Recruitment and Retention in the Post-16 Learning and Skills Sector

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• difficulty recruiting younger staff – there is a perception by staffthat further education colleges are having difficulty recruitingyounger teacher/trainers. This is believed to be having the effect ofcreating a ‘top heavy’ staffing structure in terms of the age profile.Particular concerns among younger staff are that they will not beable to progress as quickly as they desire. This is illustrated by thefollowing comment, “people are looking at coming into teaching asa recruitment option and something to do in their retirement years.We need younger blood in our department [Further Education]”;• lack of suitable applicants to vacancies – concern has beenexpressed across the sector about the lack of applicants tovacancies with both the right personality and level of teachingqualifications and experience. There is a perception that applicantsdo not have the necessary teaching qualifications or experience tobe deemed as suitable candidates for job vacancies, “we hadpeople who we felt could cope but didn’t have the necessaryqualifications” [Further Education];• status – the status of the sector, and in particular the (negative)perception of further education compared to schools has beenhighlighted as an issue that is likely to impact on recruitment -affecting the potential number of applicants to vacancies, “from anoutsider’s point of view they think that staff are maligned,disrespected, underpaid and overworked” [Further Education].5.32 Qualitative work focussing specifically on maths and science teachersfound that factors causing recruitment problems in maths and scienceinclude; fewer than expected candidates applying for posts, a lack of‘quality’ candidates applying for vacancies, competition from the schoolsector and difficulty in recruiting part-time staff.5.33 Some perspectives from respondents which characterise these viewsinclude:• “we have difficulty recruiting part-time staff in science” [FurtherEducation];• “within biology it is hard to get teachers into the sector, with fewapplications per post and most applicants lacking the drive orteaching ability” [Further Education];• “we have issues in recruiting maths teachers, with few candidatesapplying for vacancies. Those that do, tend not to have the rightskills” [Further Education];• “we have problems in maths and science recruitment becausegraduates go into schools” [Further Education];47
• “there is a shortage of maths tutors. Part-time contracts are notthat attractive” [Adult And Community Learning].Summary5.34 Key issues relating to vacancies and hard to fill vacancies are as follows:• there was a 10% turnover of teaching staff in FE. This comparesfavourably with other sectors. Most teachers leaving their postwere taking a post in another FE college.• the level of vacancies is low in colleges (2%), with only 11% ofcolleges indicating a rate of more than 5% of teaching/ staff.Although, nearly two fifths of colleges (38%) are experiencing hardto fill vacancies;• two fifths of staff (40%) are aware of recruitment difficulties withintheir organisation. This was higher amongst managers comparedwith other members of staff. Staff working in further educationcolleges were more likely to be aware of recruitment difficulties(50%) than respondents in all other organisations;• subjects where staff/HR Managers feel recruitment difficulties aremost acute include health/social care and public services,engineering, construction, business administration;• the most common response to recruitment difficulties was to usestaff from within the organisation to cover the job role. In a smallernumber of cases, respondents indicated the use of agency coverand different advertising mediums;• just over half of staff respondents (51%) felt that the measurestaken by the organisation to cover vacancies when recruitment hadnot been successful were very or fairly effective. Teachers ofscience, English and maths were least likely to agree thatrecruitment measures had been effective;• the majority of HR Managers (86%) believe that measures to coverhard to fill vacancies have been effective;• a quarter of staff respondents felt that better pay would minimiserecruitment difficulties with one in ten suggesting improvements inadvertising would be beneficial;• other factors mentioned by staff which might cause recruitmentdifficulties included job insecurity, difficulties of recruiting youngstaff, lack of suitable applicants and the negative view of the sector;48
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RESEARCHRecruitment and Retention i
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ContentsPage1 INTRODUCTION ........
Page 5 and 6: of respondents), closely followed b
Page 7 and 8: 32. Key concerns where resources we
Page 9 and 10: 52. The most common qualification h
Page 11 and 12: Definitions1.5 A number of terms ha
Page 13 and 14: • at what point in their career t
Page 15 and 16: 1.16 Key question areas relevant to
Page 17 and 18: 2 METHODOLOGY AND PROFILE OF RESPON
Page 19 and 20: 2.13 Prior to the main survey, a fu
Page 21 and 22: Ethnic Background2.22 Nine out of t
Page 23 and 24: Types of Provision2.26 In addition
Page 25 and 26: Table 2.10: What are the main subje
Page 27 and 28: • HR Managers views on the reason
Page 29 and 30: Table 2.15: Total StaffStatus ‘Oc
Page 31 and 32: 2.44 A total of 113 in-depth interv
Page 33 and 34: 3 MOTIVATION TO JOIN THE SECTOR3.1
Page 35 and 36: Entrants from Teaching3.13 Responde
Page 37 and 38: Vocational Reasons3.21 This is the
Page 39 and 40: • “I met one of the managers at
Page 41 and 42: Perceptions of Entry Routes4.6 A ma
Page 43 and 44: 4.13 In terms of finding suitable c
Page 45 and 46: 5 TURNOVER, VACANCIES AND HARD TO F
Page 47 and 48: 5.11 The major reason given for vac
Page 49 and 50: 5.16 Generally HR Managers did not
Page 51 and 52: Maths and Science• “there are i
Page 53 and 54: 5.27 Teacher/trainer respondents we
Page 55: Table 5.7: What could your organisa
Page 59 and 60: 6 WORKING IN THE SECTOR6.1 This sec
Page 62 and 63: 6.9 Respondents working in further
Page 64 and 65: Figure 6.4: Respondents satisfied w
Page 66 and 67: Staff Who Have Considered Leaving6.
Page 68 and 69: Figure 6.7: Respondents who have ap
Page 70 and 71: • levels of satisfaction with the
Page 72 and 73: Figure 7.1: Respondents satisfied w
Page 74 and 75: Staff Attitudes7.8 Respondents were
Page 76 and 77: 7.14 Younger employees aged 18 to 3
Page 78 and 79: Personal Problems7.20 Respondents w
Page 80 and 81: • lack of administrative support.
Page 82 and 83: 8 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT8.1 Succe
Page 84 and 85: 8.8 Issues relating to involvement
Page 86 and 87: • quality. A minority of responde
Page 88 and 89: Table 8.2: Which Teaching Qualifica
Page 90 and 91: 9 GOVERNMENT STRATEGY9.1 Research t
Page 92 and 93: Table 9.3: To what extent do you ag
Page 94 and 95: 10 CONCLUSIONS10.1 Recruitment and
Page 96 and 97: Main Benefits and Drawbacks of Work
Page 98 and 99: ANNEX AQUESTIONNAIRES
Page 100 and 101: Section A: Background informationAS
Page 102 and 103: 6) Have any teaching posts been fil
Page 104 and 105: CATI NOTE: routing from Q10 has bee
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Q16a) And what is the main reason,
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22) In which subjects are teaching
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ASK IF YES AT Q25 A) OR C), OTHERS
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33) To what extent do you agree or
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DfES Recruitment and Retention Surv
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8. Are your standard weekly working
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• 5- less than 10• 10- less tha
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• Any other training (please spec
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28. What motivates you personally t
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ASK ALL32. How satisfied or dissati
Page 126 and 127:
ASK ALL CODES 1-7 AT Q41, OTHERS (N
Page 128 and 129:
49. To which of the following group
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Recruitment and Retention in the Post-16 Learning and Skills Sector

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