Will the College Funding Shortfall Create More NEETs? | FE Soundbite 787

Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 787: 8th March 2025 | Will the College Funding Shortfall create more NEETs?

This week’s Soundbite is sponsored by “The CLA InPractice Online Conference“

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

Soundbite Sponsor Spotlight

The CLA InPractice Online Conference for Further Education is a free event at 1pm on the 20th of March,  2025, focused on copyright and intellectual property in education.

Experts will discuss trends, AI in teaching, and copyright licensing, offering insights and solutions for Further Education professionals. The event aims to address key challenges in the sector and explore innovations in technology and content use.

Gavin’s Reflective Perspective

AoC: Colleges could be forced to turn away tens of thousands of learners due to funding shortfall

Earlier this week AoC warned that thousands of students are at risk of being turned away by their local college this September without more funding from the government to grow capacity and meet demand!

DfE confirmed a welcome funding increase for provision for younger learners for next academic year. However, the announcement included news that colleges will only get two-thirds of the funding they should have got for the additional 35,000 16 to 18-year-old students enrolled by colleges last autumn.  

AoC estimates that 25,000 additional young people aged 16 to 18 will try to enrol in colleges this autumn and another 20,000 will do so in autumn 2026 – but as things stand, colleges do not know if they will receive extra funding to pay for their learning.

Surely this will lead to more NEETs and increase the Benefits Bill unless it is urgently addressed?

This is all a bit alarming. Last week ONS flagged that there are just under 1 Million NEETs (not in education, employment or training)… so unless the funding shortfall is addressed above. This will surely increase the number of NEETs.

Surely this funding gap is an oversight? It can’t be doing anything to plug the Benefits bill that is soaring (and predicted to be £100bn by 2029-30)! .. or help the Government hit their 80% employment target, or have the skills to hit their priority areas like building 1.5M houses, new Heathrow terminal or plug the skills and employment gap in the NHS!

More DWP support for sick and disabled people back into work

Talking of addressing employability and the benefits bill. DWP announced plans for 1,000 existing Work Coaches deployed in 2025/26 to deliver intensive voluntary support to around 65,000 sick and disabled people – helping them to break down barriers to opportunity, drive growth and unlock the benefits of work.

Interestingly, just last week Learning and Work released some really interesting research around support disabled people into work and shining a light on the benefit trap. L&W estimated 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.

Making Skills England Work

Did you check out the Making Skills England Work virtual round table with Edge this week? So many people joined us, thank you all working together to share ideas on how to make Skills England be as impactful as possible to local skills, for employers and learners. If you missed it, check out the link above.

International Lessons, Collaboration and ICAD

What can we learn to improve Work Based Learning, Skills and Apprenticeships from across the Globe?

Dr. Eric Dunker and Professor Tom Bewick wrote a really interesting piece this week: Transforming Global Higher Education Starts with Expanding Apprenticeship Degrees. Tom and Eric make a case for a new international centre bringing together global leaders and practitioners in work-based learning. Find out more about the International Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD).

Overqualification and Skills Mismatch

CIPD’s Lizzie Crowley wrote a really interesting article that I enjoyed this week: Overqualification and Skills Mismatch: A Growing Challenge for the UK Labour Market?

I hope you enjoy Soundbite this week… and thank you to CLA for sponsoring FE Soundbite this week.

Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles

Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week

Transforming Global Higher Education Starts with Expanding Apprenticeship Degrees By Dr. Eric Dunker, Chief Growth Officer at Reach University and Professor Tom Bewick, Visiting Professor at University of Staffordshire

How FE, Apprenticeships, and Work-Based Learning Develop Emotional Intelligence to Future-Proof the Workforce By Sarwar Khawaja Chairman and Founder of SK Hub

Streamlining of EPA is Welcome, But Not at the Expense of Independence By Alison Morris, Head of Policy at Skills Federation

This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!

Overqualification and Skills Mismatch: A Growing Challenge for the UK Labour Market? By Lizzie Crowley, Senior Skills Adviser at the CIPD

Are Footballers “Thick”, Really? By Neil Wolstenholme, Chairman of Kloodle

What’s New in the World of FE?

Did you check out the “Making Skills England Work” Virtual Roundtable in partnership with Edge Foundation this week?

Announcement

Colleges could be forced to turn away tens of thousands of learners due to funding shortfall By AoC

Government Bolsters Employment Support to Unlock Work for Sick and Disabled People By Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

2025s Amendments to the Employment Rights Bill By Department for Business and Trade

Reports

REC and Career Returners call on recruiters and employers to break free from misconceptions By REC

Employability Charity Career Connect Calls for Gatsby-Style Benchmarks to Boost Careers Support for NEET 16–17-Year-Olds By Career Connect

Life sciences will need 70,000 additional jobs by 2035 By Lightcast

Voices

Unseen Observation | Reflection and Empowerment By Louise Elsby, Quality Development Coach at Walsall College and Kelly Bunce, Quality Development Team Member at Walsall College.

Supporting the Energy Transition and Power Generation in the South West By Claire Arbery, Director, West of England Institute of Technology  

Driving Economic Growth and Futureproofing the Workforce: The Transformational Role of Gower College Swansea’s Strategic Five-Year Plan By Kelly Fountain, Principal, Gower College Swansea

In The Know

This Tuesday 11th March at 10am, we will be launching a mini series with NCFE called Innovation in Assessment. This is all about Innovation in Assessment (it is a bit of a Ronseal title), but also unpacking the Assessment Innovation Fund from NCFE that is of interest to a lot of the audience.

Join us live 10am – 10.30am on Tuesday 11th March. Ep1 is all about Inclusion

Do you want to be In The Know?

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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