The education sector is defined by public and private education at any level or for any profession including:

• primary
• secondary
• technical
• vocational
• higher education (HE)
• adult education (e.g. driving schools, other private training providers and Local Learning and Skills Councils)

Education has experienced underlying growth in employment since the 1970s, and this has been accelerated by the present government’s public commitment. 

Part-time employment is very important, accounting for almost 1 in 2 jobs, and will account for all the net increase in the number of jobs available. Self-employment accounted for around 100,000 jobs in 2002. The number of full-time jobs and those in self employment are projected to fall.

Occupational trends include:

• continued growth in HE is accounted for by the increase in Associate Professional and Technician workers account for half of all employment in HE
• teachers and lecturers within the professional occupational group account for more than 1 in every 2 jobs in the industry
• administrative, clerical and secretarial and elementary occupations have become less significant so further job losses are expected
• the professional groups will be the main beneficiary of job growth, with some 200,000 additional jobs

There are a lot of data on equal opportunity issues for both FE and HE including:

• females dominate employment in education, especially in primary and secondary education, currently they account for around 70% of employment
• 6% of HE workforce are non-white compared to 7% of FE workforce
• there are concerns about an aging workforce in both FE and HE
• 16% of HE workforce is over the age of 55, compared to 12% of all employees
• just under 2% of FE workforce are classed as disabled
• 12% of ‘university teachers’ are disabled

IT skills have been prioritised as part of the sector workforce development.

The sector has well development and organised staff development and training activities for the workforce, particularly in the HE sub-sector.

A higher percentage of the post-16 education and training sector workforce has NVQ Level 4 or equivalent compared to all sectors in the UK.

The research into the education sector is wide and varied.