FE college timetabling: planning 16 to 19 study programmes

Timetabling a further education college is a different job from timetabling a school. Students follow individual study programmes rather than a fixed year-group curriculum. Many attend on only some days of the week. Courses share specialist workshops, and funding depends on the hours each student is planned to receive.

This guide covers what's different about FE timetabling and how to plan for it.

Planned hours drive the timetable

In England, 16 to 19 study programmes are funded on each student's planned hours: the hours of teaching and other activity the college plans to deliver for that student in the year. The number of planned hours determines the student's funding band.

That makes the timetable a funding document as well as a schedule. If a student's timetable delivers fewer hours than planned, the college has a problem. The same is true if the timetable can't actually deliver the hours a programme is meant to include.

The band thresholds and rules have changed over time, including an increase of 40 planned hours for full-time students in recent years. Check the current 16 to 19 funding guidance on GOV.UK each year. What matters for the timetable is this: each programme's planned hours should be agreed before scheduling starts, and the finished timetable should be checked against them.

Study leave and other non-teaching activity can count towards planned hours under the DfE's rules, but generally only when it's planned, shown in the student's timetable and supervised or organised by staff. If you rely on it, it needs to appear on the timetable.

Compact weeks matter more

Many FE students combine college with part-time work, caring responsibilities or long journeys. A timetable that brings a student in for one lesson on each of five days is far worse for them than the same hours over three days.

Set a target for how many days each programme should use, and treat it as a priority when you schedule. It's one of the clearest ways to improve attendance and retention without changing the curriculum at all.

Gaps are expensive for students

A two-hour gap between lessons is an inconvenience at school. At college, it can be the reason a student goes home at lunchtime and doesn't come back. Limit the longest gap any student has in a day, and check the timetable for it before you publish.

Shared, specialist resources

FE courses depend on specialist spaces: workshops, salons, kitchens, studios, labs, IT suites. They're expensive and there are rarely enough of them. Equipment and capacity have to match the course, so a group of 16 plumbing students can't go in a workshop with 12 benches.

Schedule the courses that depend on scarce specialist rooms first, then fit everything else around them.

Multiple campuses

If your college runs on more than one site, travel time is a real constraint. A lecturer can't teach on one campus and then start a lesson on another five minutes later. Keep each teacher's back-to-back lessons on the same site, or leave enough time between them to travel.

Individual programmes, not year groups

A school builds its timetable around year groups. A college builds it around programmes, with English and maths resits, enrichment, tutorials and work placements cutting across them. Every student's combination has to work, which means checking each student's timetable for clashes rather than each class.

How Timez helps FE colleges

Timez was built with exactly these constraints in mind:

• Compact weeks: set the maximum number of days students should attend, and Timez works to fit each student's lessons into them.
• Gap limits: set the longest gap you'll accept in a student's day.
• Room fit: classes go only in rooms with enough capacity and the right equipment.
• No student clashes: every student's individual combination is checked, so nobody is timetabled into two lessons at once.
• Teacher availability and load: sessional and part-time lecturers are only timetabled when they're available.

You can run different scenarios as separate projects, for example a three-day week against a four-day week for a programme, and compare the analytics before you decide.

For the general timetabling process, see how to build a school timetable. Most of the steps apply to colleges too.