Guidance

Provision of information requirements for providers of specified further education initial teacher education courses

Updated 21 January 2026

Applies to England

This is a draft document published at this stage in order to support Parliamentary consideration of the underpinning regulations.

Overview

This guidance outlines the data submission requirements for providers of specified further education (FE) initial teacher training (ITT) courses in England.

This is a new requirement arising from The Further Education (Initial Teacher Training) Regulations 2026. It is separate to any other data return that providers might already submit to the Department for Education (DfE) or other government agencies.

While the mechanism for data collection has not yet been finalised, the department will ensure that the chosen method minimises any administrative burdens placed on providers, while enabling the department to gather comprehensive and accurate data.

We are aware that most ITT(FE) providers already submit information about their courses, partnership arrangements and trainees to a range of government bodies via:

• the Higher Education Statistics Agency
• the Student Loans Company
• Ofsted
• Ofqual
• DfE

None of these current data collections is designed specifically for the ITT(FE) system. Collecting information in this format will provide an accurate picture of the whole ITT(FE) system in England and will allow the department to begin to address evidence gaps.

We will use the first year of the ITT(FE) data registration and provider data collection processes to test the extent to which specific light-touch ITT(FE) processes provide government with the information required.

Providers will be required to submit information on their courses and trainees^{[footnote 1]}. The current expectation is that each data collection will take place in the spring term. However, the department will provide sufficient notice once the data collection process is finalised.

The data we will collect

We expect that the data we will collect for academic year 2026 to 2027^{[footnote 2]} will include the following:

Provider-level data:

• the title of the ITT(FE) courses delivered
• the name and address of the awarding body for each course (where this is different from the educational institution providing the ITT(FE) course)
• information on the partnership (for example validation or franchise) arrangements held in the delivery of specified ITT(FE) courses, including the name and UK personal reference numbers (UKPRN) of relevant partners

Trainee-level data

• the specified ITT(FE) courses that trainees enrolled on, including the academic level of the course
• the subject specialisms undertaken by trainees - such as the Postgraduate Certificate in Education with specialism in English, or the Diploma in Teaching (FE and Skills) with specialism in construction
• course start and expected end dates
• mode of study - part or full time
• funding received, including:
  • none
  • higher education student funding (level of funding drawn down - fee loans, maintenance loans, grants for example)
  • apprenticeship levy
  • government-funded programme (bursary or Taking Teaching Further)
• site of training placements
• current employer (where different from ITT provider)

We will publish the final data requirements alongside the data collection mechanism in due course.

1. All information will be anonymised, and DfE will not request any information that allows an individual to be identified. ↩

2. Data will be required on: (a) trainees that commence training in academic year 2026 to 2027; (b) trainees that commenced training prior to academic year 2026 to 2027 and are either continuing their training in academic year 2026 to 2027, or have deferred their training; (c) trainees that completed their training in academic year 2026 to 2027 (on the date of the collection) ↩