e-books for FE

A female student using a tablet.

A collection of free e-books for all UK further education colleges (accessed through the ProQuest Ebook Central platform).

Save money and help learners succeed with access to free, curriculum-relevant e-books covering A-level, BTEC and vocational courses plus GCSE English and maths.

To provide the best service to students, FE colleges need to provide up to date textbooks across a range of subject areas, but FE funding challenges can make this difficult.

Our e-books for FE service helps solve the problem.

We offer free access to a collection of relevant, curriculum-mapped taught course e-books – covering not only BTEC, A-Level, NVQ/SVQ and Cache courses, but also GCSE, WJEC and Highers English and maths.

Benefits for FE colleges

Save money by accessing e-books for free
This service is free at the point of use for FE colleges, so they can save money compared to the cost of buying digital or print textbooks by other means.

Get unlimited access
Staff and students can access an unlimited number of e-books within the collection, concurrently, an unlimited number of times. This means learners aren’t constrained by usage limits.

Save time by accessing e-books easily
Once your institution has signed an agreement with Jisc, students and teachers can access content and e-books from anywhere, via your usual institutional login on Ebook Central.

Easy to use
The online platform means students and teachers can support learning by linking to e-books directly from within their VLE.

Help learners succeed

The e-books we offer can help students to succeed with their learning.

This is because the e-books:

  • Are curriculum-mapped to the requirements of vocational, A-level and GCSE qualifications, and selected with the support of the FE community
  • Are up to date, with collections continuously supplemented and refreshed to reflect changes in curricula and to keep content current. The content is licensed in close consultation with the FE community
  • Cover a wide range of subjects; from business to psychology, construction to engineering, sport to health and social care. The collection also includes GCSE English and maths textbooks and workbooks – helping support the requirement for students to resit these subjects if they haven’t achieved a grade 4 at GCSE
  • Allow concurrent access, so students can always access a copy of a textbook in the collection, at the point of need, without having to wait for another student to finish with it
  • Offer access to learning, helping students develop and improve digital skills
  • Can be accessed from anywhere; on laptops, tablet devices and smartphones

Make the most of this resource off campus

If you need to support your A-level or vocational students to carry on learning from home, e-books for FE enables you to provide online access to over 500 core curriculum matched titles.

These include GCSE English and maths books likely to be vital to allowing many FE students to continue with their studies.

The eBook Central platform allows tutors to point students to specific pages and to embed direct links into your VLE or other online platforms, whilst the ability to cite resources, take notes and share bookmarks are all designed to aid collaboration and online learning.

Getting started

You can subscribe to e-books for FE via our license subscriptions manager site or by talking with your relationship manager.

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