Those who work in FE and skills have long understood and recognised the sector’s ability to transform lives.
We know that FE and skills provision equips individuals with the qualifications and confidence to progress, strengthens local economies, and fosters inclusive, sustainable communities by forging local partnerships and strengthening social ties.
Yet, despite this profound impact, FE’s contribution to social value – encompassing social, economic and environmental wellbeing – remains under-measured and under-recognised.
Following the publication of the post-16 education and skills white paper – with its vision for a unified tertiary system, a reformed qualifications landscape and a renewed focus on workforce development – we have a strategic opportunity as a sector.
As set out in the Education Training Foundation’s (ETF’s) new Achieving Social Value in Further Education and Skills report, if we are to deliver on this vision we must move beyond anecdotal evidence and establish a shared framework for measuring social value.
Without robust data, the sector’s full contribution to national ambitions risks being overlooked, and with it, the opportunities to scale impact and guide investment effectively.
What do we mean by social value?
In FE and skills, social value manifests at multiple levels.
For individuals, it might be confidence gained, skills acquired, and doors opened to meaningful employment.
At community level, it encompasses partnerships forged, local skills gaps filled and civic engagement strengthened.
At a societal level, social value broadens to include the downstream impact on economic growth, sustainability and equity.
From green skills programmes to outreach initiatives for disadvantaged learners, the sector delivers wide-ranging benefits that ripple far beyond the classroom.
Take one learner with additional needs who joined Blackpool and The Fylde College to study construction. With tailored support, he progressed to a plumbing apprenticeship, developed his independence, and now volunteers in his community.
Or East Norfolk Sixth Form College, which runs many programmes to increase social value, including holiday schemes for children on free school meals.
These stories featured in our report illustrate the sector’s transformative power, but they also highlight a challenge. Too often, our understanding of impact rests on isolated case studies rather than systematic evidence.
Why now?
The white paper’s emphasis on evidence and workforce excellence offers an opportunity to embed social value into the fabric of FE and skills. A shared measurement framework would allow providers to demonstrate impact consistently, informing smarter investment decisions, and strengthening the sector’s voice in national policy debates.
It would also help us identify what works best, for whom, and under what circumstances, enabling us to scale success.
Currently, longitudinal data capture in FE and skills is rare. While some organisations, such as Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, have quantified social value, these examples are exceptions.
We need sector-wide collaboration to develop common metrics, improve data collection, and build a national knowledge base. This is not about adding bureaucracy; it is about ensuring that the sector’s contribution is visible, valued and resourced.
A shared framework
ETF is committed to working with providers, practitioners and policymakers to make this happen. By embedding social value into institutional planning, workforce development and funding decisions, we can ensure it becomes a deliberate outcome of how we operate, rather than just a welcome consequence.
Aligning this approach with a national workforce strategy will be key to recruiting, retaining and developing the professionals who deliver this impact every day.
The FE and skills sector is an engine for inclusive growth and innovation. But to realise its full potential we must move from inspiring stories to a robust, systematic understanding of our impact.
In doing so, we can ensure the sector is widely, and rightly, recognised not just for the qualifications it delivers, but for the lives it changes, the communities it strengthens and the national ambitions it supports.
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