Further education: future trends

In common with the rest of the UK public sector, further education is undergoing significant change, and this is expected to characterise the experience of those in the sector in the medium term.

The Wolf Review of March 2011[Review of vocational education - The Wolf Report] and the government's response [Wolf Review of Vocational Education - Government response] made it clear that there will be changes in the way that parts of the sector will be funded; it placed a focus on ensuring that students gain qualifications that allow them to progress into further study or work.

Flexibility in design and delivery of learning and skills programmes is expected to develop significantly, and this will involve exploiting new technology and making use of emerging ideas and techniques. Learning is expected to take place in more diverse settings in colleges, workplaces and online, and this presents challenges for the sector workforce. The sector is expected to have an important role in developing and delivering new vocational qualifications and apprenticeships.

Reforms to post-compulsory education are also anticipated to bring greater partnership between FE institutions and between FE and HE, as colleges deliver more HE learning and collaboration helps to use resources for both sectors more efficiently at a time when budgets will be under pressure. More organisations, from charities to private enterprise, are expected to provide services and learning to institutions in the future, and the sector will need to adapt to effectively manage these relationships.

Skills needs

The FE sector is currently trying to raise its profile and increase skills levels in order to attract and retain the people it needs to manage and lead through the current changes and to allow it to operate in a climate where it is expected to have a higher profile than it currently enjoys.

These changes represent an opportunity for doctoral graduates interested in the further education sector. The significant developments in the role of the sector in the wider educational framework, increased partnership with public and private organisations and raised skills levels all mean that the sector is likely to offer a range of challenges to graduates with the kind of management, adaptability, problem-solving and subject skills that come from doctoral study.