Connecting the Dots on Skills and Employability | FE Soundbite 786
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 786: 1st March 2025 | Connecting the Dots on Skills and Employability.
This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here is a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles from sector influencers and cool thinkers across FE and Skills this week on FE News
Gavin’s Reflective Perspective
Connecting the Dots on Skills, Employability, and impact of AI on Skills and work:
NEETs on the Rise
ONS released the latest NEETs data this week. According to ONS data, it is estimated that there are 987,000 16-24-year-olds who are not in education and training; this is up from 877,000 from October to December 2023.
So it is under the 1M NEETs that was widely expected, but there has been an increase of 110,000 on the year. That is a lot of young people who are NEET! Of the total number of young people who were NEET, 542,000 were young men and the majority of NEETs are aged 18 to 24 years (907,000, up 90,000 on the previous year).
So how do we support our 18-24 year olds? A lot of these would have been ‘pandemic kids’ at the end of their studies, how can we support them back into work, education and skills?
Digital Divide Persists in Modern Britain
The Government and Digital Poverty Alliance launched Digital Inclusion Action Plan to support the 19 Million UK citizens suffering from digital poverty.. yep 19 Million people are suffering from digital poverty in G7 UK… in the 21st Century!
The Benefits Trap: A Costly Conundrum
Learning and Work released some really interesting research around support disabled people into work and shining a light on the benefit trap. Scarily, L&W found that the benefit system is trapping 3.5 million people on sickness benefits!
Did you know, according to L&W: the number of incapacity benefits has soared by 37% since the pandemic? Only 1% of people economically inactive due to long-term sickness are in work six months later, compared to 33% of unemployed people. With this in mind, the cost of disability-related benefits is projected to climb to £100bn by 2029-30!
Benefit Reform could save £4 Billion a year and create a £8 Billion per year boost!
L&W estimates that successful reform to the system could help 500,000 more people into work over ten years. This would boost the economy by £8 billion a year and save the taxpayer £4 billion a year. Now that is worth looking into deeper and shining a light to think about reform on employability support, coupled with skills to make this sustainable support.
This week has had really interesting pieces of analysis this week on the impact of AI (particularly GenAI) on job roles right now.
AI’s Surprising Impact on Job Roles
Lightcast released a report on building a data driven skills system in an era of disruption. Lightcast found that the top 20 skills for the average job in the UK changed by 31% since 2021, Tech marketing and media jobs are careers seeing the most disruption, where blue collar and hands on jobs like a bus driver and plasterer are the least changed. So the old skool thinking that manual labour will be the most effected by AI, has again been debunked!
Understanding AI’s Influence on Workplace Skills
Richard Foster Fletcher unpacked the recent research from Anthropic (who created GenAI Claude). The research draws from over four million anonymised interactions with Claude, the study offers the clearest picture yet of where AI is impacting jobs, skills, productivity and where are the gaps! So I would highly recommend checking out Richard’s article: AI’s Workforce Impact in Numbers: What FE Leaders Need to Know.
I hope you enjoy Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, The Rise of Digital Badges: How Decentralising Trust Could Change Everything By Tim Riches, Founding Director, Navigatr
Secondly, Unlocking the Potential of Generative AI in Technical Maths Education By David Jennings, DJ Alchemi Ltd and Gatsby
Finally, Diary of an Apprentice: My Journey with Dyslexia and ADHD By Sakina Khan, Innovation Project Manager at NCFE
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
- AI’s Workforce Impact in Numbers: What FE Leaders Need to Know By Richard Foster-Fletcher, Executive Chair of MKAI
- How China’s 2025 International Education Strategy Provides 7 Key Gateways for British Universities By Richard Mann, Academic Director at LGE (London Global Education)
- Green Changemakers: Community is Everything By Dr Lou Mycroft, Green Changemaker
- AI Revolution and Lessons From the Luddites: Does A Cloudy Future Loom For Coders? By Neil Wolstenholme, Kloodle Chairman
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcement
Appointments
Reports
- Reforming the ‘benefit trap’ to offer more support to disabled people could help half a million more people into work by 2035 By the Learning and Work Institute
- Government launches Digital Inclusion Action Plan to support the 19 million UK citizens suffering from digital poverty By the Digital Poverty Alliance
- National Audit Office: Whole government response essential to local authorities’ financial sustainability By the National Audit Office (NAO)
- Highest HR salaries in the UK revealed By Ciphr
Voices
- Building a Data-Driven Skills System in an Era of Disruption By Elena Magrini, Head of Global Research at Lightcast
- AI: The Powerful Ally Needing to be Tamed By Ciaran Roche, Public Affairs Manager at AELP
In The Know
This Tuesday, there is more going on than just pancakes. We have the flippin’ fantastic Virtual Round table: Making Skills England Work (Tuesday 4th March at 2.30pm)
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We hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week. Stay curious, keep innovating, and let’s shake up the world of FE together – catch you next week!
By Danny O’Meara, Digital Project Manager, FE News
By Gavin O’Meara, CEO and Founder, FE News and FE Careers
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