Academic year 2023/24

Further education workforce

This annual official statistics in development release includes data on the further education workforce and governors in England.

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• Produced by: Department for Education
• Published: 29 May 2025
• Last updated: 18 June 2025

2 updates

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• Featured tables

  Featured tables are pre-prepared tables created from a statistical release's data sets. They provide statistics that are regularly requested by users and can be adapted to switch between different categories.

• Data sets: download or create tables

  Data sets present comprehensive open data from which users can create their own tables using the EES table tool or download a zipped CSV file.

• Data guidance

  Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.

• Data catalogue

  Alternatively use our data catalogue to search and filter for specific data sets from this release or our entire library, providing full data summaries, data previews and access to API data sets.

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Featured tables

Featured tables are pre-prepared tables created from a statistical release's data sets. They provide statistics that are regularly requested by some users (such as local councils, regional government or government policy teams) and can be adapted to switch between different categories (such as different geographies, time periods or characteristics where available).

14 featured tables

• FTE and headcount of permanent and fixed term staff, for each role and provider type

  This featured table shows the FTE and headcount of permanent and fixed term staff, for each role and provider type for the previous two academic years.

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• Gender by individual provider types and roles.

  This featured table shows the gender by individual provider types and roles for the previous three academic years.

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• Ethnicity by individual provider types and roles.

  This featured table shows the ethnicity by individual provider types and roles for the previous three academic years.

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• Age by individual provider types and roles.

  This featured table shows the age by individual provider types and roles for the previous three academic years.

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• Disability status by individual provider types and roles.

  This featured table shows the disability status by individual provider types and roles for the previous three academic years.

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• Subject types taught in each provider type.

  This featured table shows subject types taught in each provider type for the previous three academic years.

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• Main subject taught by teaching staff in each provider type.

  This featured table shows the main subject taught by teaching staff in each provider type for the previous three academic years.

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• Proportion of staff on each contract type, by role

  This featured table shows the proportion of staff on each contract type, by role for the previous three academic years.

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• Proportion of staff with each working pattern, by role and provider type

  This featured table shows the proportion of staff with each working pattern, by role and provider type for the previous three academic years.

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• Average (median) Full-time Equivalent (FTE) pay for each role and provider type

  This featured table shows the average (median) Full-time Equivalent (FTE) pay for each role and provider type for the previous two academic years.

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• Median average Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) pay by gender, role and provider type

  Median average Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) pay by gender, role and provider type

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• Median average Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) pay by age group, by role and provider type

  This featured table shows the median average Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) pay by age group, by role and provider type for the previous two academic years.

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• Median average Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) salary for each role in each region and provider type

  This featured table shows the median average Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) salary for each role in each region and provider type for the previous two academic years.

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• Proportion of providers that returned data to the further education workforce data collection

  This featured table shows the proportion of providers that returned data to the further education workforce data collection during the 2023/24 academic year.

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Data sets: download or create tables

Data sets present comprehensive open data from which users can create their own tables using the EES table tool or download a zipped CSV file.

12 data sets available for download

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• Characteristics of further education workforce

  National, Regional

  Characteristics of the further education workforce. There are breakdowns for gender, ethnicity, disability status and age.

  • Number of rows: 53,051
  • Indicators:
    • Number of staff
    • Percent of staff within category
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
    • Staff count type
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

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• Contract and working patterns of the further education workforce

  National, Regional

  Contract and working patterns of further education staff, by provider type. There are breakdowns for contract types and working pattern (e.g. full time or part time).

  • Number of rows: 13,426
  • Indicators:
    • Number of staff
    • Percent of staff within category
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
    • Type of staff member role
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Governor demographics in colleges

  National, Regional

  Characteristics of college governors. There are breakdowns for gender, ethnicity, disability status and age

  • Number of rows: 4,263
  • Indicators:
    • Number of governors (responding colleges only)
    • Percent of governors within category
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Age group
    • Disability status
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Governor vacancies in colleges

  National, Regional

  Details of the number of vacancies in governing bodies for colleges

  • Number of rows: 87
  • Indicators:
    • Number of governors (responding colleges only)
    • Number of unfilled governor vacancies by the end of the academic year (responding providers only)
    • Unfilled governor vacancy rate per 100
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Average pay of further education workforce

  National, Regional

  Mean and median pay of further education staff, by provider type. There are breakdowns for age, gender and roles.

  • Number of rows: 23,439
  • Indicators:
    • Contract type (permanent and fixed term only)
    • Mean annual salary (permanent and fixed term staff only)
    • Median annual salary (permanent and fixed term staff only)
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
    • Type of staff member role
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Proportion of providers returning data (workforce collection)

  National

  Proportion of providers returning data to the further education workforce data collection.

  • Number of rows: 27
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage of providers that returned data
    • Total providers asked to return data
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Proportion of providers returning data (vacancy collection)

  National

  Proportion of providers returning data to the further education vacancy data collection.

  • Number of rows: 27
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage of providers that returned data
    • Total providers asked to return data
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Proportion of providers returning data (governor collection)

  National

  Proportion of providers returning data to the further education governor data collection.

  • Number of rows: 9
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage of providers that returned data
    • Total providers asked to return data
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Size of the further education workforce

  National

  Headcount and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) of staff by further education provider type.

  • Number of rows: 378
  • Indicators:
    • Lower estimate of number of staff
    • Upper estimate of number of staff
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
    • Type of staff member role
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Subjects taught by teachers in further education providers

  National, Regional

  Subjects taught by teachers in further education providers

  • Number of rows: 11,854
  • Indicators:
    • Number of staff
    • Percentage of teachers teaching the subject by provider type
    • Rank by provider type of number of teachers teaching subject
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
    • Main subject taught
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Teacher, management and leadership vacancies in further education providers

  National, Regional

  Unfilled vacancies for teachers and managers and leaders. Also gives the number of unfilled vacancies by subject for teachers

  • Number of rows: 11,150
  • Indicators:
    • Number of staff (responding providers only)
    • Number of unfilled vacancies by the end of the academic year (responding providers only)
    • Unfilled vacancy rate per 100
  • Filters:
    • Name of provider type
    • Sub group of private sector public funded or other public funded
    • Type of staff member role
  • Time period: 2021/22 to 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Provider level size of the workforce

  Provider

  Size of the workforce by provider.

  • Number of rows: 23,868
  • Indicators:
    • Number of staff
  • Filters:
    • Contract type
    • Name of provider type
    • Staff count type
  • Time period: 2023/24

  Data set information page
  Create table

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Data guidance

Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.

Description

This page describes the data provided in the Further Education Workforce in England national statistic underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License (opens in new tab) and is intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data (opens in new tab).

The methodology should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality, as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.

Coverage

The Further Education Workforce in England publication provides the latest information at national and regional level on the number and characteristics of staff that work in further education providers in England.

The publication summarises information collected from further education providers via the  Further Education Workforce Data Collection (opens in new tab) .

The publication and it's underlying data files provide information on:

• Workforce numbers and characteristics - there are various breakdowns of these; post held, further education provider type, gender, age, disability and ethnicity.
• Workforce pay -  the statistics provide an age, gender and provider type breakdown of annual salary for full  time staff on permanent and fixed term contracts. Where appropriate, average mean and median salaries are provided for comparison purposes.
• Workforce contracts and working patterns - there are various breakdowns of these; post held, further education provider type, contract type,  and whether they work full/part-time.
• Subjects taught - the number of teachers teaching each subject in each provider type. 
• Teacher vacancies - the number and proportion of vacancies for each role type. Vacancies are recorded if they occurred at any point in the academic year. 
• Governor  characteristics - the characteristics of governors by various breakdowns: age, ethnicity, years of service. 

In most cases, underlying data files include national and regional information for schools in England.

File formats and conventions

Symbols used in the underlying data files are:

x = not available - information has not been collected or there are no estimates available at this level of aggregation.

z =  not applicable - statistic cannot be produced. For example where a denominator is not available to produce a percentage. 

c = confidential - where presentation of data would disclose confidential information, for example being able to identify details about a single respondent, this data must be suppressed and given this marker to maintain confidentiality clauses.

u = low reliability - values of the potentially low quality, for example where values of statistical significance have been calculated.

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue. 

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Contact us

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

Further Education Workforce Team

Email: FurtherEducation.WORKFORCE@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Fran Elliott

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Phone: 0370 000 2288

Opening times

Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm (closed on bank holidays)