The proportion of teaching staff in the FE and skills workforce is growing in all areas, according to new data.

The Education and Training Foundation has today published its annual data set revealing the characteristics of the FE workforce for 2013-14.

It reveals that across colleges, work-based learning providers and adult and community learning providers, teaching staff are increasing as a percentage.

Some 53 per cent of staff in work-based learning providers are now teaching staff, up from 51 per cent in 2012-13 and 48 per cent in 2011-12.

Teachers remain the largest occupational group within general FE colleges, representing 44.1 per cent of full time equivalent staff, an increase from 43.5 per cent in 2012-13.

The proportion of technical staff has decreased from 6.9 per cent to 6.2 per cent, and the proportion of managers has decreased from 8.9 per cent to 7.6 per cent.

Within adult and community learning providers, two out of three staff are identified as “professionals”, which includes teaching and also training staff such as assessors, trainers, tutors and advisors.

David Russell, chief executive of the ETF, encourages everyone working in FE to use the data.

“You might want to see how your place of work compares to the national average, or look at where the opportunities and recruitment challenges persist,” he said.

The ETF is planning to change the way it collects and reports on FE sector data in the next 18 months, and wants as many organisations as possible to contribute.

Mr Russell said: “With sector wide commitment to data collection we can identify specific issues and support smart sector-wide solutions. Without provider support on data collection we are all in the dark”.

To read more on this story, see this Friday’s edition of the TES.