“These stark findings underline the major challenges faced by the college sector. As outlined by this report, severe real-terms cuts by the government to post-16 education funding have made it incredibly difficult for college leaders to allocate more money for pay awards.
“This has led directly to the recruitment and retention crisis the college sector now faces. It is simply not sustainable to have nearly half of all teachers leaving after three years. The fact that just one quarter remain in the profession after 10 years should also be a source of great concern. Colleges need to be able to retain and develop staff with a wide range of specialist and technical skills. It is vital that they are able to do so to maintain their current provision let alone deliver the new suite of T-levels that the government bills as a revolution in technical education. It will be very difficult for T-levels to be a success with such high rates of teacher churn.
“A significant increase in the level of funding available is required to ensure colleges can afford the pay awards necessary to retain teachers. Without this investment the government is letting down colleges, staff and students.”