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Written question asked by Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 8 December 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 10 December 2025. It was answered by Josh MacAlister (Labour) on Thursday, 8 January 2026 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Further Education

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of (a) national progression rates from foundation to other low-level courses in colleges and (b) employment outcomes from those rates.

Answer

Progression rates for further education achievers aged 16+ at Below Level 2 and Essential Skills into sustained further learning (by level of learning destination) between 2018/19 and 2022/23 in i) England, ii) Dorset and iii) the South West are shown in the following tables:

i) https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/3acffd22-b6d1-481d-b22c-08de39895a0e.

ii) https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/9b40b83c-6389-4dd5-b22d-08de39895a0e.

iii) https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/de6ade41-7b19-4818-4a4b-08de398c3998.

The department does not publish data on employment outcomes for learners progressing to other lower-level learning from foundation courses, but it does publish sustained employment outcome rates for learners achieving at Below Level 2 and in Essential Skills between 2018/19 and 2022/23 in England, as shown in the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/aa7ce8db-5a14-4898-4a4c-08de398c3998.

These statistics are available in the ‘Further education outcomes’ publication. This answer is based on the latest statistics that were released on 18 December 2025 and can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcomes/2022-23. The next update to this series will be published in November 2026.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
98166
Session
2024-26
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Employment Further education
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk