Going Further: Be part of a new Research Cohort on Engagement in FE

Colleges change lives, open doors, and power communities. With 1.6 million people studying in Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges across England, they are a vital part of our education system, yet too often overlooked in national conversations about education and improvement.

At ImpactEd Group, we're committed to changing that.

Introducing Going Further

Building on our growing body of research and evaluation in schools, we are proud to broaden our focus to introduce Going Further. By working in partnership with the sector, we aim to strengthen the evidence base, develop and test measures to explore engagement as a lead indicator for college outcomes and provide benchmarked insights for leaders.

A New Research Cohort for FE and Sixth Form

As part of this commitment, we're launching a Research Cohort on Student and Staff Engagement in Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges.

The challenge is clear: despite ongoing efforts to support student success in post-16 education, leaders are tackling attendance and retention without a shared measure of engagement. With student attendance lower in FE than in secondary schools, and persistent concerns about staff morale and retention, we need better, evidence-based insights to drive action.

Our previous work, including the largest study of student engagement in English schools, involving over 100,000 pupils, demonstrated that engagement can be a lead indicator of attendance and attainment. Now, we're extending this conversation into the post-16 sector.

The Questions We're Asking

The new Research Cohort will look at critical questions that matter to college leaders, staff, and learners:

• If engagement is a "lead indicator" in schools, an early warning sign for attendance and attainment, what might the equivalent signals look like in colleges?

• Which groups of learners in post-16 education are most at risk of disengagement, and how can evidence help leaders target support before motivation drops away?

• What's the relationship between staff engagement and student engagement in colleges? In schools, they rise and fall together, is it the same here?

• How do transitions affect engagement? The school study shows sharp declines between phases, what does that mean for the step into post-16 learning?

What the Research Cohort Will Deliver

The Research Cohort has five key aims:

• Establish a shared language and framework for understanding engagement in FE, covering both learners and staff

• Develop and test measures to explore engagement as a potential lead indicator for attendance, retention, and progression

• Oversee a national cohort study to gather large-scale evidence across FE and Sixth Form colleges

• Analyse and share findings through benchmarking reports and actionable insights

• Provide practical tools that participants and leaders can use immediately to improve outcomes

Participants will take part in two census windows with colleges receiving detailed engagement reports that benchmark their data against the national picture.

Join the Research Cohort

We're looking for strategic partners and motivated college leaders to join us, to help shape the research methodology, guide data collection, and contribute to public outputs that will be shared freely with the sector.

This is your opportunity to:

• Understand the dynamics of engagement for students and staff in FE

• Access benchmarked engagement data for your setting

• Join a coalition driving solutions to some of FE's biggest challenges

• Apply insights to improve outcomes in your context

Interested in joining the Research Cohort or learning more about the work? Get in touch to discuss how your college or organisation can take part.

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