Really interesting to work on this longer-form piece about the September Guarantee of a post-16 place for every 16 and 17 year old who doesn't have a plan for their next year of education. It looks at why councils can't say whether they organised a place for about 70-80k young people each year.

Ed sec responds to (very predictable) backlash about cuts to funding for college age students with promise that there’s ’more to come’

🏊‍♂️ A limited pool of awarding organisations will be eligible to deliver the first tranche of V Levels under rules tabled by Ofqual today https://feweek.co.uk/small-pool-of-awarding-bodies-eligible-for-first-v-levels-ofqual/

Interesting to see the government’s response to Lincolnshire’s ESOL cutting policy. From @billycamden.bsky.social

Interesting that NCG’s board signed off the now-Lord Doherty’s resignation and payment in lieu, alongside NDAs for staff, rather than deal with what seem to be legitimate misconduct allegations. Would more junior college staff benefit from the same sort of settlement if facing similar allegations?

🚨 Breaking: Former NCG CEO Joe Docherty, now Lord Docherty, has been suspended as a Labour peer after it emerged he resigned from his college role after conducting sexual liaisons during working hours feweek.co.uk/joe-docherty...

🎓 A £5 million degree level short course trial hit a fifth of its student recruitment target, an interim evaluation has found, raising further questions about demand for the upcoming lifelong learning entitlement https://feweek.co.uk/second-lle-short-course-trial-falls-short-on-recruitment/

Keir Starmer has written to all Labour MPs attacking the Green Party for embracing "divisive" and "sectarian" politics I'm picking up concern among Labour MPs about how this letter will come across to people who have voted/are tempted to vote Green, as it could risk further alienating these voters

TLDR trial of American style studying of separate bits of degree courses had low uptake

Jas Athwal leading the debate on value for money for students: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Given the high NEET rates among 21-24 year olds, it is very curious that the youth guarantee (subsidised jobs, targeted local employment initiatives) doesn't cover that age group.

In case you missed it yesterday, Greater Lincolnshire's Reform mayor (and her Reform/Conservative council leader supporters) have approved plans to cut off all funding for ESOL lessons from Aug 2027. Full story here: feweek.co.uk/fundamentall...

🗣️ Plans to cut funding for English language lessons to avoid alleged 'segregation' have been approved in Greater Lincolnshire, amid concerns about “serious harm” to local community integration. https://feweek.co.uk/fundamentally-wrong-greater-lincolnshire-leaders-approve-esol-cuts/

House of Lords oral questions on prison education today didn’t leave me hopeful the prisons crisis will be sorted any time soon. Peers were clearly engaged, but the scrutiny only brushed the surface of the structural problems: overcrowding, staffing shortages, education cuts, long periods in cells

The media management of this Andrew news… pre-shadowed by an unusually frank interview with the head of the CPS in the Sunday Times hinting there might be action… then BBC getting the story…

1/ Thread on questionable levels of transparency in the Department for Education’s financial policing of how the ~£10bn a year it distributes to colleges, training providers and others is monitored (and recovered when things go wrong).

Is this a taste of Reform UK education policies? Should the taxpayer pay for non-English speakers to learn the language of the country they live in?

"Responding to the consultation, GLCCA noted that around half of consultation responses were from people “directly involved” in the sector, or experts and specialists, who are “more motivated” to raise concerns" feweek.co.uk/greater-linc...

NEW: All funding for ESOL courses in Greater Lincs to be cut from August 2027. Reform UK Mayor Jenkyns wants to redirect funding to more “inclusive” literacy courses for “native” Lincolnshire people, but some are concerned that cutting off the £1m in funding (out of a £15-18m budget) that

Computer says go

Labour market stats not great. A worrying 1 in 7 18-24 year olds now unemployed. Retail & hospitality bearing the brunt, with 122k fewer people in payroll employment. Rising employer costs & flat economy taking a toll. But figures subject to revision. Last months 43k PAYE drop now revised to 2k.

👋 Basingstoke College of Technology principal Anthony Bravo retired on Monday, leaving the college under interim leadership in the middle of the academic year feweek.co.uk/bcot-princip...

ICYMI: my look into Mayor of London’s flagship adult education training scheme over the last five years. TLDR: offering £400 cash to training businesses if they get adult learners into jobs didn’t work very well because it wasn’t enough for the paperwork required.

🆕 Ahead of National Apprenticeship Week, the government says it can slash the time it takes to update apprenticeship standards to as little as three months feweek.co.uk/ministers-to...

It's a shame that the London Mayor and GLA have been so secretive about the impact of their £16m "skills academies" programme that aimed to train adults for jobs in key sectors. Evaluations gathered dust for years and basic KPIs have never been published.

Oh dear. Last week DWP secretary of state McFadden claimed 60+ employers had "committed" to providing jobs for NEET young people through the flagship jobs guarantee scheme Today we learned there was no "commitment" ... just an "interest" feweek.co.uk/mcfadden-ove...

Rough week for UCU's Jo Grady next week: Tuesday: Defending accusations of election rule breaches: feweek.co.uk/watchdog-to-... Thursday: Her own staff go on strike (again): feweek.co.uk/ucu-staff-to...

One of the more convoluted and bizarre FE stories I've covered, involving an insolvent training provider group, its owner (a full time wood scientist in the Argentine government), and his CEO brother's £20m+ collection of London properties. feweek.co.uk/jewellery-ac...

Further developments in the City & Guilds sale controversy: the awarding body’s new owner has launched an internal investigation into the CEO and finance director of the business it has just acquired. feweek.co.uk/peoplecert-o...

This LinkedIn post by West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin is brilliant. Surely made by AI.

🗞️This week's FE Week front page: Mayors give bootcamps the boot as devo freedoms kick in Subscribe | feweek.co.uk/subscribe/ #TomorrowsPapersToday

🔎 The charities watchdog is 'engaging actively' with the City & Guilds Foundation following reports that two executives were in line for million-pound bonuses after its commercial awarding body was sold off feweek.co.uk/charity-comm...

The Charity Commission is "actively engaging" with the City & Guilds Foundation over the recent sale of its commercial training and awarding business feweek.co.uk/charity-comm...

Game over for the game-changing ‘single-licence’ T Level awarding model first recommended by Sainsbury in 2016? It will avoid the confusion of thousands of qualifications they said, but has come at a cost to learners, awarding bodies, and taxpayers... feweek.co.uk/officials-he...

Plasters "torn off" on concerns about diluting apprenticeship assessments at a timely Federation of Awarding Bodies conference this week, with assurances from Skills England's deputy and Ofqual boss Sir Ian Bauckham. feweek.co.uk/were-not-dil...

A relatively small amount of capital funding released in April is forecast to open up thousands of new places in two northern regions over the next few years, to help cope with a spike in teenagers. £30 million for 9,000 new places - value for money? feweek.co.uk/dfes-20m-spi...

ICYMI: DWP plans to effectively nationalise the National Careers Service and bring up to 1,000 staff into new-look Jobcentres from October next year. MPs say there is an "absence of information" about what these new careers advice offering Jobcentres will look like. feweek.co.uk/new-look-job...

Always fascinating watching people underestimate the size of London vs other UK ciries. On an average weekday, more journeys are made on JUST the Elizabeth line than the ENTIRE population of Liverpool. If the Tube was a city, its average daily passengers would make it the 2nd largest in the UK.

Starmer's speech was a major trail for the upcoming post-16 white paper: - Regional improvement teams (presumably replacing or reporting to the FE commissioner) - £20m just been splashed on these for schools - Some kind of national CPD offer for FE teachers (no sign of pay equality though) ...

Even though we know very little about the big skills shift to DWP, there was a fair bit to pack into this week's coverage: what's moving over? what's the secretary of state's vision? What's at stake? And what exactly are the risks and opportunities here? feweek.co.uk/neets-top-mc...

Some helpful questions and considerations re the skills brief shifting to DWP/"Growth Dept"

Breaking: Keir Starmer has shifted the skills brief out of DfE and into a new reported 'growth department' with the Department for Work and Pensions, led by @patmcfaddenmp.bsky.social feweek.co.uk/skills-brief...

Breaking: The government is planning to pull the skills brief out of the Department for Education and move it to a new department feweek.co.uk/skills-brief...

Now widely reported the skills brief is moving to the DWP under Pat McFadden. A very interesting move. Skills has been under the DfE since 2016, when it was moved from the business dept. Seems unlikely this will include 16-19, but will it include both higher education and further education?

Over the summer FE Week took a look at college governance board minutes to see how many are published on a regular basis and how up to date they are. We found a mixed picture, so is it time to tighten up the rules? feweek.co.uk/get-on-board...

Will be interesting to see whether Nottinghamshire County Council ignores/excludes/bans Nottinghamshire Live to the point that they don't provide right of reply comments for future stories, even if it's in their interest. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

This story touches on some ongoing issues for wider the FE sector: Transparent decision making - should the DfE/college management come clean if they plan to sell off a town's only FE campus and agree a £7m grant? feweek.co.uk/dfe-props-up...

💸 A new combined authority has finally dished out £6.5m in procured adult skills fund contracts following the withdrawal of a legal challenge that delayed the tender process feweek.co.uk/emccas-adult...

📚 Awarding organisations have warned they face fresh layers of bureaucracy after Ofqual confirmed plans to add new enforceable 'principles' to its bulging rulebook feweek.co.uk/new-honesty-...

A massive High Court trial against the Department for Education is approaching its final stages A loss for the government could cost them around £60m feweek.co.uk/marples-tria...