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Abstract
‘Further education’ (FE) is a substantial sector in the education system in England. It has funding of approximately £8 billion annually and educates close to three million students. Within the sector are 231 FE colleges which provide a range of courses that are typically vocational/skills-based. They vary in scale and scope with the largest colleges having a turnover in excess of £100 million and over 15,000 students. For a variety of reasons, the FE sector is experiencing various pressures which are presenting FE college governors with a range of significant, substantial, simultaneous and synergistic challenges. In this article we describe and analyse the challenges and the implications. We make the point that these challenges are in addition to FE governors’ ongoing governing work. For FE governing bodies, the challenges may prove to be overwhelming and so they may proceed with undue caution. On the other hand, they may be an opportunity for governing bodies to strengthen college governance and leadership creatively and to enhance opportunities for their learners – again creatively - for the benefit of their communities.
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