The proportion of FE and skills providers that hold Ofsted’s top two ratings boosted significantly in the final year of the watchdog’s ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’ grading system – with independent providers scoring the most notable rise, figures show.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver published the inspectorate’s latest annual stocktake of education performance this morning.
It is the last report that includes the old-style grading system. Overall headline grades have now been removed and the watchdog will grade colleges in up to 16 individual areas on a five-point scale from ‘exceptional’, ‘strong standard’ and ‘expected standard’ to ‘needs attention’ and ‘urgent improvement’.
Here, FE Week analyses the final data set for the old-style system.
Quality rises across the whole sector
As of August 31, 2025, 1,663 FE and skills providers held an Ofsted grade and of those, 88 per cent (1,461) held either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.
This is a 6 percentage point rise compared to the same date in 2024, when 82 per cent of all providers across the sector was rated in the top two categories for overall effectiveness.
The overall number of providers to achieve ‘outstanding’ rose from 161 to 188 over the same period.
Marked improvement for ITPs and employers
The proportion of independent training providers to hold either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ rose from 76 per cent in 2024 to 84 per cent in 2025.
Employer providers saw a similar rise, moving from 85 per cent with the top two grades to 92 per cent.
Apprenticeship quality is also continuing to rise.
Last year’s stats showed that of the 1,241 providers that had a judgment on their apprenticeship provision, 81 per cent were judged good or outstanding for apprenticeships at their most recent full inspection or were judged to be making at least reasonable progress at their new provider monitoring visit.
This proportion increased 7 percentage points to 88 per cent as of the end of August 2025.
Colleges also get an upgrade
Of England’s 152 general FE colleges, 86 per cent held either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ as of August 31, 2025 – up from 84 per cent the year before. This was mostly driven by a rise in ‘outstanding’ judgments, which went up from 10 to 14 over the period.
One college – Furness College – ended 2025 holding Ofsted’ lowest rating of ‘inadequate’.
Meanwhile, the proportion of sixth form colleges with the top two judgments rose from 95 per cent to 97 per cent.
One sixth form college held ‘requires improvement’ – Cirencester College – and none held ‘inadequate’.
Other provider types
Independent specialist colleges saw a significant improvement boost.
Of the 118 with an Ofsted grade, 105 (89 per cent) held the top two grades, an increase of 9 percentage points. Just one independent specialist college – Langdon College – was judged ‘inadequate’.
Meanwhile, 143 adult community providers, which includes local authority services and the institutes of adult learning, held an Ofsted grade as of August 31, 2025.
Nearly all, 139, were graded ‘good’ or better. Overall, 97 per cent of adult community providers were ‘good or better’ – up from 96 per cent the previous year.
The new data showed that 102 higher education institutions had an overall Ofsted grade by the end of August 2025. Of those, 97 (95 per cent) were judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, an increase of 2 percentage points compared with August 31, 2024.
Prison woes continue
Ofsted’s report also noted “too many” prison leaders had failed to improve the quality of education in the secure estate.
Over one fifth (22 per cent) of the 35 prisons it inspected this year had received a lower overall grade, and over half (51 per cent) remained the same. Only nine prisons had an improved rating but not a single prison or young offender’s institute was judged ‘outstanding’.
Ofsted also warned that neurodiverse prisoners in work or studying vocational education did not access the same level of support as other prisoners with learning difficulties.
And the watchdog slammed prison leaders’ inappropriate allocation of space as it limited prisoners’ access to a full, “purposeful” day of work or education.
“This severely limited their chances to prepare well for employment on release,” it said.
Inspectors saw AI’s ‘negative impact’…
Today’s Ofsted annual report included a section on artificial intelligence for the first time.
“Very few” inspectors who had seen the use of AI during inspection felt “the way providers were using it was improving outcomes”, a July survey found.
Ofsted said it was “concerning” some said AI was having “a negative impact” and but only a “small minority” of inspectors have seen safeguarding concerns relating to the technology.
The watchdog said the survey of inspectors confirms “there is a gap in research around the impact of AI on outcomes”.
Inspectors’ biggest concerns about AI are around governance and impact.
…and leaders have their concerns too
Some school and college leaders “have concerns about maintaining educational integrity” with the rapid pace of AI development and the number of tools being developed.
Ofsted said there was an “abundance of tools that can promise solutions to the challenges they and their staff face” but leaders told them in some cases products are “over-sold and under-developed”.
AI is mainly used to reduce teachers’ workload. Some settings have developed their own AI chatbots, which respond to questions children may have.
Several school and college leaders said teachers use AI to adapt or summarise suitable texts to match children’s reading levels, rather than spending time searching the internet for relevant source material at an appropriate level.
But many leaders said using AI directly with pupils was still in “its infancy”.
Ofsted warned leaders need “robust governance to manage” the ethical risks of AI and to “keep users safe”.
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