How Pathways to Work & Skills England Revolutionise Skills and Employability? | FE Soundbite Edition 755

Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 756, July 27th, 2024: How Pathways to Work & Skills England Revolutionise 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

So Skills England and Pathways to Work (the employability plan) were both launched this week. Exciting stuff... or a bit daunting to get your head around all of the new announcements?

Bridget Phillipson (our new Education Secretary) also put a pause and review on Level 3 Qualifications and some defunding... which in reality would be scrapping some really well known and popular quals.

Richard Pennybrook was also announced as the Interim Chair of Skills England.

So all good stuff... BUT... from what I understand, things are going to take a while to bed in. Eg Skills England, will take a while to get set up and be stand alone. Like Summer 2025.... but what does this mean to an Employer who is thinking of future plans? Could they think, you know, I will park these plans until Summer 2025 (hopefully the weather will be better)?

How about the Civil Servants, there is a lot of change happening.. how long is it going to take for them to get their head around the changes (you'd hope it'd be faster than us). Eg in Skills England, IfATE’s functions will transfer to Skills England, as part of the new organisation’s broader remit. That will obviously take time... which is understandable... but does this have a knock on effect to the rest of the sector?

Or the pause and review on Level 3 Qualifications is sector wide praised... but what does this mean for a learner? The parents advising younger learners... employers.... could this cause confusion?

I mean a lot has happened this week! This is one of the reasons we launched the FE and Skills Collective with our friends ETF. As there is soo much to get your head around. There is an announcement per day, which we anticipated, but there is new language / jargon coming out on a daily basis. So this is why we launched the Collective to help our Leaders and Educators get their head around what we will soon be delivering, not talking about in theory.

Here is more on the FE & Skills Collective Bridging Policy and Pedagogy: Preparing educators and leaders for a stronger skills system" with ETF and FE News.

I also shot a video with the Collective report co-author (ETF's Dr Vikki Smith), who will have the task of drawing together all of the ideas and suggestions from the collective.

Soo much has happened this week.

Exclusive Thought Leadership

Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week

The Rise of Incivility: A Silent Threat to Workplace Harmony By Professor Lynda Holt, CEO, Health Service 360

Skills England for England’s Skills System By Dr Mandy Crawford-Lee FRSA, Chief Executive, University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC)

Five Insights to Support the New Government’s Skills Agenda By Emily Tanner, Programme Head, Post-14 Education and Skills, at the Nuffield Foundation