Further education and skills data from DfE – Academic Year 2021/22

Department for Education have released full-year final data on adult (19+) further education and skills in England for the 2021/22 academic year (August 2021 to July 2022)

The further education and skills data includes apprenticeships and traineeships in the overall FE and skills numbers, but statistics relevant to apprenticeships and traineeships can be viewed here.

Data in this release covers a period affected by varying COVID-19 restrictions, which will have impacted on FE provision and also provider reporting behaviour via the Individualised Learner Record. Therefore, extra care should be taken in comparing and interpreting data presented in this release.

Latest figures for the 2021/22 Academic year:

Key points:

Adult government-funded further education and skills participation including apprenticeships increased by 4.8% to 1,719,600 compared to 1,640,300 in the same period in 2020/21.

Of the 1,719,600 adult learners participating in 2021/22:

• Females account for 61.0% (1,048,800).
• Higher level (level 4 or above) participation increased by 12.7%, to 245,100 from 217,500 in 2020/21.
• Adult education and training participation increased by 1.0% to 878,500 compared to 869,600 in 2020/21.
• Community learning participation increased by 24.9% to 304,400 compared to 243,700 in 2020/21.

Read DfE’s Further Education and skills 2021/22 full data here and previous academic year data 2020/21 can be viewed here.