It was thirty-four years ago in 1989 that the phrase “Cinderella service” was first attached to FE as a sector. The then minister of education under Margaret Thatcher, Kenneth Baker, was reflecting on the lack of government attention and focus on the further education (FE) sector.
Why does it linger?
The difficulties in shaking off the Cinderella label are not surprising when we pause for a moment and just consider pay and retention. A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (2023) “What has happened to college teacher pay in England?” provides some indication as to why this legacy still remains. Its conclusions included:
- cuts to post-16 education of 14 per centr, and classroom based adult education cut by significantly more
- the pay gap between a college teacher, on £34,500, and a school teacher on £41,500.
- the proportion of college staff leaving the profession is higher than among school teachers and NHS staff and currently stands at 16 per cent per year
- less than 25 per cent of college teachers are still in the profession after 10 years, compared to 60 per cent of school teachers
