Diversifying Learning Pathways: The Key for Further Education to Thrive

With policy evolving and technology advancing, learner expectations are set to grow and the coming years promise significant change for the FE sector. But by approaching these shifts with clarity and purpose, colleges can position themselves not just to comply with reform requirements, but to shape it.

The challenge is real, as is the opportunity to create an FE sector that is more flexible, more relevant, and more empowering than ever before.

A Policy Landscape of Change

Recent policy reforms highlight the extent of transformation underway. The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), while still somewhat restrictive, offers learners in England access to £38,000 in loan funding for modular study at levels 4–6, with ministers signalling it as a key lever to expand Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). On the other hand, the creation of Skills England and the rollout of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) place a clear emphasis on aligning curricula with regional employer priorities.

Together, these initiatives underline a future system that could be more flexible, accountable, and tightly integrated with the economy. But as always, policy is only the starting point. 

A New Model of Learning

What does this mean in real terms for learners and educators? At its heart, the shift is about diversifying learning pathways. Traditional qualifications will still matter, but they will increasingly sit alongside other models like stackable modular learning, micro-credentials and skills-based qualifications.

This new ecosystem of learning reflects the realities of modern life. Learners are not always able or willing to commit to a three-year block of study. Employers often seek evidence of specific skills rather than broad and traditional qualifications. Employees increasingly expect to retrain or upskill multiple times throughout their careers.

The Role of Digital

If policy sets the direction, it is digital infrastructure that will determine whether FE can keep pace. Flexibility, personalisation, mobility and scalability all depend on the ability to deliver and track learning in new ways.

With the job market increasingly focused on adaptability, creativity, and lifelong learning, the ability to personalise teaching at scale could be what separates the colleges that lead from those that lag.

However, personalisation requires flexible learning models, and achieving this means undertaking a modernisation process.

The latest 2024/25 Jisc Learner Digital Experience Insights survey paints a revealing picture of how university and FE students are engaging with digital learning and highlights the increasing trend of mobile-first learning.  The survey reveals that 70% of learners now use smartphones for study, and 1 in 10 learners rely solely on a smartphone to access their education.

Technology partners have an important role to play here by supporting colleges with open, interoperable platforms, flexible credentialing tools,  actionable data insights and mobile learning capabilities.

What Good Looks Like

The route to success amid this shift requires colleges to have vision, leadership, and the willingness to see digital transformation as integral to educational strategy, not as an addition to it.

By prioritising faculty training, infrastructure reliability, and alignment with national skills priorities, colleges can redefine their digital learning culture. This will allow them to remain relevant while meeting the expectations of digital-native students entering the college experience.

Achieving digital maturity and implementing modern virtual learning environments will allow them to build future-ready education models to offer modular learning at scale, validate and credential skills, leverage real-time data and support student mobility. 

Learners are adopting new digital tools faster than institutions are preparing them. The risk of a lack of digital modernisation is not just underprepared students, but also inequity between those who can self-teach and those who cannot.

By Matthew McShane, Further Education Specialist at Instructure