Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the recruitment and retention of staff in further education colleges in (a) Milton Keynes and (b) Buckinghamshire.

The department recognises the vital role that further education (FE) staff and providers play in equipping learners with the opportunities and skills that they need to succeed in their education and to drive growth in our economy.

The department will be spending over £400 million more on 16 to 19 education in the 2025/26 financial year to ensure enough funding is available to respond to the significant increase in student numbers and other pressures on the system. We are making approximately £50 million of this funding available to colleges for April to July 2025 to respond to current priorities and challenges as they see fit, including workforce recruitment and retention.

In addition, the department is providing funding to colleges and schools to support them with increased National Insurance contributions, which will add a further £155 million to funding for post-16 education in the 2025/26 financial year.

The department’s Targeted Retention Incentive gives eligible early career teachers working in FE colleges in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and priority technical subjects up to £6,000 after tax annually, in addition to their usual pay. This includes those in eligible FE colleges in the Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire area.

The department has also continued to offer financial incentives for those undertaking teacher training for the FE sector in priority subject areas. FE teacher training bursaries will be offered for the 2025/26 academic year, and we have increased the top value of bursaries for STEM subjects to £31,000 each, tax free.

The national FE teacher recruitment campaign, Share Your Skills, targets those with industry skills to think about a career in FE teaching. The campaign raises awareness and increases consideration by encouraging industry professionals to think about using their skills to teach in FE.