Every year, tens of thousands of students leave within the first six weeks, before their enrolment counts towards a college’s success rates and before the institution receives any funding for them. Often, there is little or no follow-up as to why they dropped out.

According to figures from the Association of Colleges, 35,740 students aged 16-19 left before that 42-day deadline in 2017-18 - almost 6 per cent of the total college entrants.

Student leaders warn that the most vulnerable among them, such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are most likely to quit early. Are colleges doing enough to keep learners from floating away?

This podcast relates to an article in the 7 December edition of Tes. Subscribers can read the full version here. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. Tes magazine is available at all good newsagents