How FE can help businesses grow, without expanding headcount

While many businesses are focused on growth, the underlying challenge is often one of efficiency. Particularly in today’s climate, where budgets are tight and hiring can be complex, the issue isn’t always a lack of opportunity, but how effectively organisations are using their people, skills and systems already in place.

For years, the default answer to growth has been to hire more people. More sales capacity, more marketing resource, more delivery. But that model is starting to break down, given hiring is expensive, slow, and in uncertain markets, it carries more risk than many businesses are comfortable with.

At the same time, the pressure to grow hasn’t gone anywhere. What’s changing is how that growth is being achieved.

In England alone, there were over 760,000 people participating in apprenticeships in 2024/25, with starts continuing to rise year-on-year. (Explore Education Statistics Apprenticeships data). This reflects a wider shift in how businesses are thinking about building capability because the reality is that growth doesn’t have to mean headcount.

The conversation around further education has traditionally centred on access and opportunity. But increasingly, the commercial case is becoming harder to ignore. Skills drive productivity, and productivity drives growth. There’s a consistent body of research showing that well-designed apprenticeships improve retention, output and long-term organisational performance (St Martin’s Group, 2021.)

At the same time, many SMEs are still struggling to adopt more efficient, data-led ways of working – not from a lack of ambition, but because they lack the internal capability. Research into SME digital transformation highlights capability gaps as one of the biggest barriers to growth, according to more research.

That’s where FE has real commercial value. When colleges and employers work closely together, training stops being theoretical. It becomes immediately useful. Apprentices contribute faster, existing teams become more capable, and businesses start to see a return much earlier. The strongest programmes are those built with employers, where what’s being taught reflects real operational need (Fuller & Unwin, 2023.)

This changes the dynamic for growth. Instead of constantly adding new roles, businesses can focus on building capability within the team – bringing in apprentices where it makes sense, upskilling existing staff, and embedding knowledge that compounds over time.

At Go Live Data, we talk a lot about efficiency in marketing, doing less, but doing it better. The same principle applies here. The businesses performing well aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest teams, but the ones getting more out of the people they already have. FE can support that shift by helping businesses become more capable, as well as bigger.

There is, however, a shift required from the sector itself. To fully realise this opportunity, FE needs to be positioned less as a provider of programmes and more as a partner in business growth. That means speaking more directly to outcomes – productivity, efficiency, commercial impact and aligning more closely with local employers.

Colleges already sit at the centre of their local economies. They connect talent, skills and business need – in a way few other institutions can. Research also highlights the role FE plays in shaping local economic performance through skills development.

With continued government investment, around £1.2 billion annually into skills and training, there is a clear intent to strengthen that link between education and economic growth.

However, funding alone won’t drive change, as there really must be alignment. The opportunity now is to move beyond the idea that growth is driven by scale alone. The more sustainable route is to become sharper, more capable and more efficient, which FE can play a vital role in, by helping businesses grow and by getting much more from their people.

By Adam Herbert, CEO & Co-founder, Go Live Data