Going further: further education, disadvantage and social mobility

As the UK labour market faces challenges on multiple fronts, the Further Education (FE) sector is identified as a potential source of solutions, alongside Higher Education (HE). FE plays a key role between compulsory level schooling and HE, providing important vocational and technical skills needed of their workers by employers in the labour market, as well as providing a potential route to higher level study for those who have chosen not to go down the academic route, perhaps due to lower attainment in the compulsory phase of education. The aim of this report is to look at previous cohorts of learners, to demonstrate the extent to which the FE sector, and FE Colleges in particular, have been successful in leading to well-paid employment, and facilitating progression to HE.

In addition, the FE sector has a role to play in social mobility. Young people from a more disadvantaged background have been shown to be more likely to undertake further learning in the FE sector, rather than the traditional academic route of A levels and HE, which we provide further evidence for in this report. Whether FE Colleges can boost social mobility therefore depends on whether young people from a more disadvantaged background have better outcomes relative to their more advantaged peers in FE Colleges than in Sixth Form Schools. If this is the case, then FE Colleges, where the disadvantaged are more likely to attend, can play in key role in narrowing differentials across socio-economic backgrounds. Whether this is the case is a key part of the analysis presented here. This report will therefore present various pieces of evidence relating to the relationship between FE participation and outcomes such as access to well-paid employment and HE progression.

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