7% from 229,810 in 2022/23.
  • 168,030 participated on and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course, up 8.4% from 155,070 2022/23.
  • 43,240 participated on a digital skills course.  The increase since 2022/23 is driven by new learning aims being included from 2023/24.

Achievements

Based on the new definition, 325,770 adults achieved a learning aim in 2023/24, an increase of 8.1% on the 301,350 reported in 2022/23. This continues a recent upward trend, with the number of adults achieving a learning aim in 2023/24 being higher than the 315,910 reported in 2019/20.

Full-year regulated and non-regulated participation (new definition)

The majority of adult learners participate in regulated essential skills provision, with 78.5% (or 374,150 out of a total of 476,690 learners) doing so in 2023/24. However, this is lower than the rate of 87.1% reported in 2019/20 and 84.3% reported in 2022/23. 

Over the same period the rate of participation in non-regulated essential skills increased from 22.8% (or 114,310 out of a total of 501,690 learners) to 34.7% (165,280 out of a total of 476,690), largely due to the introduction of new Community Learning aims in 2023/24.

Full-year regulated qualification participation and achievements (new definition)

Participation

There was an overall decline in essential skills participation in regulated qualifications between 2019/20 and 2023/24, with the number of adult learners falling by 14.4% from 436,970 to 374,150.

This fall is accounted for by decreases in level 1 and level 2 qualifications. Level 1 participation fell by 19.0% from 100,170 to 81,170 between 2019/20 and 2023/24, while level 2 participation fell by a quarter, from 261,350 to 196,870. By contrast participation in regulated entry level essential skills increased over the same period, rising by 12.4% from 119,470 to 134,260.

When looking at essential skills regulated qualifications by subject we see that adult learner participation in English and maths has declined in recent years, whereas there have been increases in digital skills and ESOL: digital skills participation more than trebled from 5,150 in 2020/21 (the first year it became available) to 15,760 in 2023/24. Between 2019/20 and 2023/24 participation in ESOL increased by 29.0%, from 80,860 to 104,320.

Achievements

In 2023/24, 225,650 adults achieved a regulated essential skills qualification, which was 1.5% lower than the 229,170 reported in 2022/23 and 10.2% lower than the 251,210 reported in 2019/20.

Latest in-year participation data (new definition)

Based on the new definition, figures for the first quarter of the 2024/25 academic year (August to October) show that 317,350 adults (aged 19+) participated in essential skills, down slightly (0.4%) on the 318,720 reported at the same point in 2023/34.

A decline of 4.8% in level 1 participation, from 60,840 to 57,910, accounted for most of the annual overall decrease. Meanwhile, entry level and level 2 participation remained relatively unchanged compared to the same period last year, at 141,840 and 139,830 respectively.

Maths and English remain the most popular subjects although participation in both subjects continued to decline. Between 2023/24 and 2024/25, participation in Maths fell by 2.1% from 154,930 to 151,690, with English seeing a fall of 3.3% from 141,160 to 136,530.

By contrast participation in both Digital skills and ESOL continued to increase. Digital skills participation increased by 15.1% from 18,380 to 21,150 between 2023/24 and 2024/25, with ESOL increasing by 2.3% from 113,050 to 115,670.

The majority (75.8%) of adult learners participated in regulated provision, down from 76.4% for the same period in 2023/24 and 83.1% in 2020/21.

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Total adult (19+) activity in Further Education and skills (including apprenticeships)

This is a summary of all adult further education activity including Apprenticeships, Community Learning (now Tailored Learning from 2024/25), and Education and Training provision.

In year adult further education and skills 

The figures in this section cover both in year data reported to date for the 2024/25 academic year (August to October) and show the corresponding data at the same time point for the previous three years.

Latest in year further education and skills participation (August to October)  

  • Adult participation in Further Education and skills reported to date has increased by 1.7% to 1,090,520 compared to 2023/24 (1,071,900). 
  • Level 3 courses were the most popular across the first quarter (287,260 learners participating), followed by Level 2 (273,270). 
  • Level 2 has increased by 0.3% (273,270) compared to the same time last year (272,440).
  • No level assigned increased by 18.3% (171,540) compared to the same time last year (144,960). Much of this rise is due to the Multiply and Skills Bootcamp programmes. In addition Tailored Learning has around 10,000 more participating learners with no-level assigned, compared to Community Learning last year.

Further information can be found in the following featured tables : 

Further education and skills in year comparisons by provider type and level
Further education and skills in year comparisons by region
Further education and skills in year comparisons by sector subject area

Full year adult further education and skills

The figures in this section relate to full-year final data up to and including the 2023/24 academic year, originally published in November 2024. The next update of this full year data will be November 2025.

Adult participation in further education and skills has declined in the last decade. From the most recent peak of nearly 3.3 million learners in 2012/13, participation fell to 1.6 million in 2020/21. However, the last three academic years have seen a reverse of this trend with participation rising to 1.7 million in 2021/22 and then 1.8 million in 2022/23; with a further 0.7% increase in 2023/24. 

Of the 1,830,650 adult learners participating in 2023/24:

  • The number on Level 2 courses was 519,090 - down 3.6% (on Full Level 2, there were 102,970 learners - down 15.5%).
  • The number on Level 3 courses was 395,480 - down 2.3% (on Full Level 3, there were 290,800 learners - down 5.7%).
  • The number of No level assigned was 414,800 – up 2.8% compared to 2022/23 – this increase is largely due to Multiply courses.

Demographics

Around three in five learners participating in FE & Skills in 2023/24 were female (59.8%). This share has increased slightly from 59.1% in 2018/19 and has fluctuated around the 60% to 61% mark in the last few years.

The proportion of learners aged 50 and above reduced from 20% in 2018/19 to 14.7% in 2020/21 during the period affected by Covid. Since then, this age-group has seen recovery with participation increasing by over a third from 241,560 in 2020/21 to 326,760 in 2023/24. 

The proportion of learners declaring a learning difficulty or disability has increased to almost one in five (19.5%) in 2023/24, from 18.5% in 2022/23 and is the third consecutive annual increase in the share of LLDD learners from a low of 16.3% in 2020/21. 

Ethnicity

The proportion of learners participating in FE & Skills who are white has declined in recent years. 70.8% of learners were white in 2023/24 compared to 76.5% in 2018/19. 

Over the period 2018/19 to 2023/24:

  • Asian learners increased from 9.8% to 11.9%.
  • Black learners increased from 7.4% to 8.6%.
  • Learners from mixed/multiple ethnic groups increased from 3.0% to 4.0%.
  • Learners from other ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) increased from 3.2% to 4.7%.

Since 2022/23, the number of adults participating in FE Skills increased in every major ethnic minority group by at least 6.5% to 2023/24. White learner numbers fell by 2% in the last year.

 

Further information can be found in the following featured tables: 

Further education and skills participation and achievements by learning difficulty/disability
Further education and skills learner characteristics by sex and ethnicity group
Further education and skills participation by age and IMD quintile
Further education and skills participation and achievements per 100,000 of population by region

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National achievement rate tables

The following statistics are classified as official statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, rather than being classed as accredited official statistics and independently reviewed as such by the Office for Statistics Regulation (opens in a new tab). The statistics are included for transparency purposes. 

Data in this section refers to 2022/23 and was first published in March 2024. Data for 2023/24 is planned to be released in March 2025.

The National Achievement Rate Tables (NARTs) present detailed tables of provider level Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs) that we use for performance management and informed choice purposes. Additionally we provide some national summary tables to show overall performance in the sector with a three year time series to enable comparison of change in performance over time. Whilst NARTs provide data on 19+ provision for performance management purposes, 16-18 provision is also included to give a complete view of individual provider performance.

In March 2020, the Secretary of State announced that the summer 2020 exam series in England would be cancelled to help fight the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). This announcement also stated that Government will not publish any school, college or provider-level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams for the 2019/20 academic year. 

In February 2021, given the continued disruption, it was confirmed this would also be the case for the 2020/21 academic year.  As a consequence of the disruption to the assessment process, the government announced a change to its school and college accountability approach (opens in a new tab), stating providers will not be held to account on the basis of exams and assessment data from summer 2020. This release will therefore only contain provider level data for 2021/22 and 2022/23.

Headline figures at a national level are available to provide a three-year time series, showing data from 2020/21 to 2022/23. That historical data has not been re-calculated and is shown as originally published in March 2023. 

Data for years prior to 2019/20 can be found in the Statistics: national achievement rates tables (opens in a new tab) collection.

Apprenticeship achievement rate statistics are available in the Apprenticeships statistics publication.

Headline facts and figures

Overall achievement rates within the 19+ Education and Training cohort have increased from 86.2% in 2021/22 to 86.8% in 2022/23, an increase of 0.6 percentage points. Compared with 2020/21 they are up by 1.3 percentage points. 
 

Things you need to know about this release

Care should be taken when comparing outcomes with previous years. 

The purpose of releasing national level achievement rate data for 2019/20 and 2020/21 is to maintain the continuity of information and to provide context alongside the achievement volumes found elsewhere in this publication. It is important to maintain transparency by presenting the national level data for this cohort of learners whilst recognising the extraordinary circumstances surrounding 2019/20 and 2020/21 achievement rates, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Care should be taken when comparing with previous years due to the effects of the pandemic such as disruption to exams and assessments. 

Significant change in the way some assessments happened in 2019/20, and to a lesser extent in 2020/21, compared to previous years. Additionally, a significant change in some qualifications with the size of the cohort participating. As a result, care should be taken when comparing data with previous years. 


19+ Education and Training achievement rates by sector subject area

Different sectors have been affected in different ways and as a result, care should be taken when comparing data with previous years.

The largest sector is Preparation for Life and Work (710,600) making up 49.0% of the total. 88.1% of this activity is below level two.

The sector with the highest achievement rate in 2022/23 is Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies with 92.0%.

The sector showing the highest increase in achievement rate since last year is Leisure, Travel and Tourism with an increase of 8.9 percentage points from 78.9% in 2021/22 to 87.8% in 2022/23. 

The sector with the largest decrease is History, Philosophy and Theology, decreasing by 1.7 percentage points from 87.7% in 2021/22 to 86.0% in 2022/23. 

Use our table tool to explore this data further by level and qualification type, by pressing the green “Explore Data” button.


19+ Achievement Rates by  ethnicity

The figures in this section cover the achievement rates for those learners who are from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). Please note the figures for “White ethnic groups” includes white minorities. 

In 2022/23, learners aged 19+ from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) had an overall education and training achievement rate of 86.6%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points from 85.9% in 2021/22.

The number of learners from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) was 614,600 which represents 42.4% of all learners. The take up of education and training for learners from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) varies according to the sector subject area.

The sector with the highest proportion of learners from minority ethnic groups (excluding white minorities) was Preparation for Life and Work where 54.7% of learners were from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). The sector with the lowest proportion was Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care at 13.5%. 

Caution should be used interpreting simple averages because differences in provision mix across sectors will lead to change in overall averages. Press the green ‘Explore data’ button above to look at the data by age, level, sector subject area, qualification type.

Achievement rates by provider

Data for individual providers can be found here :  19+ Education and training achievement rates by Provider

Background information 

National achievement rate tables are based on underlying Qualification Achievement Rates (QAR) data. Information about the process surrounding QARs can be found by clicking here (opens in a new tab).

How rates are calculated 

Information about how QARs are calculated can be found by clicking here (opens in a new tab).

Redactions

We have redacted no providers for 2022/23 and three providers from 2021/22 from our formal performance tables (NARTs) where we are unable to form a reliable QAR. This is done where the data we hold does not allow us to calculate a reliable estimate and therefore provides an unfair measure of performance. We publish headline information for these providers separately for transparency, but they do not constitute a formal QAR and should not be used to compare performance. The underpinning data is included in our national achievement rates to provide a complete view of performance. 

Details can be found in the ‘Education and Training Achievement Rates – Transparency Redactions.pdf’ supporting file in the Additional supporting files accordion.

Further information can be found in the following featured tables : 

19+ Education and training achievement rates by Demographics
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Ethnicity
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Learners with a Learning Difficulty and or Disability
19+ Education and training achievement rates by Sex
19+ Education and training achievement rates for essential skills
19+ Education and training achievement rates for essential skills by provider

 

To view achievement rates by provider, with provider type, please see the supporting 'Education and Training Achievement Rates - By Provider with Provider Type’ file in the Additional supporting files accordion.

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Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Accreditation signifies their compliance with the authority's Code of Practice for Statistics which broadly means these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Further education and skills statistics and data:

FE Statistics Production and Dissemination Team

Email: FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk
Contact name: FE Statistics Production and Dissemination Team

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