What does the £13.9 Billion R&D Funding Mean for Skills, Talent Pipelines and even Level 7? FE Soundbite 791
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 791: 5th April 2025 | What does the £13.9 Billion R&D Funding Mean for Skills, Talent Pipelines and even Level 7? FE Soundbite 791
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
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.
Another busy week and just before the Easter half term break… with a STACK LOAD of funding and development announcements. We have had £302m for FE colleges to fix dilapidated buildings and First of Nine £125M Health and Work Trailblazer Programmes Unveiled in Barnsley… then a STONKER… £13.9 Billion on R&D.
What does the £13.9 Billion R&D Funding Mean for Skills, Talent Pipelines, T Levels, Youth Guarantees and even Level 7?
This might seem out of the scope of FE, Skills and Employability… but it is NOT… this is great news. So what does this £13.9 Billion investment really mean for our sector? It has implications across the board – from Careers Advice and Youth Guarantees, T Levels (remember they are Technical Levels), to the Growth and Skills Levy, Level 7 Apprenticeships and even Bootcamps and back to work schemes. The impact touches everything in the FE and Skills ecosystem!
The R&D funding highlights wind turbine research and development in Blyth, tackling drug-resistant bacteria in Plymouth and in Exeter, the Met Office receives £310 million.
Can we learn a lesson from the Met Office on securing more funding in FE and Skills?
Now to put this into context. The Met Office has just received £310 Million for R&D (and this is great, my wife works for the Met Office and they are a major employer here in Exeter).. but .. to put this into context, we might be celebrating £302 Million to fix crumbling FE College buildings.. result!… but this is for the entire FE College estate, the Met Office just got £310 Million, £8M more in funding.
An interesting thing coming out the Met Office is that they asked London Economics to put together an Economic Value and ROI from the Met Office. To save you having to thumb through it.. this is an ROI of £18.80 from the Met Office for every £1 spent.
Interestingly… back in February AELP’s Ben Rowland wrote an Exclusive highlighting that the ROI Apprenticeships. Eg Level 4 and 5 Apprenticeships deliver a return of £16 for every £1 invested, increasing to £25 at Level 6. Eg the ROI on a Level 6 is £25, £16 for Level 4 and 5 (I wonder what Level 7 is)?
So, have we missed a trick here?… as I know the Met Office are very much into ‘Benefit Management’.. not just ROI, but the wider impact of their work. Can we learn from this to help the FE and Skills sector show our wider impact to Government?
How can we make Oli’s job easier in sharing the value and benefit of FE and Skills?
How can we help Oli share this impact, benefit management of the FE, Skills and Employability sector to the PM? You can bet your life, careers advice and industry placements will get sorted out in schools with Oli in the ear of Keir… the NAO also said just week that T Levels need to a shift on the dial and recruit more learners onto T Level programmes (as less than 26,000 learners out of 1.2 Million are on a T Level, and industry placements are a key feature here as well).
An article not to miss- want to see what is coming on the Youth Guarantee, Post 16 Education and Future of Skills? Have a look at Wales:
We have an epic thought leadership article this week from Vikki Howells, Minister for Further and Higher Education in Wales.. next week we have a piece from the Welsh Skills Minister in Wales Jack Sargeant looking at Youth Guarantee… as Wales has had this for years! (eg since 2021)!
1 in 5 Lack the Digital Skills Needed for Modern Life
NCFE released a cool report on Digital Skills Gaps (No One Left Offline report), shockingly Finds 1 in 5 Lack the Digital Skills Needed for Modern Life.. we are talking about GenAI, £13.9 BILLION on R&D and the report highlighted: Over 50% of respondents aged 18 and under lacked the essential skills required for modern life, despite often being assumed to be ‘digital natives.’ No wonder we have a NEET crisis!
We also wrapped up Future skills with City & Guilds this week looking at AI and Digital this week and explored how to continually update the AI skills in FE and Skills and AI Governance.
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, A View from Wales By Vikki Howells, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Welsh Government
Secondly, Turning the QAR Tide: A Provider’s Perspective By Thomas Burton, Head of Apprenticeship Delivery, York St John University
Finally, The silent sexploitation crisis – AI’s overlooked double-edged threat to FE By Yasmin London, Global Online Safety Expert at Qoria
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
- Closing The Disability Employment Gap: Why Inclusive Hiring Is A Social And Economic Imperative By Neil Wolstenholme, Kloodle Chairman
- Collaborative Leadership in FE is Imperative By Dr. Vikki Smith, Executive Director of Education and Standards at The Education and Training Foundation
- Unseen Observation: Fostering an Environment for Critical Reflection By Mozz Baker, Lecturer in Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare at Walsall College
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcements
- £302m for FE colleges to fix dilapidated buildings By Department for Education (DfE)
- First of Nine £125M Health and Work Trailblazer Programmes Unveiled in Barnsley By Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Reports
- Ofsted’s Latest Report on Careers Support for Disadvantaged Students By Ofsted
- New NCFE Report Finds 1 in 5 Lack the Digital Skills Needed for Modern Life By NCFE
Future skills – Livestream
Teaching and Learning – Event
Voices
- Defining AI-Enhanced Recognitive Feedback in Assessments By Dr. Chris Trace, Chief Academic Officer at KEATH.ai
- JoyFE – Learning from the Rhizome By Dr Lou Mycroft, Green Changemaker
In The Know
On Monday 7th April, we have a very cool article coming from Jack Sargeant, Skills Minister in Wales on the Young Person’s Guarantee, which has been around since Nov 2021. So could this provide a glimpse for the Youth Guarantee? Check out Jack’s exclusive on Monday!
Do you want to be In The Know?
Why don’t you sign up for Daily News Alerts?
FYI it’s free!!
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
Responses