The Office for Students (OfS), as regulator for the HE sector, has developed a framework for “provider segmentation” of HEIs in England which identifies six different categories of HEI, based on a combination of size and type. This brief report aims to provide a similar high-level snapshot of the FE & Skills sector, with a particular focus on the position of the 156 General FE Colleges operating across England.
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The 45 FE Colleges in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland share many of the characteristics of their English counterparts, but since devolution there’s been an increasing divergence in their regulation, funding and curriculum offer.
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The number of colleges in England has shrunk significantly over the past 15 years, mainly as a result of the Area Review process undertaken by government between 2015-19 to restructure the FE sector in response to its deteriorating financial health. The Association of Colleges has recorded 113 mergers since 2008, and the process is still continuing, although with less frequency.
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There are around 1,700 Independent Training Providers operating in the Skills sector, particularly prominent in delivering apprenticeship training. They are a significant presence, enrolling c600,000 learners annually, compared to the 1.6 million in FE colleges. Whilst offering the same qualifications as FECs, they are distinctively different in two important respects: first, in being predominantly private sector for-profit businesses rather than public sector institutions; second, in typically focusing on industry sectors rather than being place-based.
