Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week:
📰Our #ATC2026 news roundup: from funding rule debates to an AI confession
🏫The children’s commissioner weighs in on colleges mopping up system failures elsewhere
🚕MP’s attack ‘unconcerned’ DfE on post-16 SEND transport
Proud editor moment seeing @jessjanehill.bsky.social’s byline and her @feweek.bsky.social investigation mentioned on today’s iconic Sunday Times front page
🚨 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...
👀 Happy to have a piece featured in this week’s @feweek.bsky.social summarising our response @ascl-uk.bsky.social to the NEET crisis:
feweek.co.uk/we-need-a-14...
Coming up in @feweek.bsky.social:
📢 Major SEND reforms - full report and reaction
⏱️As NEETs rise, a potentially very popular apprenticeship is still on ice
👩🏫 DfE are clamping down on FE teacher training
3️⃣ Ahead of more announcements, we get underneath DfE's '900 confusing qualifications' claims
A 🧵with some charts - showing you cannot understand youth labour markets without understanding the role of education participation in the lives of 16-24 year olds. There are nearly as many 22–24-year-olds who are NEET (375,000) as 18–21-year-olds (399,000), with 16–17-year-olds just 63,000.
Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkyns has become the first English mayor to defund English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses.
Ignoring the public consultation which opposed the move, plans were approved today and will kick in from 2027.
feweek.co.uk/fundamentall...
Colleges are set to receive additional funding to improve maternity pay for their staff, the Department for Education has announced
https://feweek.co.uk/dfe-to-fund-maternity-pay-improvements-in-colleges/
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...
Try telling someone in Germany that in England we’ve decided one year is far too long for lots of apprenticeships. They’ll probably assume they’ve misheard you. As Charlotte I think argues part of the answer is to stop calling everything an apprenticeship, other training has value too.
Rare to get an actual vox pop with a pothole
The good news is employers can still invest in these apprenticeships outside the levy - levy is a minimum not a maximum. Or there may be shorter courses that do the job that become eligible. Management & leadership is important. Doesn’t mean apprenticeships funded thru levy are answer.
Employers, dust off your CPD budgets ...
feweek.co.uk/management-a...
Coming up in this week’s @feweek.bsky.social
❌Leadership & management apprenticeships are being targeted in drive to pivot towards young people
🤔April launch will only see ‘tight group’ of short courses
📖AoC urges sector to improve DfE gender guidance for college-age young people
This is what Pat McFadden wants to talk about on the Sunday shows in the morning ahead of National Apprenticeship Week.
Unfortunately, as Peter Mandelson's deputy when he was business secretary, I suspect Keunssberg et al will have other ideas.
My @financialtimes.com debut - 15 years ago
(They all missed)
“I’ve been cast at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony”
“What are you?”
“A stovetop espresso maker.”
Full front page
Loving the @patmcfaddenmp.bsky.social headlines this week
@playbookdc.bsky.social @feweek.bsky.social
Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week:
🔍In the wake of rising school absences, more under-16s are studying at colleges. We look at what makes this provision a success
🧾Why have London’s adult ed providers shunned extra cash?
📢College union boss faces allegations of election rule breaches
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...
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...
Sixth form college principals heard a hint that scheduled defunding of level 3 qualifications, like BTECs, could be paused. Decision to come when ministers respond to a consultation on new V Level qualifications "within weeks"
feweek.co.uk/dfe-consider...
UCU general secretary Jo Grady will face off against two of her 2024 election opponents next week over claims union resources were used to help her win
feweek.co.uk/watchdog-to-...
🗞️This week's FE Week front page:
Employer anxiety grows over apprenticeship ’streamlining’
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