Source: Working Futures 2004 and Maginn and Williams 2002

The Further Education (FE) sector comprises approximately 500 colleges in the UK including general, tertiary, sixth form and specialist colleges. It is estimated that 425,000 people are employed in this sector which includes support staff.

The Higher Education sector consists of 170 institutions across the UK employing 2% of the UK workforce. An estimated 409,000 people in Great Britain work in the higher education institutions which include those involved in teaching and research together with support staff. It is estimated that a third of staff in the HE sector are working part-time and approximately 40% are on fixed-term contracts. Employment in HE has grown by 11% since 1994 and it is expected to continue to grow. It is predicted that there will be between 530,000 and 550,000 higher education employees in 2010.

Within the HE and FE sector student numbers are increasing and the target has been set by the Government of getting 50% of under 30 year old population into further or higher education by 2010.   

Source: HE and FE Sector Report 2002, HESDA 2002 and FEnto 2002

Vacancy rates for compulsory education teachers remain high, especially in London. However, these rates have fallen in recent years with the recruitment of a number of overseas qualified and non-qualified staff. 6% of advertised vacancies in HE institutions remain open for 3 months or more.

Recruitment difficulties for the HE sector are for:

• academic staff – particularly in law, computing science, engineering, business studies, health and  clinical studies, mathematics
• information technology and computing staff
• administrative and professional staff – particularly senior administrators and finance professionals
• secretarial and clerical staff
• technicians

Recruitment difficulties for the FE sector are for:

• IT specialists
• lecturers in engineering, construction and accounting
• course or programme managers and leaders
• learning support staff

Management recruitment in the further education sector has been most difficult: 11% of vacancies are for senior managers. Recruitment problems are created by a lack of technical and teaching qualifications and the inability of the sector to offer attractive remuneration.

Replacement demands in the education sector as a whole far outweigh the projected expansion demands in this industry. While a net increase of around 200,000 is projected, but the total requirement is 6 times this figure. Over half of this projected increase relates to professional occupations. Other occupations requiring substantial replacements are associate professional and technical occupations, personal service occupations and elementary occupations.

Source: FEnto 2002, HE and FE Sector Report 2002 and Working Futures 2004

Skill gaps in the further education sector include management skills, IT skills (for example using IT to teach, and support learning as well as in the curriculum), business development and key or core skills teaching. Skills gaps in IT are thought to have a negative effect in the FE sector on the ability to use IT in the curriculum.

Source: HE and FE Sector Report 2002

Rapid technological change has raised the priority given to education in the long-term economic strategy of the Government, including education beyond secondary school age. There is, however, some scope for innovative use of IT to facilitate independent and/or distance learning, and to improve the monitoring and evaluation of learning. The need to upgrade IT skills requires greater investment in staff training time.

University funding is set to increase significantly over the next three years, and a radical shake-up of student finance is underway. This will be coupled with a range of incentives to promote wider social access to higher education.

Source: Working Futures 2004 and Skills in England 2003