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Further Education in England

The evidence found on this page relates to teacher supply in Further Education in England and Wales. It is a resource for professional and research communities concerned with the recruitment and retention of teachers and support for their professional development. As such it is relevant for policy-makers, leaders, professional bodies, providers of professional learning, researchers and practitioners undertaking studies of teacher retention and strategic development to enhance teachers’ wellbeing.

The majority of the evidence provided is open access. It includes policy documents, reports, academic journal articles, books and chapters, briefings and blogs, and news and commentary published since 2019.

Each summary is labelled with its resource type and tagged with one or more themes. You can use the filters below to show only the evidence of a particular resource type or on a particular theme, and selecting a tag on any summary will take you to all resources sharing that theme. The search bar covers the full library, so results may include evidence relating to Further Education as well as schools; the sector is shown on each result. Each summary links to the original source where it is available.

The Recruitment and Retention of Teachers in England

Summary:

Chapter situates graduate ITE recruitment shortfalls within broader FE and school data; examines policy levers (bursaries, retention incentives) and calls for parity between ITE funding for schools and FE....
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The Augar Review of Post-18 Education and Funding

Summary:

The independent review highlighted the significant challenges facing the FE sector, including teacher shortages and the need for better funding to support recruitment and retention in colleges....
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The Recruitment of VET Teachers and the Failure of Policy in England’s Further Education Sector

Summary:

The piece argues that chronic recruitment difficulties for science, engineering, and technology teachers in English further education reveal a systemic failure of policy planning and sustained "policy churn". The study concludes that decades of unstable reforms have created a, "near-permanent state of revolution," hindering the successful implementation of vocational education...
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Incentive Programmes for the recruitment and retention of Teachers in Further Education

Summary:

This research report underpinned 2019 policy discussions by identifying which financial incentives (like bursaries) were most effective for the FE sector. Identifying that long-term retention also requires holistic approaches such as high-quality mentoring, ongoing professional development and flexible working arrangements....
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Teaching in the lifelong learning

Summary:

This practitioner handbook shows how patchy salary funding and undefined career ladders make FE posts less competitive than schools or industry. Rural colleges, STEM and digital subjects report the steepest recruiting difficulties; chapters offer manager-level retention tactics....
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