Further education

For information, advice & guidance on choosing a course or career see our advice on learning page which lists various organisations to contact relevant to your requirements.

For more information on Adult & community education, see our Adult Education section

For information on community development, regeneration projects & community based learning, see our Community & Regeneration section

For infomation about financial education & financial literacy, including online resources, see our financial education page

For information on Higher Education courses, see our applying to Higher Education page

For careers & learning checklists on exams, applications & getting jobs, see our career calendars

• Access courses from UCAS - the main aim of Access programmes is to prepare adult learners from non-traditional backgrounds & under-represented groups for admission to undergraduate education (degrees, HNDs, Foundation degrees & other Higher Education qualifications).
  This database includes all the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) recognised Access programmes.The database includes more than 1000 Access programmes that are recognised and registered by QAA.
  
  
• Council for Dance - information about mainly larger dance & drama schools, also links to teachers' associations.
  
  
• Council for Independent Further Education - accredited independent sixth form & tutorial colleges.
  
  
• DfES school & college performance tables (up to 18 years only) - includes primary, secondary, school & college (16 - 18) & pupil absence tables.
  
  
• Further Education colleges & other learning opportunities in England - links to regional information from the Learning & Skills Council, includes work-based learning & opportunities in other post-16 sectors.
  
  
• Find a course - useful search facility from the BBC & Learndirect, with information also about qualifications & other support for people returning to learning.
  
  
• Further Education colleges in Northern Ireland - map & listing.
  
  
• Further Education Colleges in Scotland                    - map & A - Z listing.
  
  
• Further Education Colleges in Wales - links to colleges, site also lists colleges by type.
  
  
• learndirect - information on courses & learning opportunities, funding & also a number of free & inexpensive online courses.
  
  
• learndirect scotland - information on courses, funding childcare, careers, qualifications & advice.
  
  
• Learning & Skills Council - official LSC site, includes news, information, press notices, performance indicators, qualifications database including college inspection reports and funding issues for FE sector.
  
  
• Association of National Specialist Colleges - links to colleges for disabled students.
  
  
• Section97 Qualifications - approved qualifications for people over 19 in further education from August 2002, from Section 97 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, site also includes updates for 2004 in the additions page.
  
  
• SkillUp - learning opportunities to support small & medium sized businesses & employees in Scotland, also provides good business support information & links, comprehensive course & career information, guidance services in Scotland, a student guide to national qualifications in Scotland & relevant websites.
  
  
• UK colleges map - image map of England, Wales & Scotland.
  
  
• UK colleges - alphabetical list of colleges.
  
  
• University of the Highlands & Islands - includes a search for courses at all levels (including FE) in the North of Scotland, some open & distance learning.
  
  

• Association of Northern Ireland Colleges (ANIC) - policies, including equality issues, news, publications & diary.
  
  
• Association of Scottish Colleges - case studies, circulars, news, Scottish Parliament links and key facts.
  
  
• Adult Learning Inspectorate - including news, inspection reports and publications.
  
  
• Association of Northern Ireland Colleges - includes location map & links to colleges & other FE links.
  
  
• Association of Scottish Colleges - includes news, circulars and membership map.
  
  
• BBC Learning - sections for schools, colleges & adults & for learners & teachers with online resources, information & advice.
  
  
• BECTa - FE, community & lifelong learning - wide range of resources for students, staff & governors, including projects & focus groups, including FE Hub, FERL (Further Education Resources for Learning), NLN (National Learning Network), community programmes, careers education & guidance, events & awards.
  
  
• British Educational Research Association - information on activities & research, map of educational research, discussion area & web links, selected articles online, publications & archive material.
  
  
• Centre for Excellence in Leadership - learning programmes, events, research & for leaders & managers in post-16 learning & skills, including adult & community learning, sector news, coaching & mentoring & online discussion forums.
  
  
• Codes of Practice for the Disability Discrimination Act - including Parts lll and lV (SENDA).
  
  
• Equality and Diversity - guidance & reports from the Learning & Skills Council.
  
  
• FE Focus - regular news & articles on FE from the Times Educational Supplement.
  
  
• Federation of Professional Associations in Guidance - ethical principles, news, consultations, events & links.
  
  
• FENTO - Further Education National Training Organisation, includes news, resources library, research & development, consultations, information on teaching qualifications, FAQs & discussion area.
  
  
• FERL first - information for staff in post-compulsory education, providing key support, advice, information & resources for using & developing learning technologies, with large resource bank, sections on policies & strategies, also technology for e-learning, aimed at all staff including teaching, management, libraries & learning resource centres & other areas.
  
  
• FFORWM - Forum for Further Education in Wales - national "umbrella" organisation representing all Further Education Colleges in Wales, includes projects, staff development, European initiatives, CREDIS (FE credit accumulation system), curriculum newsgroups & links.
  
  
• Further Education Funding Council for Wales - publications, policies, statistics and reports.
  
  
• Further Education National Consortium - projects, news, services developing learning approaches & materials in FE.
  
  
• Guidance on Disclosure, Confidentiality and Passing on Information for post-16 providers implementing the DDA - guidance on the Disability Discrimination Act, pdf format.
  
  
• Improving prisoners’ learning and skills - DfES strategy for developing partnerships & provision.
  
  
• JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) - 3 year strategy - policy for Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER). JISC promotes the innovative application & use of information systems & information technology in HE & FE & provides publications & training, infrastructure & support services.
  
  
• Learning & Teaching Scotland - educational resources & professional development support, including education for citizenship website.
  
  
• Learning Partnerships - reports, good practice guides, links to regional partnerships, evaluation issues and links.
  
  
• Learning & Skills Council - Data, information, policies, news, circulars & range of other documents.
  
  
• Learning & Skills Development Agency - Learning & Skills Development Agency, publications, training, information and discussion groups.
  
  
• Learning Wales - news, policies & publications from the National Assembly for Wales.
  
  
• Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) - sector skills council for workforce development & planning for employers & employees in the lifelong learning sector, including developing & maintaining standards & qualifications.
  
  
• National Association for Managers of Student Services (NAMSS) - organisation of students services staff, providing support for students & staff in colleges, information for members.
  
  
• Natfhe (National Association for Teachers in Further & Higher Education) - main trade union for FE (for other trade unions operating in the FE sector, look at our Education Trade Union section).
  
  
• National Federation of Access Centres - information, advice, assessment & support of disabled students in further & higher education, includes Access Centre location map & list of centres, FAQ, teaching & learning strategies.
  
  
• NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research) - online research questionnaires, information on current projects, summaries of completed projects, research papers online, search CERUK (current educational research in the UK, database online).
• NIACE - the National Organisation for Adult Learning (England & Wales), information on services & activities, including conferences.
  
  
• National Learning Network - supporting e-learning across the post-16 sector, provides learning resources for different curriculum areas, also E-Guides staff development for adult & community learning staff & community learning resource, as well as other resources & staff development events.
  
  
• NUS (National Union of Students) - key site for students' & students unions.
  
  
• Offenders’ Learning and Skills Unit - DfES site, links to initiatives, news & events, FAQs, links to relevant organisations.
  
  
• OFSTED - inspection reports & publications.
  
  
• PlanIT Plus - useful site from Glasgow City Council, includes access to learning information, career information, guidance organisations for Scotland, now has career zone, learning zone & school zone.
  
  
• Scottish Further Education Funding Council - information & statistics on FE in Scotland, also library, contacts & links.
  
  
• Scottish Further Education Unit - including news, events,summary of relevant articles, project information, conference reports, networks including Careers Officers in FE Colleges.
  
  
• ScotFEICT - ICT resources & applications for Further Education in Scotland.
  
  
• Sector Skills Alliance Scotland (SSASCOT) - news, publications, events & information for all the sector skills organisations in Scotland.
  
  
• Select Committee reports - including education & student funding issues.
  
  
• Sixth Form Colleges' Forum - information, links & events.
  
  
• Skills for Business - Sector Skills Development Agency - information on Sector Skills Councils, also newsletter by email.
  
  
• Support for Success - quality improvement programme, supporting "Success for All" strategies, providing information & advice colleges, work based learning providers and ACL providers, regional network activities & action research projects.
  
  
• Support for Success - quality improvement programme for the post 16 sector, including colleges, work based learning providers, former external institutions & Ufi learndirect hubs & centres, replacing RQA programme & includes useful guides & publications for college, learning & work based providers.
  
  
• Times Higher Education Supplement - includes articles & features on FE.
  
  
• TES FE Focus - news, articles, discussions & links for FE managers, includes regular mailing option.
  
  
• TES (Times Education Supplement) - news, articles & employment.
  
  
• UK Lifelong Learning - wide range of government & sector information & news from the DfES, includes government responses to Kennedy Report, Dearing Report & Garrick Report.
  
  
• Women's studies information sources - excellent resource from University of York.
  
  
• Vocational Training in Europe - the Electronic Training Village - resources & discussions on European training issues, information on study visits & CEDEFOP information.