There is no denying it — demand for sales professionals in the apprenticeships and wider skills sector is at an all-time high.

Across our team, we launched 10 new BDM vacancies today alone, on top of a number of live roles already in play. Just last night, I secured five interviews for a senior candidate who had been told her company had gone into liquidation that very afternoon.

The appetite for quality sales talent in apprenticeships, bootcamps, and adult skills funding is relentless. A quick scan of job boards and competitor pages shows countless BDM and sales leadership roles across the sector.

Why the talent gap?

The truth is, we’ve lost a lot of strong sales and business development people over the years. Competing with sectors like financial services, pharma, and tech is tough — higher commission potential, faster routes to sale, and fewer regulatory hurdles make those industries more attractive. In FE and skills, there are simply more variables outside a salesperson’s control.

At the same time, there’s still hesitancy to bring in sales leaders from outside the sector. Yet, as one of my former candidates recently showed, the skills are transferable — she moved from selling leadership and management apprenticeships into insurance/tech, without prior experience, and secured a significant salary uplift.

So while I’d love to see new blood entering FE and skills, we can’t rely solely on recycling the same small pool of candidates and expect different results.

What needs to change?

If the sector is to attract, retain, and energise sales professionals, we need to rethink how we build and support commercial teams. Some ideas to consider:

• Broadening the talent pool – looking outside the sector at people with transferable skills in solution sales, account growth, and employer engagement.

• Clearer sales strategies – salespeople thrive on clarity, stretch targets, and achievable pathways. Setting bold but realistic growth plans gives teams something to rally around.

• Modernising employer engagement – buying behaviours are shifting. Large enterprise clients are increasingly tender-driven, while SMEs and mid-market employers want agility and value. We need differentiated approaches for each.

• Investing in retention – competitive commission structures, faster decision-making, and reduced red tape will help keep talent that might otherwise drift to tech, FS, or pharma.

• Future-proofing teams – equipping salespeople with insights, data tools, and sector intelligence that enable them to act as true consultants, not just product pushers.

• Championing the profession – sales in FE and skills isn’t just about hitting targets; it’s about opening doors to life-changing opportunities. That message needs to be front and centre in how we attract people to the sector.

The way forward

This morning I read a CRO’s post outlining 10 agreed steps for his sales division to drive £10m in turnover. Simple, clear, motivating. That’s what hungry sales teams need — clarity of vision, achievable milestones, and the confidence that leadership has their back.

The demand for talent is not slowing down. But if the FE and skills sector wants to win the battle for salespeople, it must think bigger, do things differently, and start building strategies that truly engage, attract, and retain the people who can drive growth.