This chapter describes the shape and scope of the complex and shifting landscape of further education (FE) in the UK. Part of the chapter presents a historical review of the structural changes imposed on FE by central government over the past 30 or so years. Teaching and learning are situated activities that are profoundly affected by the contexts in which they occur. At the same time, teachers and learners also shape and change the contexts in which they work and study. This chapter is intended to help you gain a better under - standing of the nature of the context in which you teach in terms of how your college is being affected by internal and external pressures and the role colleges play in a broader educational landscape. In writing a book of this nature, we are faced with the challenge of trying to keep up to date with educational change in the UK, and particularly in England where government ministers seem to have an almost pathological desire to invent as many new policies as possible during their (often) very short term in office (see Fuller and Unwin, 2011). In the five years since we wrote the third edition of this book, the FE landscape has been changing, and we know that in the time that passes before someone reads this new edition, there will have been new policies invented and some agencies may have come and gone. Furthermore, the UK is currently dealing with the aftermath of the economic crisis that began in 2008. As a result, the coalition government, elected in May 2010, is admin - istering a programme of substantial cuts to the public sector, including education. We want to stress, however, that while FE teachers work in a dynamic context, much of what they do still involves the age-old process of helping people to learn and achieve their ambitions.