Introduction:
NFER’s third Annual Teacher Workforce report (2026), funded by the Nuffield Foundation, makes hard reading for a further education sector already under pressure. Set alongside new school and early years data, it offers the most detailed picture yet of FE staffing, revealing deepening supply‑side problems in teacher recruitment and retention. Drawing on the FE Workforce Data Collection (85.2% response rate), the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the Annual Population Survey (including labour force data) and NFER’s ongoing Teacher Workload surveys, it helps to fill a long‑standing evidence gap about the post‑16 workforce.
This series now gives us a rare, year‑on‑year view of FE, showing how vacancies, pay and staffing pressures have shifted since 2023. The 2026 report, based on data up to 2024/25, finds a workforce that has stopped shrinking but has not yet recovered: headcounts are broadly stable, yet recruitment and retention remain fragile, real‑terms pay has fallen behind, and shortages are entrenched in key subjects.
Salary developments: limited progress over five years
NFER reports median full-time equivalent earnings for FE teachers at £39,355 in 2024/25, derived from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) (for comparison, UNISON set the median at £34,500 for the same period). This represents nominal growth of approximately 12% from an estimated £35,000 in 2020, yet real-terms median FE pay has fallen by 18% since 2010/11 despite a +4.4% growth in average UK earnings. In real-terms, the FE teacher is 22% worse off today than where they should be had their earnings kept pace with average wages. Compared to secondary schoolteachers (£39,355 for FE versus £49,789 for secondary), the 21% pay gap constitutes the widest margin since 2010, reversing modest convergence observed in NFER’s 2018–2020 analyses.
The NFER survey agrees that the relative decline in salaries for FE teachers is a key reason for existing teacher shortages. Earlier research by the team (Flemons et al, 2024) reveals a substantial gap in teachers earnings in priority areas such as construction and what they could realistically earn working in those industries. It is an issue on everybody’s lips – including politicians - but nothing so far has arrested the decline. NFER reports that the median full-time FE teacher earned around 30 per cent more than the median employee in England in 2010/11 (occupying the 68th percentile for average pay on all forms of work). In 2024/25, median earnings for full-time FE teachers fell below the national median for the first time, with FE teachers dropping to the 48th percentile.
Headcount trends: stabilisation with underlying pressures
FE teacher headcounts have stabilised in the last three years. 80,453 FE teachers were working in 2023/4, which is a marginal decrease of 1% on the 81,411 reported in 2021/2. This represents a break from the significant decline in general FE teaching staff seen between 2010/11 and 2019/20. As it stands, the FE sector has lost more than a quarter of its workforce since 2010/11 (64,910), arguably at a time when the UK government was demanding improved industrial productivity and workforce upskilling.
In the latest survey (2023/4), around 49,000 (61%) teachers worked in general FE colleges, 4,700 (6%) in sixth form colleges and 17,800 (22%) in private training providers, with another 9,000 (11%) in publicly-funded provision (e.g. local authorities, land-based, etc). Vacancy rates per 100 roles, however, have intensified in priority subjects: 7.1 in construction (up from 5.2 in NFER’s 2023 report), 6.9 in engineering/manufacturing, and 6.1 in computer science - substantially exceeding secondary sector averages (around x4 higher). Amongst engineering and manufacturing teacher roles, 13.2 and 10.8 per cent of roles are vacant in London and Yorkshire and the Humberside, respectively. The same is true for 9.2 per 100 roles in construction, planning and the built environment in the West Midlands. NFER modelling suggests that FE teacher numbers will need to increase by 7% to meet 16-18 growth projections, equating to 2,700 more teachers – almost half of the Government’s overall policy target of 6,500 extra teachers.
Working hours and workload perceptions
Perhaps surprisingly, the NFER reports average weekly hours for full-time FE teachers as 39.2 hours, marginally less than the 41.3 hours of a matched full-time group in other industries and substantially lower than the 50.1 hours for the combined teacher sample in 2024/5 (small sample sizes suggest caution with these figures; no statistical significance). These figures sit awkwardly against a backdrop of perceived high workloads, levels of fatigue and poor well-being in the sector, a recurring feature of FE surveys over the last 7-8 years.
For example, the University College Union’s 2021 Workload Survey of FE workers found that:
· 41% of respondents believe their workload is mostly or entirely unmanageable.
· 81% believe that the pace and intensity of work has increased significantly.
· 47% believe their working hours have increased significantly in the past 12
· months.
Further Education England Joint Trade Unions Claim 2024/25
According to unions, it is not untypical for FE teachers to be working beyond their contracted hours which cause high levels of stress and disruptions to work-life balance. In the NFER survey, FE teachers are consistently more likely to report working overtime compared to similar workers in other sectors, and this gap is statistically significant. Figures for 2024 revealed that 40% of FE teachers worked overtime, compared to 34 per cent of similar workers. However, in FE, overtime was less likely to be remunerated than other types of work. Lack of recognition for overtime, cover sessions and weekend work has been a perennial sore and a source of great dissatisfaction for FE teachers for some time now. The NFER agrees that this is likely to heighten perceptions of workload amongst many teaching staff. According to the authors, the effort-reward bargain is at the heart of teachers’ decisions to stay or leave the sector, and it is the “the mismatch between pay and workload” (p.16) that is a primary driver of teacher attrition.
Teacher wellbeing
FE teachers' subjective wellbeing (APS data) matches similar workers' overall but declines sharply post-2020 - from 7.6/10 (2017) to 6.8/10 (2024) vs stable ~7.5 for comparators. General satisfaction (“Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?”) shows the same downward trend for FE, dropping sharply between 2022-2024, again not matched by the comparison group. While overall anxiety levels are not a major concern, FE teachers report in 2024 being more anxious than other similar workers (3.9/10 vs 3.2/10; not statistically significant). NFER attributes this to poor pay/conditions (despite comparable hours), warning of potential mental health/retention risks in the longer-term without appropriate intervention. It also notes that this decline parallels the decline in wages observed since 2010/11. Data lacks 2024 breakdowns by subject/role, but external trends suggest construction/specialist vocational instructors face amplified pressures from wage compression and green skills demands.
Workforce agency and progression
FE teachers consistently report less voice and agency at work than similar workers: only 41% feel involved in decision-making compared with 53% of comparable employees in 2024, a gap that has persisted since 2020. They are also less likely to see good opportunities for career progression (46% vs 58% in 2024) – statistically significant - with this disadvantage evident in most years since 2020.
NFER links these deficits in participation and progression to poorer working conditions and suggests they may be contributing to dissatisfaction and retention problems amongst teachers. The evidence base indicates that stronger employee involvement and clearer progression routes are associated with better retention and wellbeing, implying these gaps are both a workforce and a quality risk.
FE vs Secondary teachers
So how do FE teachers compare with secondary school teachers? Drawing on the metrics in the NFER 2026 report, the comparison is presented below:
- 2026-NFER-the_further_education_teacher_workforce_in_england_2026-2.pdf
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england/2024
Key Insight: FE faces higher shortages/turnover despite comparable hours, driven by the pay gap widening to 18% (from 10% pre-2020).
Policy implications
The NFER survey highlights some systemic challenges for the sector. High vacancy rates, declining real-terms pay and a perception of inequity with schoolteachers is creating a perfect storm for teacher recruitment in the FE and training system. Against a projected 7% growth in 16-18 year-olds, these trends threaten delivery of the government's 6,500-teacher target and priority skills in construction, engineering, and digital sectors. The following actions could go someway to redressing these challenges:
- Establish Pay Parity with Secondary Teachers: Policy should introduce a statutory FE Pay Review Body, ringfencing 16-19 funding to align scales with secondary levels, as recommended by the Education Select Committee (2025).
- Target Shortage Subjects with Enhanced Incentives: Construction/engineering vacancies reach 10% in priority regions; extend Targeted Retention Incentives (TRIs) to £6,000/year for early-career staff and scale ITE bursaries (£31,000 for maths/science). Evidence from schools confirms their cost-effectiveness.
- Mandate Comprehensive Retention Tracking: There is a need for further research and data on the reasons why FE teachers leave the sector. Restore annual retention metrics via FEWDC or pension records to quantify 16% loss rates and inform interventions.
- Undertake Longitudinal Assessment of Working Hours and Staff Dissatisfaction: The need for more in-depth study on the effects of working hours and unpaid overtime on workload perceptions could support interventions to improve retention.
- FE providers and DfE should jointly create a national framework that: (a) requires meaningful staff representation in organisational decision-making structures, and (b) guarantees transparent, funded progression pathways (including promotions and advanced posts), with impact evaluated via an annual workforce survey.
Methodological limitations and data inconsistencies
The FE sector has had a longstanding data credibility issue compared to schools and universities because of the lack of a universal methodology for curating workforce statistics over the last two decades. While the NFER survey is among the most robust available, caution remains warranted. The reported £39,355 median salary is much higher than UNISON’s £34,500 (2023/24, AoC scales) and DfE’s £36,300 mean (2023/24 FEWDC, 85.2% provider response) and can be attributed to ASHE’s focus on FTE-adjusted annualised earnings, which privileges full-timers and excludes many fractional contracts. Vacancy estimates draw from FEWDC, prone to under-reporting from non-respondents and potential double-counting of multi-provider staff. FE-specific leaver motivations remain undocumented, unlike school support staff (50% financial pressures, 37% workload). Longitudinal vacancy series are incomplete: construction rose from 5.2 (NFER 2023) to 7.4, but full five-year trends are absent, as are granular hourly-paid breakdowns despite reported recruitment pressures.
Conclusion
The NFER is a bold and valuable report on key workforce features of the further education sector. More so, than in previous decades, attention is shifting to staff pay, retention and wellbeing as commentaries on the conditions of FE work. This is welcome for a workforce that has been subjected to repeated funding cuts, curriculum re-organisations and mergers, and it provides an appropriate backdrop for explaining FE's persistent recruitment challenges. We need reports like this. Data, rather than policy announcements, tells the objective story of what is happening to the sector.
However, the report also reminds us of the sector's ongoing data deficiencies. Historical approaches - LLUK’s voluntary Staff Individualised Record (SIR, college-dominant), LSIS extrapolations (limited independent training provider coverage), ETF’s partial grossing-up exercises, and DfE’s FEWDC (currently 85% response) - have failed to yield a full, comprehensive and projectable workforce profile. In addition, headcount figures cannot be considered sustainable or predictable while the pay gap continues to widen, as this trajectory undermines teacher retention and recruitment.
This not only jeopardises the FE sector’s capacity to meet growing 16–18 demand but also the government's vision for economic growth. Skills shortages in construction, engineering, and digital fields remain stubbornly persistent, although we do not yet know how much this will cost British Industry in the longer-term. That modelling is long overdue, as is a recognition of the FE sector's role in sustaining this growth. Regularised, mandatory collection encompassing all providers, contract types, and leaver tracking is essential to inform evidence-based policy and avert escalating shortages. This no longer a nice-to-have but a policy imperative. DfE must establish this unified framework without delay.
References
Flemons, L., McLean, D., Straw, S. and Kneightley, G. (2024) Building a stronger FE college workforce. Slough: NFER. Available at: https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/building-a-stronger-fe-college-workforce-how-improving-pay-and-working-conditions-can-help-support-fe-college-teacher-supply/ [Accessed: 24/03/26].
House of Commons Education Committee (2025) Further Education and Skills. Sixth Report of Session 2024–26. HC666. Available at: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/49615/documents/264337/default/ [Accessed: 24/03/26]
Scott, M., Flemons, L., & Worth, J. (2026, March 12). The further education teacher workforce in England: Annual report 2026. National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/the-further-education-teacher-workforce-in-england-annual-report-2026/ [Accessed 23/03/26].
UNISON. (2024, March 27). Further Education England Joint Trade Unions pay claim 2024/25. 27 March 2026. https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2024/05/Further-Education-England-Joint-Trade-Unions-Claim-2024-2025.pdf [Accessed 25/03/26].
