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 \nNational Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)  \nInvestigating job roles in the further education workforce  \nMaria Pia Iocco and Jenna Julius  \nPublished in March 2026  \nBy the National Foundation for Educational Research, The Mere, Upton Park, Slough, Berkshire SL1 2DQ [www.nfer.ac.uk/](www.nfer.ac.uk/)  \n© 2026 National Foundation for Educational Research Registered Charity No. 313392  \nISBN: 978-1-916567-54-2  \nHow to cite this publication:  \nIocco, M. P. and Julius, J. (2026) Investigating job roles in the further education workforce. Slough: NFER  \n.  \nContents  \nExecutive Summary ............................................................................... i  \n1. Introduction .................................................................................... 1  \n2. What are the different job roles used across the FE workforce? .....3  \n3. What are the characteristics of individuals in different job roles in the FE workforce? ........................................................................ 10  \n4. How do salaries differ across the FE workforce?.......................... 19  \n5. Conclusions .................................................................................28  \nReferences .........................................................................................29  \nTechnical Appendix .............................................................................30  \nAdditional data tables ..........................................................................32  \nAcknowledgements  \nWe would like to thank The Gatsby Charitable Foundation for funding and commissioning this project in such an important area of research. We are particularly grateful to Jenifer Burden and Dr Rory McDonald at The Gatsby Charitable Foundation for all of their invaluable advice, input and guidance.  \nThis work contains statistical data from ONS which is Crown Copyright. The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates.  \nExecutive Summary  \nStrengthening teacher recruitment and retention is a key tenet of the ambitions set out in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper (HM Government, 2025) . However, efforts to address barriers to recruitment and retention in FE can be challenged by the complexity and variety of job roles across the sector. For example, efforts to target support towards particular roles or enhance training across the FE sector maybe more challenging when organisations have more varied staffing structures.  \nThis research draws on the Further Education Workforce Data Collection (FEWDC) to explore this issue and provide a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the range of job roles1 and characteristics in the FE workforce2. While we refer to the ‘FE workforce’ as a shorthand, this report focuses on teaching and support staff3 on fixed-term or permanent contracts working in General FE colleges45 only.  \nIt aims to support understanding of job roles and explore the potential for greater streamlining across roles to bolster recruitment and retention across the sector. For example, greater streamlining across  \n1 As defined by a job role framework developed by York Consulting for the FE workforce (see Table 1) .  \n2 We focus on staff in permanent or fixed-term contracts in General FE colleges as recorded by the 2021/22 and 2022/23 FEWDC.  \n3 Senior leadership roles are not included in our analysis. We identify around  \n60,000 FE staff per year in our study scope.  \nroles could provide clearer progression pathways and support targeted development, which may in turn improve the retention of staff in FE.  \nWhat are the different job roles used across the FE workforce?  \n• Teachers are the largest ","cbCaiqeaistqTn0c","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqeaistqTn0c","pdf",947589,"English","# Executive Summary\n# Introduction\n# What are the different job roles used across the FE workforce?\n# What are the characteristics of individuals in different job roles in the FE workforce?\n# How do salaries differ across the FE workforce?\n# Conclusions\n# References\n# Technical Appendix\n## Additional data tables","[{\"question\":\"What data source does the report use to study FE job roles?\",\"answer\":\"The report draws on the Further Education Workforce Data Collection (FEWDC) to provide a quantitative assessment of job roles and individual characteristics in the FE workforce.\"},{\"question\":\"Which staff groups are included in the analysis?\",\"answer\":\"The analysis focuses on teaching and support staff on fixed-term or permanent contracts working in General FE colleges, and excludes senior leadership roles.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the report consider streamlining job roles important?\",\"answer\":\"Streamlining could clarify progression pathways, support targeted development, and improve recruitment and retention outcomes by reducing complexity across roles.\"}]","The NFER Research Programme - Investigating job roles in the further education workforce - Executive Summary | PDF",1792057312,101]