Financial Times: Colleges in England struggle to find teachers for critical skills subjects

An AoC survey commissioned by the Financial Times has highlighted the recruitment and retention crisis in colleges.

Of institutions surveyed by AoC:

• 85% reported shortages in construction courses
• 78% in engineering
• 62% in IT and computing.

“Colleges want to pay their staff more, and they absolutely would if they could” – @AoCDavidH on research ran exclusively by AoC for the @FT, which highlights how colleges in England are struggling to find teachers for critical skills subjects. https://t.co/HrbBBkGa56 [£] pic.twitter.com/x9vO3JQS01

— Association of Colleges (AoC) (@AoC_info) August 1, 2022

The survey also found:

• Around three-quarters of colleges in England are unable to recruit the staff needed to teach technical and digital subjects
• Three-quarters of colleges said the main reason they were struggling to fill positions was that qualified candidates have been offered better pay elsewhere
• 40% reported being forced to cancel courses because of a lack of staff.

Photo credit: leomarco\Flickr (Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)