New analysis of government figures has revealed that the college workforce dropped by 9 per cent - the equivalent of 12,000 full-time roles - over a three-year period

The research was based on data from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), and included in new reports on the FE workforce published yesterday (Friday) by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF).

It concluded that there had been a 2.7 per cent drop in the number of jobs in colleges in 2014-15, compared with 12 months earlier, according to staff individualised record (SIR) data. The biggest drop was among senior managers at 10.2 per cent, while the smallest was among assessors and verifiers (1.2 per cent).

But looking at data over a longer period from the SFA, the analysis by Frontier Economics for the ETF pinpointed a more significant decline.

The University and College Union’s head of FE, Andrew Harden, said: “No one should be surprised to find that the FE workforce has shrunk when the sector has endured this level of cuts. The tragedy is that, at the same time, the country has never needed FE more.

“Amid an increasingly highprofile and heated debate about immigration and skills shortages is an untold story of the government’s scandalous failure to invest in growing the skills of the existing UK workforce.”

‘What we’re having to do is reshape’

He added: “At a time when the majority of colleges’ attention is focused on area reviews, it is no surprise there is little progress. After years of redundancies, worsening terms, falling pay and rocketing workloads the people who can deliver apprenticeships - college staff - need to be given the resources to do it.”

Andy Forbes, principal of the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, said the decline in the workforce was “directly related to funding”. “Between 2010 and last year, we lost about 10-15 per cent of funding,” he said. “At my college, we lost about 70 staff last year out of 400. That tended to be in those areas - like Esol (English for speakers of other languages) - where funding was cut the most.

“For the first time this year, we’re growing. We’re having to make some cuts in some specific areas, but overall the aim is to grow by about 30 or 40 staff because the funding settlement was better than expected. In some areas, such as apprenticeships, we’re doing better so we can afford to start growing again.

“What we’re having to do is reshape. Areas that were big five years ago - eg, adult education - have shrunk. Areas that were smaller are growing. Our apprenticeships team is growing because that area is growing.”

This is an edited version of an article in the 17 June edition of TES. Subscribers can read the full analysis of the FE workforce data here. 

FE SPECIAL OFFER: click here to try out a TES Further Education subscription for just £1 for four weeks.

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow TES FE News on Twitter, like us on Facebook and follow us on LinkedIn