Methodology

Further education workforce

• Published: 11 June 2026

Summary

This is the fourth release in the series of statistics on the further education workforce in England. The information in this release is based on data collected in the Further Education Workforce Data Collection (FEWDC) and covers the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

From the May 2026 release of the Further Education Workforce statistics (covering the 2024/25 academic year), the publication changed from Official Statistics in Development status to Official Statistics. This designation reflects substantial improvements to the underlying methodology, including enhancements to scaling and matching approaches, as well as continued user engagement to improve the quality and usability of the outputs. Following three years of developing the release and inviting user feedback, we assess that the publication is now stable and the “in development” label is no longer required. The statistics are fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Scope of the data collection

The information in this release is based on data collected in the Further Education Workforce Data Collection (FEWDC) (opens in new tab) and covers the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

The data collection was split into three parts, which could be completed separately by further education providers.

1. Further education workforce

This part of the data collection relates to staff employed by further education providers. It collects data on staff characteristics of age, gender, ethnicity and disability. It also collects information about staff members' main contract, for example annual salary/hourly rate, contract type and working patterns. Only information about the main contract is collected, meaning that if staff have multiple contracts with the same provider, we do not receive information about them all. 

Information was collected for staff with one or more contracts of employment during the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

2. Further education vacancies

This part of the data collection related to teaching and management/leadership vacancies across the whole academic year. It collected information such as the presence of the vacancy and whether or not it was filled or unfilled by the end of the year.

3. Governors

This part of the data collection collected data from General Further Education Colleges (GFECs) and sixth form colleges about the size and characteristics of their governing bodies. Private sector public funded providers, and other public providers were not in scope for this part of the collection, unlike parts 1 and 2.

Providers in scope

A total of 1,683 further education providers were in scope of the FEWDC. Providers were in scope if they receive funding through funding models such as 16-19 (excluding Apprenticeships) funding, adult skills funding, and skills bootcamp funding, and do not return the Schools Workforce Census or the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) staff record. The FEWDC collects information on the further education workforce and vacancies from the following providers:

This will include:

• FE Colleges
• Sixth Form Colleges
• Special Post-16 Institutions
• Local Authorities
• Independent Training Providers
• Third Sector and Voluntary organisations
• 16-19 Academy Convertors
• 16-19 Free Schools

Note, only GFECs and sixth form colleges (214 in total) were in scope for the governor part of the data collection. 

The following providers are not in scope for any parts of the collection:

• Employer providers,
• Schools and academies who return the Schools Workforce Census,
• Higher Education institutions who return the HESA staff record,
• Organisations not in receipt of Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) funding.

The data provided in the publication is for England only. However, a small number of providers in the collection are based in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and deliver provision for English students. These providers were in receipt of the funding outlined above, therefore were considered in scope.

Provider types referenced in the publication

The publication text refers to the following provider types:

The FEWDC collects information on the further education workforce and vacancies from the following providers:

Statutory FE sector:

• General Further Education Colleges (GFECs), including tertiary colleges;
• Sixth form colleges;

Non-statutory FE sector:

• Special Post-16 Institutions;
• Local Authorities;
• Independent Training Providers;
• School based providers e.g. 16-19 Academy Convertors & 16-19 Free Schools;
• Other FE providers e.g. Third Sector and Voluntary organisations

Staff roles in scope

Providers were asked to submit data for an individual if they had one or more contracts of employment with the provider during the full academic year. Providers did not need to submit data for an individual in a support role that is not directly supporting learning, e.g. catering, maintenance or other such service support roles. They also did not need to submit data for the following types of staff:

• Agency staff
• Self-employed or freelance staff
• Staff working for a provider through an intermediary, such as a personal service company.

Staff role job titles or job position names vary between different providers. Where provider’s job roles did not match the list of roles exactly, providers were asked to select the closest available option. 

Providers were asked to provide a “Main Role” for each staff member and then up to five “Sub Roles”. This publication only includes data information about a staff member’s Main Role. 

We assigned each staff member’s Main Role to one of five “Main Role Types”: Leader, Manager, Teacher, Support and Admin. See definitions for a list of Main Role which are included in each "Main Role Type". 

Data collection, processing and cleaning

Providers will have different methods for storing data on their employees. Some may use a combination of paper based and electronic files. Others may use a management information system (MIS).  The further education workforce data required from providers is determined in advance of the data collection. This allows suppliers of further education MIS and providers themselves to incorporate any changes into their local systems.

For a full list of the technical specification, the data items collected from further education providers, and automated data validation steps, see the published guidance and specifications. (opens in new tab)

Stage 1: collection opens

In October, the data collection opens, and stays open for three months. The data collection collects data for staff members employed by the provider during the previous academic year. 

Whilst some further education organisations such as Independent Training Providers (ITPs) may only have a few members of staff, some large colleges may have thousands of staff. It is for this reason there are two distinct methods available for making the data return:

• Online form: mostly used by providers without MIS,
• Staff data desktop application: mostly used by providers with MIS.

Stage 2: providers update and check their data

Once further education providers have successfully uploaded their data they can review and inspect their data. There are a range of automated data validation checks which flag where the data provided has either failed to meet the standards required (an error) or does not conform to what was expected (a warning).

Once further education providers have resolved errors and warnings, they approve their data. This is  then sent to the Department. 

Stage 3: DfE analysts check data for anomalies and prepare for publication 

Once the collection has closed, final databases are created, which allows the Department’s statisticians to prepare for publication. At this stage data provided is investigated by statisticians for any anomalies not picked up by the validation checks when the data was uploaded by providers.

Any provider that has a very large drop in staff numbers from between current academic year and the previous academic year was flagged. All flagged providers were investigated on a case-by-case basis to assess whether this could be a legitimate return, for example, due to a merger between two providers. Where a reason was not found, these flagged providers were removed from the data. Once a provider's data has been removed, they are classed as a non-responding provider in terms of our scaling methodology. This is analogous to the provider's anomalous data being replaced with an average value for the number of staff working in that provider, depending on provider type.

Stage 4: data is published

Following data checks and quality assurance, the publication can be released. This signals the availability of the data for use by the department, further education providers, the general public (including in reply to Freedom of Information requests) and to independent analysts and researchers. 

Updates to the back series

Why the back series differs from previous publications

In this release, we have made a number of improvements to the way the Further Education (FE) workforce data is produced. These changes provide a more accurate picture of the workforce, but they also mean that the historical (back series) figures will not match those published in earlier releases.

First, providers are now grouped based on the type of provision they deliver, rather than their legal or organisational type. This better reflects the nature of their activity, but it changes how staff are counted across categories compared with previous publications. This leads to changes to national estimates. 

Second, we have improved how we deal with missing data. Where information was not submitted in a given year, we have used returns from other years to estimate (interpolate) values. This helps create a more complete and consistent time series, but means historical figures have been revised.

Third, as more detailed, named staff data becomes available, we are able to improve how records are matched across years. This leads to more accurate estimates of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, but can change previously reported totals.

Finally, some staff previously recorded with zero FTE now have estimated FTE values based on information from later returns, which increases the accuracy of workforce measures.

Taken together, these methodological updates improve overall data quality, but mean that the revised back series is not directly comparable with figures published before this release.

Symbols used in the data files

x = not available

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

z = not applicable

This is normally where a 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. In the previous standard there was a separate category for suppression. Discussion with ONS Statistical Disclosure Control Unit confirmed that reasons for suppression would either be for confidentiality purposes or low reliability, and these are now separately identified in this list of symbols.

u = low reliability 

This indicates observations / values for which the user should be aware of the low quality, for example where values of statistical significance have been calculated.

Proportion of providers returning data to the data collection

As this was still a relatively new data collection, we still expected some issues with incomplete coverage and data quality. This section provides information on the collection to aid interpretation of our findings. Throughout the publication we have scaled up the data from providers that returned data to create estimates for the size of the workforce.

Proportion of providers returning data

A higher proportion of General Further Education Colleges (GFECs) and sixth form colleges returned data, compared to provider types in the non statutory sector. This means we have higher confidence in the figures reported for GFECs and sixth form colleges.

The data collection was split into three parts, which could be completed separately by further education providers.

1. Further education workforce

This part of the data collection relates to staff employed by further education providers, including information on pay and characteristics. Each record collected related to a single member of staff employed by a provider, and the details of their main contract. Some staff may have been employed by more than one provider and therefore have more than one record in the data collection.

The following further education providers were in scope:

Statutory FE sector:

• General Further Education Colleges (GFECs), including tertiary colleges;
• Sixth form colleges

Non-statutory FE sector:

• Special Post-16 Institutions;
• Local Authorities;
• Independent Training Providers;
• School based providers e.g. 16-19 Academy Convertors & 16-19 Free Schools;
• Other FE providers e.g. Third Sector and Voluntary organisations.

The proportion of providers that returned data for the vacancy data collection has  from 85.2% of 1,562 providers in scope in 2023/24 to 73.3% of 1,683 providers in scope in 2024/25.

We assess data returned from providers for data quality issues. Where a significant data quality issue exists, data from a provider may not be able to be used for analysis. Overall, we were able to analyse data from all of the further education providers that returned for the 2024/25 FEWDC. See methodology (processing and cleaning) for more information.

Of the 73.3% of providers whose data we analysed, data coverage was highest for GFECs and sixth form colleges, meaning we have higher confidence in the figures reported for these providers.

Although there are a relatively small number of GFECs, they have much larger student cohorts compared to other types of FE provider. This means that despite accounting for only 10% of providers, they account for a far higher FE student population of over 36%  (FE Education and skills).

2. Further education vacancies

This part of the data collection relates to teaching and management/leadership vacancies.

The following further education providers were in scope:

Statutory FE sector:

• General Further Education Colleges (GFECs), including tertiary colleges;
• Sixth form colleges

Non-statutory FE sector:

• Special Post-16 Institutions;
• Local Authorities;
• Independent Training Providers;
• School based providers e.g. 16-19 Academy Convertors & 16-19 Free Schools;
• Other FE providers e.g. Third Sector and Voluntary organisations.

The proportion of providers that returned data for the vacancy data collection has decreased from 79.8% of 1,562 providers in scope in 2023/24 to  67.7% of 1,683 providers in scope in 2024/25.

Impact on conclusions

The proportion of providers returning data to this part of the data collection was lower than that of the workforce data collection for all provider types. Throughout this publication we have not attempted to estimate the number of vacancies in providers that have not returned data. This is because it is not possible to determine if the vacancies in the providers that returned data are indicative of the vacancies in the providers who did not return data. 

This means that vacancy figures shown in this release relate to only the 67.7%  of providers that returned data and therefore could undercount the true number of vacancies in the FE sector.

3. Governors

This part of the data collection collected data from GFECs and sixth form colleges about the size and characteristics of their governing bodies. 

The following further education providers were in scope:

• General Further Education Colleges (GFECs), including tertiary colleges;
• Sixth form colleges.

Of the 214 colleges in scope for the 2024/25 governor data collection, 95.8% provided data. This is lower than the proportion of GFECs and sixth form colleges that returned data on the staff workforce data collection but an increase from 92.0% from the previous governor collection.

Impact on conclusions

We have provided estimates for the number of governors in GFECs and sixth form colleges. As the proportion of providers who return data to the collection increases in future years, these estimates will become more accurate. See methodology (governors) for further details about the scaling. 

Statutory and non statutory sector

The following further education providers were in scope to the Further Education Workforce Data Collection. 

Statutory FE sector:

These institutions are considered part of the central government sector (public sector) rather than private. The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for the finances and statutory intervention powers under sections 56A and 56E of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The publication presents data on the following statutory provider types:

• General Further Education Colleges (GFECs), including tertiary colleges;
• Sixth form colleges

Non-statutory FE sector:

Non‑statutory FE includes learning and training that falls outside compulsory, state‑regulated education. It is optional provision, offering flexibility to support adults, employers, and communities with their specific learning needs. The publication presents data on the following non statutory provider types:

• Special Post-16 Institutions;
• Local Authorities;
• Independent Training Providers;
• School based providers e.g. 16-19 Academy Convertors & 16-19 Free Schools;
• Other FE providers e.g. Third Sector and Voluntary organisations.

Scaling estimates to account for non responders

Producing national estimates

Not all providers included in this collection submitted data. To produce national estimates of workforce size, workforce characteristics, contracts, working patterns and subjects taught, we scale the data we receive. If a provider confirms to the department that their data contains significant data quality issues they will be classed as having not submitted data. 

Estimating the size of the statutory sector

If a statutory sector provider does not submit data for a particular year, we estimate their size using their most recent return from the previous two years. Therefore, for these non‑responding providers, we assume their size has not changed since their last return.

Improving earlier (back series) estimates

We also use estimation to improve estimates for earlier years. If a statutory sector provider has not submitted data for a specific year, and there is no usable data from the previous two years, we look forward by one year. If the provider submits data in the following year, we assume they were the same size in the missing year.

This forward‑looking approach is only used to improve estimates for earlier years.

If, after using both backward and forward checks, we are still unable to estimate the provider’s size, the provider is included in the next stage of the scaling process.

Scaling by role and provider type

We then scale the data for:

• providers outside the statutory sector, and
• statutory sector providers whose size could not be estimated.

Scaling is done by role and provider type. We use the proportion of providers that either submitted data or for whom we were able to create an estimate, and apply this to the returned data to produce national estimates.

Regional estimates

We only scale data at national level. This is because some providers operate across more than one region, which means scaling at regional level could give misleading results.

Example of how estimates were calculated

General Further Education Colleges (GFECs)

In 2023/24, 181 GFECs were in scope. Of these, 97.2% provided data to the FEWDC, meaning 5 GFECs did not respond.

Four of the non‑responding GFECs had submitted data in either 2022/23 or 2021/22. We used their most recent return to estimate their size in 2023/24.

The remaining GFEC submitted data in the following year (2024/25). We therefore used its 2024/25 return to estimate its size in 2023/24.

As we had either returned data or a reliable estimate for all GFECs, no further scaling by provider type or role was required. The estimated GFEC workforce is based entirely on returned data, or estimates drawn from returned data in other years.

Independent Training Providers (ITPs)

In 2023/24, 82.5% of Independent Training Providers (ITPs) returned data.

ITPs are not part of the statutory sector, so we do not estimate their size using data from previous years. Instead, we use scaling to produce national estimates.

To estimate the number of teaching staff in ITPs, we:

• add together the number of teaching staff reported by ITPs that returned data, and
• divide this total by 0.825 (the response rate).

This gives a national estimate of the teaching workforce in ITPs. We repeat this calculation for each staff role. The estimates for all roles are then added together to produce a national workforce estimate for ITPs.

This same approach is used for all remaining provider types to produce an overall national workforce estimate for the sector.

Size of the further education workforce

Staff working across multiple providers

Some staff work for more than one further education provider. This means that our workforce estimates may include a small amount of double counting, where the same person is counted more than once.

Based on general knowledge of the sector, this double counting is expected to be small.

Headcount and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)

We present workforce estimates using both headcount and Full‑Time Equivalent (FTE).

Headcount

Headcount is the total number of staff working in the sector. Each person is counted once for each provider they work for.
Because some staff work for more than one provider, the headcount figure includes a small amount of double counting where the same person holds more than one role at the same time.

Full‑Time Equivalent (FTE)

FTE is only collected for staff on permanent or fixed‑term contracts.
FTE shows how much of a full‑time week a person works. For example:

• an FTE of 1.0 means full time
• an FTE of 0.5 means half time

We add together the FTE values for all eligible staff. This shows how many full‑time staff would be needed to fill all roles.

Cleaning FTE and Weekly Contracted Hours

Some staff recorded as having permanent or fixed‑term contracts have an FTE of 0 and/or weekly contracted hours of 0. This is not expected, as these contract types should have some working hours.

To correct this, we apply the steps below.

1. Use future-year records where available

We first check whether the same person appears at the same provider in a later year.

• If the person is shown as permanent or fixed‑term in the later year, we copy their FTE and weekly contracted hours back to the earlier year.
• If the later‑year FTE is 0 but weekly contracted hours are recorded, we calculate FTE using:
  
  FTE = weekly contracted hours ÷ 35
  (where 35 hours represents full‑time working).
  
  For example, 30 hours gives an FTE of 0.86.
• If the person is shown in the later year as zero‑hour, variable‑hour, or another non‑permanent contract, we assume the earlier permanent or fixed‑term record was incorrect.
  In this case, we change the earlier contract type to match the later year and set both FTE and weekly contracted hours to not available (NA).

2. Use current‑year hours if no future record exists

If the person does not appear in a later year (for example, they left the provider or future data is not available), we use current‑year weekly contracted hours where possible.

We calculate FTE using:

FTE = weekly contracted hours ÷ 35

For example, 30 hours gives an FTE of 0.86.

3. Reclassify unresolved cases

If we still cannot estimate FTE or weekly contracted hours after these steps, we:

• set FTE and weekly contracted hours to NA, and
• reclassify the contract type as “other”, assuming the person is not truly on a permanent or fixed‑term contract.

Characteristics of the further education workforce

Ethnicity

Percentages exclude staff members who have chosen not to share their ethnicity. This is because they form a large amount of the overall figures and excluding allows us to focus on data obtained without it skewing the figures. 

Disability

Percentages in the disability status of staff section exclude staff members who have chosen not to share their disability status. This is because they form a large amount of the overall figures and excluding allows us to focus on data obtained without it skewing the figures. 

Subjects taught by teaching staff

Main subject

Providers were asked to report the main subject taught by each teacher. If a staff member teaches more than one subject, the main subject area taught should be determined by where the most time is spent.

Providers were asked to select subjects from a list of subjects. This list included an “other” category, where providers could allocate teachers who were teaching a subject other than the named ones listed. In the 2024/25 academic year, 10.7% of teachers were allocated to the “other” category. We are working to improve the list of subjects with the aim of reducing the proportion of teachers allocated to the “other” category.

For a list of subjects that were defined as academic, vocational or other subject type, see the definitions section. 

Changes to subject names and new subjects

Providers were asked to select subjects from a list of subjects. This list is regularly updated. 

• Environmental from 2023/24 is now collected as Environmental Conservation; 
• Functional Skills (Maths, English and IT)  from 2023/24 is collected as either Functional Skills (Maths) OR Functional Skills (IT) OR Functional Skills (English); 
• Life Skills from 2023/24is collected as Life Skills (and Independence); 
• Preparation for Work from 2023/24 is collected as Preparation for Work (and Work Skills); 
• Community Learning from 2023/24 has been removed; 
• Health, Public Services and Care from 2023/24 is collected as either Public Services OR Health and Care Services; 
• Supported Learning or Special Educational Needs learning provision is from 2023/24 is collected as SEND (Sensory) OR SEND (Communication) OR SEND (Supported Learning); 
• Design, Technology and Engineering from 2023/24 is collected as Design and Technology;  
• Design, Engineering and Manufacturing from 2023/24 is collected as Engineering and Manufacturing; 
• Education and Childcare AND Education and Training from 2023/24 are collected as Education, Training and Childcare.

Working patterns and contract types

Main contract

Contract and working pattern data is reported for a staff member's main contract. The main contract is defined as where a staff member spends most of their time. 

What is Full time equivalent (FTE)?

Full time equivalent (FTE) is the proportion of a week that a staff member works. E.g. FTE = 1 means that  a staff member works the full working hours in a week. FTE = 0.5 means that a staff member will work half the working hours in a week. 

How do we define full time and part time?

We have used the following definition to determine if a staff member is classed as full time or part time for all permanent and fixed term staff:

Number of contracts at provider	Contract	Working pattern
1	Weekly hours contracted to work > = 35 or FTE >= 1	Full time
More than one	Weekly hours contracted to work >= 35	Full time
1	Weekly hours contracted to work < 35 and FTE <1	Part time
More than one	Weekly hours contracted to work < 35	Part time

Why can we not define working patterns for zero-hour, variable hour or other contract types?

We have not allocated staff on zero-hour, variable hour or other contract types to either full time/part time. This is because they may work different hours each week.

Contract types

Providers were asked to report the type of contract each staff member was employed with. This was reported for a staff member's main role only. The following contract types could be selected:

• Permanent
• Fixed term
• Variable Hours
• Zero hours
• Other contract type

Further education staff pay

The statutory sector includes general further education colleges and sixth form colleges.

The non statutory sector includes all remaining FE provider types. 

Statutory sector

Over 99% of GFECs and sixth form colleges returned data to the data collection that was used in analysis. This means that our estimates of the median salary for roles in these provider types are expected to be close to the true median salary of the workforce.

Non statutory sector

Non statutory provider types have a lower proportion of providers returning data to the collection. This means that our estimates of the median salary of the workforce for these provider types will be a less accurate estimate of the true median salary of the workforce in these settings.

Staff in scope in salary calculations

We have provided the median and mean annual salary for each role in further education providers. We have not attempted to estimate the salary of staff working in the providers that have not returned data in the collection.

Staff who are employed on permanent or fixed term contracts usually work a fixed number of hours per week. This allows us to generate an average annual salary for these individuals with more confidence. Staff employed on zero hours, variable hours, or other contract types often work different hours each week. Limitations in the way the data was collected from providers means that making an accurate estimate of the annual salary for these staff members is not possible. We are working on adapting the collection in future years to ensure that we can calculate more accurate estimates of salaries for these individuals.

Median salaries are presented for: 

Full-time equivalent (FTE) staff: 

This includes all staff who are on a permeant or fixed term contract. Approximately 171,100 (88%) of all individuals recorded in the data collection have a permanent or fixed term contract.

Average salaries for FTE staff was not published in the 2021/22 publication due to data quality concerns. Mean/median salaries for FTE staff are not comparable to full time staff mean/median salaries published in 2021/22. Therefore we will continue to publish the salary for full time staff in 2022/23 to allow comparisons from 2021/22 to 2022/23 to be made. 

Full-time staff :

We have assessed the characteristics of staff  in each role who work full-time and are employed on permanent or fixed term contracts, compared to all staff we have data returned for.  

In all roles, males are more likely to work full-time than part-time. For example there is an 8 percentage point (pp) difference between the number of males working full-time and who are on a permanent or fixed term contract, compared to all staff in the collection. 

We have not attempted to adjust for this in our calculations. The estimates of median salaries for full-time staff contains proportionally more males than females, compared to all staff in the data collection. Therefore our estimates of full-time salaries are not an accurate estimate of salaries for all staff. 

Any staff working part-time in the provider, and part-time in industry would not be included in this analysis. 

Retention of staff in the statutory sector

What do we mean by retention?

Retention measures the percentage of staff who remain in the sector from one academic year to the next.

For example, if all staff who were working in the 2023/24 academic year were still working in the sector in 2024/25, the retention rate would be 100%.

What provider types are included in retention figures?

Retention has only been calculated for staff working in the statutory sector.  This includes staff employed by: 

• General Further Education Colleges
• Sixth Form Colleges. 

The statutory sector is used because response rates are significantly higher than in the non‑statutory sector, making the data more reliable.

Why is a range provided for the retention figures?

Not all statutory sector  providers returned data in both the 2023/24 and 2024/25 data collections. When a provider does not return data, we cannot confirm whether their staff remained in the sector the following year. This uncertainty affects the retention calculation.

To account for this, we present retention as a range:

• Lower estimate: Assumes that providers who did not return data in 2024/25 lost all of their staff;
• Upper estimate: Assumes that providers who did not return data in 2024/25 retained all of their staff.

This approach reflects the uncertainty caused by missing data while showing the potential impact on retention rates.

How do we match people from one year to the next?

The Further Education Workforce Data Collection, collects First Name, Last Name and Date of Birth for all staff members. For the 2024/25 academic year, National Insurance Number is also collected for teaching staff. We use these four pieces of personal data to match individuals from one year to the next. 

Unfilled teaching and management/leadership vacancies

Why have vacancy rates not been scaled?

Unfilled teaching and management/leadership vacancy figures are based only on the 67.7% of further education providers in scope and who returned both the vacancy data collection and the workforce data collection. We have not attempted to scale these figures up to provide an overall estimate for all providers due to potential bias in the data return. For example, a provider with many/few vacancies may be less/more likely to return data.  Therefore any attempt to scale up collected data to reach a total number would be subject to potential bias.

How are unfilled vacancy rates calculated?

In a separate module of the further education workforce data collection, providers were asked to report how many vacancies they had during the previous academic year. 67.7% of providers returned data. We have not attempted to scale these figures up to provide an overall estimate due to the low coverage and uncertainty around how representative this  67.7%of providers are compared to the national picture.

If a provider responded to the vacancy data collection, but did not respond to the main workforce data collection, they not included in vacancy calculation. This is because we determine how many staff are working in the provider type from the main workforce data collection. This only applied to a small number of providers. 

Further education providers were asked to report details on vacancies for teacher vacancies (by subject) and management/leadership vacancies. They were asked to report the number of vacancies of these roles during the 2021/22 academic year and the number that were filled by the end of the year.

What do we mean by unfilled vacancy?

Providers were asked to report how many vacancies there were for teaching and management/leadership positions throughout the academic year. They were also asked how many of these were filled during the year. 

We then calculated the number of unfilled teaching vacancies at the end of the academic year by subtracting the number of teaching vacancies that were filled during the year from the total number of teaching vacancies throughout the year. 

An equivalent calculation was used to determine the number of unfilled management and leadership vacancies.

What do we mean by unfilled vacancy rate?

The unfilled teaching vacancy rate shows the number of unfilled teaching vacancies by the end of the academic year, per 100 teaching positions. 

The unfilled management and leadership vacancy rate shows the number of unfilled management and leadership vacancies by the end of the academic year, per 100 management and leadership positions. 

 An example of the rate calculation is as follows:

Number of maths teachers in the provider type	3,233
Number of maths vacancies through the year in provider type	234
Number of maths vacancies that were filled by the end of the year in provider type	189
Number of unfilled maths vacancies in provider type	234 - 189 = 45
Unfilled maths vacancy rate in provider type	45/(3233 + 45) = 1.3727….per 100 = 1.4 per 100 (rounded to 1 decimal place)

Governors

GFECs and sixth form colleges were asked to supply data about the size and characteristics of their governing bodies. Of the colleges in scope for the the 2024/25 mandatory Further Education College Governor Data Collection, 95.8% provided data. This is lower than the proportion of colleges that returned data on the staff workforce data collection.

Colleges were asked to report demographics of their governors, including age, ethnicity, gender and disability status. As well as this, they were asked to report how many vacancies they had for governor positions during the previous academic year.

Producing national estimates

To account for further education providers in scope that did not supply governors data in the FEWDC, we have scaled up the returned data by provider type using the percentage of providers that returned data to produce national estimates. In future years, as a higher proportion of providers return data to the collection, we expect our estimate of the size of the further education workforce to become more accurate.

We have only scaled national workforce figures. This is because providers may operate over multiple regions, so scaling at regional level could be misleading. 

As an example of how estimates were calculated; in 2021/22, 88.2% of GFECs provided governor data in the FEWDC. Those 88.2% reported 2,672 governors. We multiplied this figure to create a 100% return rate estimate, which gave an estimated GFEC governor number of 3,028. Rounding this figure to the nearest hundred (to indicate a level of uncertainty of the figure) gives an estimate of 3,000 governors in GFECs.

This calculation is made for both GFECs and sixth form colleges. The sector total for each provider type is then summed to generate a national estimate for the number of governors in the in-scope further education sector. 

Unfilled vacancy rates

GFECs and sixth form colleges were asked to report the number of governor vacancies in their governing body during the academic year, and the number of vacancies that were filled by the end of the year.

From this, we were able to determine the number of unfilled governor vacancies by the end of the academic year, and therefore able to determine an unfilled vacancy rate. An example of the rate calculation is as follows:

Total number of governors in the provider type	120
Total  number of vacancies through the year in provider type	30
Total number of vacancies that were filled by the end of the year in provider type	19
Total number of unfilled governor vacancies in provider type	30 - 19 = 11
Unfilled governor vacancy rate in provider type	11/(120+11) = 8.4 per 100 (rounded to 1 decimal place)

Main role type

What is a “main role”?

A main role is defined as where a staff member spends most of their time. If someone has two roles, their main role would the role they spend most of their time working on. 

Definitions of main roles

Leader: A leader is regarded as a staff member who has senior management responsibility. This can include formal governance and director responsibilities. They can be responsible for direction and vision or driving strategic intent. Main Roles which would determine if a staff member was a “Leader”:

• Assistant Head
• Assistant Principal
• CEO
• Director
• Executive Head Teacher
• Managing Director
• Principal/Head Teacher
• Senior Manager
• Vice-Principal.

Manager: A staff member responsible for providing supervision and staff support. Responsibilities can include department lead and administering staff members. Main Roles which would determine if a staff member was a “Manager”:

• Curriculum Lead
• Faculty Lead
• Functional Manager
• Head of Department
• Programme Lead Quality Assurance Manager.

Teacher: A member of staff with teaching responsibilities. Main Roles which would determine if a staff member was a “Teacher”:

• Advanced Practitioner
• Instructor
• Lecturer
• Practitioner
• Teacher
• Trainer
• Tutor.

Support: A member of support staff in any function across the organisation. Main Roles which would determine if a staff member was classed as “Support”

• Assessor
• Behaviour Specialist
• Bilingual Support Assistant
• Careers Advisor
• Counsellor
• Cover Supervisor
• Education Welfare Officer
• Higher Level Teaching Assistant
• Language Support
• Learning Facilitator
• Learning Mentor
• Learning Support
• Learning Support Assistant (SEN)
• Librarian
• Pastoral Support
• SEN Co-ordinator
• Sport Coach
• Teaching Assistant/Support
• Technician
• Therapist.

Administration: Staff members who support the delivery of further education provision in an administrative capacity. Main Roles which would determine if a staff member was classed as “Admin”. 

• Administrator
• Admissions
• Apprenticeships Administrator
• Bursar
• Business Manager
• Clerk
• Communication Support
• Data Analyst
• DSL and Safeguarding Office
• Employer Engagement
• Examinations Administrator
• External Grants and Funding
• Finance Officer
• Human Resources (HR)
• ICT Network Manager
• Information Services (MIS)
• Legal
• Marketing Administrator
• Office Manager
• Payroll Administrator
• Programme Recruitment
• Receptionist
• Secretary
• Technology Support.

Definition of subject types

Definition of subject types

Subjects were defined as  from existing lists within the Department. The following subjects were allocated to each category:

Academic: 

• Ancient Languages
• Archaeology
• Astronomy
• Art and Design, History of Art
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Citizenship studies
• Classical studies
• Computer science
• Dance, drama and theatre
• Design, technology and engineering
• Electronics
• English
• Environmental science
• Film and media studies
• Food preparation and nutrition
• Geography
• Geology
• History
• Mathematics
• Modern foreign languages
• Music
• Physical education
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Politics
• Psychology
• Religious studies
• Sociology

Vocational:

• Accounting and Finance
• Agriculture and Horticulture
• Animal Care
• Business Management and Administration
• Catering and Hospitality
• Construction, Planning and the Built Environment
• Crafts, Creative Arts and Design
• Design, Engineering and Manufacturing
• Digital / ICT
• Education and Childcare
• Education and Training
• Environmental
• Hair, Beauty and Aesthetics
• Health, Public Services and Care
• Law and Legal Services
• Media, Broadcast and Production
• Performing Arts
• Retail and Commercial Enterprise
• Science
• Sport, Leisure and Recreation
• Transport and Logistics
• Travel and Tourism

Other subject types:

• Functional Skills (English, Maths and IT)
• Life Skills
• Preparation for Work
• Supported Learning or Special Educational Needs learning provision
• ESOL
• Community Learning
• Family Learning
• Other

Definition of Headcount and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)

Headcount and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)

We have presented both headcount and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) to provide estimates of the size of the Further Education workforce.

Headcount sums up all staff in the sector during the full academic year. It is collected for staff on any contract type. Each person counts as a headcount of one. Some staff may work across multiple further education providers, so the headcount estimate will include a small amount of double counting.

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) is only collected for staff who hold permanent or fixed term contracts. FTE tells us what proportion of a full week a staff member works. For example, if someone has an FTE of 0.5, they will work half of the week. FTE is summed across the staff who hold permanent or fixed term contracts. FTE allows us to determine how many full time staff would be required to fill all roles. 

General notes

The files in this publication shows further education staff in five groups, teachers, support staff, admin staff, management staff and leadership staff. Where gender and age is unknown, this is shown as its own category in breakdowns provided. Where ethnicity or disability status is unknown, figures by these factors do not add to totals provided.

In addition, when reviewing the files, please note the following:

We preserve confidentiality.	The Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires we take reasonable steps to ensure that our published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality.
Numbers are not rounded	Some figures such as pay or sickness absence may be suppressed at school level or higher levels of aggregation to prevent disclosure of sensitive information about individuals.
We have adopted symbols to help with identification.	Symbols are used in the files are based upon general Office of National Statistics guidance

How the department uses the information

Data collected from the Further Education Workforce Data Collection supports the delivery of technical education reforms crucial to individual and national prosperity and be used to plan, implement and evaluate FE workforce policy. In addition, it provides the ability to assess and analyse the capacity of the FE workforce and generate valuable outputs for providers for planning, analysis, bench marking and skills gaps.

The data will be used to reply official correspondence, including Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests.

Further information

 

National and  regional figures.	The underlying data files in the publication include regional level summaries. The total number of staff in each region do not sum to the national total. This is because the national totals have been scaled to estimate the size of the workforce in the non responding providers. We have not done this for regional figures. This is because providers may operate over multiple regions, so scaling at regional level could be misleading.
Want previously  published figures of this release series?	This is the first year of the Further Education Workforce publication.
Want data for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?	The Further Education Workforce Data Collection only collects information from further education providers in England. Education in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter. For information for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, contact the departments below or access their statistics at the following links: Wales: Further Education statistics Scotland: fhestatistics@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or Further Education statistics (gov.scot) Northern Ireland: Further Education statistics
Other data published on further education workforce	There have been previously published data on further education workforce. These statistics are not directly comparable to the data presented in this release.  College staff survey: last published in 2018. Research on improving workforce data in further education (FE) based on surveys and questionnaires returned by leaders, teachers and college staff. Staff Individualised Record (SIR) Data Insights trends in demographics, staffing numbers and pay across all provider types in the Further Education (FE) and Training sector based on a sample of providers for the 2018/19 year.
For related publications see:	School workforce in England

Help and support

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

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If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

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