New AI analysis deepens understanding of FE recruitment challenges

A new analysis by SchoolDash, supported by Gatsby, applies updated AI to explore recruitment trends in Further Education (FE), drawing on job adverts posted to the AoC Jobs platform.

Building on work first shared in November 2024, this new analysis adds a further year of job advert data, improved methods and a more sophisticated Large Language Model (LLM) to provide a richer picture of FE college recruitment in recent years.  

The updated study analysed nearly 171,000 adverts across 234 employers posted between May 2022 and December 2025. Of these, 48,681 adverts came from 155 identifiable FE employers, corresponding to more than 70% of FE colleges.  

By applying AI to the text of recruitment adverts, SchoolDash have extracted rich insights into FE recruitment trends, with a focus on role type, subject, contract terms, benefits, salary, qualifications and repeat advertising.  

Key findings 

• Support roles made up the largest share of FE college recruitment adverts in the period, accounting for 53% of vacancies. Teaching roles accounted for 45%, while leadership roles made up less than 1%.  

• Construction and engineering were the most commonly sought subject groups for teaching roles – but significant variation by region was noted.  

• Most vacancies were for permanent positions, and part-time working was more common in teaching vacancies than in other role types.  

• The analysis gives a richer picture of what colleges offer candidates. Pensions, training, parking, leave and wellbeing time were among the most commonly mentioned benefits. Flexible working was mentioned in around 40% of adverts and was more common in support roles than in teaching or leadership roles  

• Salaries varied by role type. Support roles were generally advertised in the £20,000–£30,000 range, teaching roles in the £30,000–£40,000 range, and leadership roles most commonly around £55,000–£70,000, with much wider variation.  

• Repeat advertising remains a concern. Using a newer semantic similarity model, SchoolDash estimates that repeat advertising rates rose from around 25% in 2022 to around 35% in 2025, suggesting that many vacancies are not being filled first time.  

Many of the broad patterns identified in the earlier study remain: colleges continue to advertise heavily for teaching roles, most vacancies are permanent and full-time, and repeat advertising remains high. But the larger dataset and improved AI methods also reveal new detail, including a clearer picture of support roles, benefits, flexible working and salary trends.  

For the full analysis by Timo Hannay, Founder of SchoolDash, read the SchoolDash blog here.