"Preparing for the Skills & Workforce Your Organisation Will Need"

Across Post‑16 education, one question is being asked with increasing urgency: do we have the workforce we will need to deliver for learners, employers and communities in the years ahead? 

For leaders in FE, HE, skills and training, and offender learning, this is no longer a distant, future‑facing concern. Persistent skills gaps, ageing workforces, difficulty recruiting to specialist roles and growing delivery pressures are already shaping what is operationally possible today. At the same time, employers are looking to education providers not only to develop talent, but to work with them more closely to meet shared workforce challenges. 

The challenge now is not simply filling vacancies. It is about how organisations prepare strategically for the skills and workforce they will need, while remaining resilient in the face of constant change. 

A systemic workforce challenge 

Much of the conversation around workforce shortages tends to focus on immediate recruitment difficulties. While these pressures are real, they can obscure a more fundamental issue. Across Post‑16 education, workforce challenges are rarely isolated to individual roles or organisations. Instead, they reflect system‑wide dynamics shaped by funding constraints, policy shifts, changing learner demographics and escalating employer demand for skills. 

As a result, many organisations find themselves in a reactive cycle, responding to shortages as they arise rather than shaping a longer‑term response. This is particularly acute in specialist teaching areas, leadership pipelines and offender learning environments, where the availability of talent is increasingly constrained. Breaking this cycle requires a different way of thinking, one that sees workforce planning as a strategic priority rather than a purely operational issue. 

From addressing skills gaps to building sustainable pipelines 

One of the most important shifts organisations can make is moving from responding to skills gaps towards intentionally building skills pipelines. This means looking beyond immediate vacancies and considering what roles, capabilities and capacity will be critical over the next three to five years. 

For many Post‑16 providers, the foundations of these pipelines already exist. Learners themselves represent a potential future workforce, particularly where clear progression routes into teaching, support and leadership roles are visible. Industry professionals, meanwhile, often hold valuable specialist expertise but need structured pathways and support to transition into education. Early‑career talent increasingly seeks purpose‑led work and development opportunities, while those with lived experience can bring distinctive insight and impact, particularly within offender learning. 

Developing these pipelines takes time and coordination, but it offers a far more sustainable alternative to relying solely on short‑term recruitment in a competitive labour market. 

This is where employability activity becomes strategic, not just a learner outcome.

Through our employability sessions with Post‑16 providers, we work directly with learners to build confidence, readiness and a clearer understanding of career pathways. These sessions are designed in partnership with providers to reflect local market needs and employer expectations, helping learners to see tangible routes into education, training and employment - including progression into the sector itself. When employability is aligned with workforce planning, providers are able to connect learner success with long‑term workforce sustainability. 

Rethinking employer–education collaboration 

Employer engagement has long been a feature of Post‑16 education, but preparing for future workforce need demands a deeper level of collaboration. Too often, engagement is limited to transactional activity, such as placements or curriculum consultation. While valuable, this does little to address wider workforce sustainability. 

More progressive organisations are moving towards co‑creation. This involves working with employers to design roles, pathways and progression models that work for both education and industry. It may include developing hybrid roles that allow individuals to move between sectors, supporting educators to maintain industry currency, or aligning curriculum more closely with genuine labour market demand. 

In offender learning in particular, effective collaboration is critical. Linking education provision to real employment opportunities requires close partnership between providers, employers and justice organisations, with workforce planning at the centre of those relationships. 

Early talent is vital - but retention is equally critical 

Attracting new entrants into the sector is essential, but it will not solve workforce challenges on its own. Many of the pressures facing Post‑16 education are intensified by retention issues, limited progression opportunities and unclear career pathways. 

Organisations that are making meaningful progress are those taking a more holistic view of workforce development. They recognise that staff are far more likely to stay and grow where they can see how their future fits within the organisation. Clear pathways into leadership, specialist roles and broader professional development help to create stability, reduce churn and protect institutional knowledge. 

This approach also supports diversity and inclusion, ensuring that opportunity is embedded across the workforce rather than concentrated in narrow routes. 

Workforce planning as a leadership responsibility 

One of the consistent themes we see across the sector is that workforce planning often sits too far downstream. It is frequently treated as a function of HR or recruitment, rather than a shared leadership responsibility. 

Preparing for the workforce your organisation will need involves embedding workforce considerations into strategic planning, growth decisions, employer partnerships and investment priorities. While this does not require perfect forecasting, it does require alignment. When leaders across curriculum, operations, HR and partnerships share a common view of future workforce need, organisations are far better placed to act proactively rather than reactively. 

A different perspective on workforce challenges 

At The Protocol Group, we view workforce challenges not simply as problems to be solved, but as opportunities to rethink how talent flows into and through Post‑16 education. Through our work across recruitment, workforce planning, partnerships and employability, we see first‑hand the impact of taking a more connected, system‑level approach. 

This thinking underpins initiatives such as the Future Workforce Lab, which brings together education leaders, employers and sector partners to explore practical, collaborative responses to workforce challenges. The aim is not to offer one‑size‑fits‑all solutions, but to create space for insight, experimentation and shared learning across the sector. 

Preparing now for what comes next 

The organisations best positioned for the future are not those claiming to have all the answers, but those asking better questions earlier. Preparing for the skills and workforce your organisation will need is not a one‑off exercise; it is an ongoing conversation informed by data, partnership and purpose. 

For leaders across FE, HE, skills and training, and offender learning, the challenge now is to move beyond reactive responses and towards intentional, partnership‑led workforce preparation. That shift will ultimately determine not just workforce resilience, but the ability of Post‑16 education to deliver lasting impact for learners, employers and communities. 

Take the next step 

If workforce shortages, succession risk or fragile skills pipelines are already affecting your organisation, now is the time to act. 

The Protocol Group works alongside Post‑16 education leaders to deliver end‑to‑end workforce solutions - from targeted recruitment and strategic workforce planning, to employer partnerships and embedded employability sessions that strengthen future talent pipelines. 

If you are ready to move from discussion to action, start a conversation with us. Together, we can help you prepare for the skills and workforce your organisation will need, not just next year, but for the future. 

Contact The Protocol Group to explore how we can support your workforce and employability strategy.