Poor pay in further education is causing shortages in teachers training the next generation of workers in some of England’s most high-demand sectors, researchers have warned.
A new report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) explores how college teacher roles in construction, engineering, and digital are seeing huge vacancy levels.
It points out that college teachers can earn much higher salaries in industry, and that they are paid nearly a quarter less than teachers in schools.
NFER economist and report co-author Dawson McLean criticised how despite FE playing a “key role” in the supply of skilled workers to industry, there has been a “historical lack of policy focus” on the sector’s teacher pay levels.
He said: “Worsening pay gaps with industry and school teachers, together with high workload, puts the FE workforce at a significant disadvantage for recruitment and retention.”
During the election, Labour pledged to cut overseas recruitment and immigration in priority occupations such as engineers by targeting training at sectors which are facing staff shortages.
However, this plan to invest in technical training appears not to apply to the FE workforce, as the newly elected Labour government decided to hand schools a £1.2 billion pot to help cover a 5.5 per cent salary boost for teachers, but not colleges.
A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson later told FE Week that this is due to the “very challenging fiscal context” and partly because FE does not have a pay review body in the same way as schools.
Increase pay to match school teachers
NFER’s report, funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, is based on interviews with 61 teachers and heads of department.
It also used FE workforce data on the 2021/22 academic year, published for the first time last summer, to estimate that FE teachers earn 23 per cent less than those in other parts of the education sector.
FE teachers of engineering and digital subjects were about 11 per cent lower than average earnings in their industry occupations, while construction earnings were about 3 per cent less (although this is likely to be an underestimation as researchers were unable to consider self-employment earnings).
Researchers found that in 2021/22, the average general FE college had 17, 14 and 10 unfilled vacancies per 100 teaching staff for construction, engineering and digital, respectively.
The average college had five unfilled vacancies per 100 staff for all other subjects, “suggesting that, while shortages of teaching staff are not unique to our three focus subjects, it appears to be considerably more of a challenge in these subjects than in many others”, according to the report.
It also said that financial responsibilities of younger workers mean they are generally less able to take the pay cut to move from industry into FE, driving an ageing workforce and worsening retention due to higher retirement rates.
The research goes on to suggest some college strategies designed to close industry pay gaps can in the longer term exacerbate the problem. Recruiting new teachers at the top of the pay scale can lead to subsequent poor pay progression, and impact on morale and retention.
Nearly half of FE teachers leave the profession within three years nationally.
The report authors are calling for FE teachers’ pay to increase “at a minimum” to match school teachers’.
They also urge the government to help colleges compete with better paying industries by reducing workload and pressure on FE teachers, which it called a “crucial contributor to poor retention”.
A DfE spokesperson told FE Week: “We recognise the vital role that FE teachers and providers play in equipping learners with the skills they need to seize opportunity and to drive growth in our economy.
“We are investing around £600 million in FE teachers across this financial year and the next, including retention payments for eligible early career FE teachers in key subject areas, and funding to support English and maths GCSE resits.
“Decisions on funding for further education will be taken as part of the forthcoming spending review.”
‘Demoralising and unfair‘
The National Education Union (NEU) is balloting its 2,500 sixth form college teacher members to strike over the 5.5 per cent pay award, which only applies to sixth forms that have converted to academy status.
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “Now is the time for the new Labour government to make good on its manifesto pledge of a comprehensive strategy in FE, which would include the extension of binding collective bargaining on pay and working conditions to the sector.
“It is the responsibility of the government to provide the requisite funding to close the pay gap between schools and colleges, ensuring that a crucial sector for economic growth can supply the skills needs of the future.”
Sam Parrett, principal and CEO of London South East Colleges, said the FE pay gap is “both demoralising and unfair” for teachers.
She added: “We cannot expect to solve the UK’s skills gap or boost our economy without addressing this issue.
“The longer this pay inequality persists, the harder it will be to deliver the high-quality education and training our students, employers, and the economy desperately need.”
An analysis of the same workforce data by the Institute for Financial Studies, published last year, found that the median salary for a school teacher is now around £41,500 while for college teachers it is £34,500.
FE teachers also saw a higher fall in real earnings than school teachers since 2010.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady warned that Labour will fail to deliver its “promised decade of renewal” without investment that closes the “outrageous” pay gap between college and school teachers.
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said: “Without skilled lecturers in colleges, skills shortages continue to grow, and the government will simply be unable to deliver on its manifesto commitments on new homes, net zero, a reformed NHS, productivity and economic growth.
“The government has an opportunity in the autumn budget to deliver a significant injection of funding into the sector. Introducing VAT relief for colleges, in the same way it does for schools and academies, would produce around £210 million a year.
“This could start to help to alleviate the severe recruitment and retention challenges.”
For those that have been around the sector for a while, statements from sector commentators are increasingly hollow and seem over-reliant on fashionable buzzwords.
For example, which organisation has recommended pay award percentages below inflation for around a decade, while spectacularly failing to lobby successfully to secure adequate funding for the sector.
It’s also worth remembering that the increasing proportions of staff on sessional and zero hours contracts are excluded from average wage calculations, so the reported salary gap between schools and FE is certain to be much wider than pumped out in the media…
No mention of the disgusting higher education pay that is even worse. The sector settled on 2.5% on average for all staff (more for the lowest paid staff). But universities with no money don’t need to implement it for 11 months so many in the short term will get 0%. Schools are lucky in terms of direct DfE funding and guaranteed income based on pupil numbers. Plus they are part funded to cover pension payments. Universities and colleges this is not the case. The whole of tertiary education needs a brand new state backed funding model. We have developed a two tier system and schools are now very much the privileged in the education sector.