Guidance

Support for FE and sixth-form colleges

Professional development, support and guidance to improve the performance of FE and sixth-form colleges.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 29 April 2019
• Last updated: 27 February 2020 — See all updates

Applies to England

FE Commissioner

The FE Commissioner helps colleges to:

• identify and resolve educational quality and financial issues
• access support from outstanding colleges
• apply for improvement funding

College oversight: support and intervention explains how the FE Commissioner and ESFA support colleges to improve financial resilience and educational quality.

College collaboration fund

The college collaboration fund (CCF) supports groups of colleges to collaborate, develop and share sector-led approaches to quality improvement.

Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)

The ESFA works with colleges at risk of failure to:

• improve their offering to students
• solve financial problems

College governance

For support and guidance on college governance, see:

• Further education corporations and sixth-form college corporations: governance guide
• National Leaders of Governance for further education: guidance
• support for governor recruitment from the Education & Training Foundation

Professional development

The Education & Training Foundation offers teaching and leadership programmes for FE:

• principals and chief executive officers (CEOs)
• finance directors and chief finance officers (CFOs)
• middle managers
• college chairs
• college governors

Teacher recruitment

The Taking Teaching Further programme helps FE providers to:

• recruit experienced industry professionals
• support ongoing engagement with industry

T Levels and technical education

T Levels

The Education & Training Foundation is developing T Level support programmes for colleges preparing for the introduction of T Levels in 2020.

These programmes will:

• develop teachers’ subject and industry knowledge
• help leaders and teachers to prepare for change

Industry Placement Capacity and Delivery Fund

The Industry Placement Capacity and Delivery Fund helps colleges to deliver placements for 16 to 19 year olds.

Maths teaching

Basic Maths Centres for Excellence help colleges to develop and trial improved approaches to teaching maths up to Level 2 for learners over 16.

Careers advice

Guidance is available on giving careers support to FE students.

Published 29 April 2019
Last updated 27 February 2020 + show all updates

1. 27 February 2020

   Added information about the college collaboration fund (CFF).

2. 29 April 2019

   First published.