The Watershed Week for Skills, Education & Employment | FE Soundbite 789

March 22, 2025

Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 789: 22th March 2025 | The Watershed Week for Skills, Education & Employment

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

This has been a massive week of announcements, strategically positioned just before next Wednesday's spending review... which will set the direction for the next five years. Make no mistake... these two weeks are INCREDIBLY important for the FE, Skills and Employability sector!

You could literally spell out the word NEETs with the announcements:

The Employment Crisis

The Keep Britain Working Review dropped a bombshell... 1 in 4 people economically inactive due to ill health are under 35! Meanwhile, the Pathways to Work Green Paper unveiled radical welfare reforms... scrapping the Work Capability Assessment and introducing a "right to try" work guarantee.

On the very same day, ONS Labour Market data revealed an additional 106,000 NEETs in just three months. Clearly, something needs to change.

Yes, there's £1B promised for employment support, but as Ben Harrison from the Work Foundation points out, this comes alongside £5B in welfare spending cuts. New health-related Universal Credit claimants will be £40 per week worse off. Under-22s with long-term illnesses won't be eligible for health top-ups... which doesn't sound much like support for young people, despite talk of a "Youth Guarantee"!

The Education & Training Puzzle

The Curriculum and Assessment Review examined the 5-19 system, with T Levels flagged as the "Gold Standard"... but do employers, parents or even universities know what they are, let alone value them? The stark reality: around 26,000 out of 1.2 million 16-18 year olds (about 2%) are studying a T Level, despite £1.8 billion investment.

How are we equipping Educators to support learners with more complex needs?

At the ETF Teaching & Learning conference in Birmingham this week, educator after educator highlighted the growing need for additional trauma and mental health support for learners. How are we equipping our educators to help overcome these barriers?

And then the final blow... a 6% cut to Adult Skills funding.

The Big Picture

So many pieces of the jigsaw, but when you pull back, a troubling picture emerges. Next Wednesday's spending review is absolutely crucial for our sector.

The government has a "Plan for Change"... and with 1 in 4 economically inactive people under 35 due to ill health, action is clearly needed. But my concern is that other departments are shouting louder, and their squeaky wheels will get oiled in the spending review while employability and skills... the last budgets that should be cut... will bear the brunt.

Interesting times are ahead… but the window for the sector to analyse these detailed changes and connect them to the bigger picture is closing fast.

My Personal Fav Exclusives this week

My personal top articles this week were Stephen Evans article on Pathways to Work... and Arinola Edeh, Principal for Westminster Adult Education Service, and Dr Katerina Kolyva, CEO of ETF's article on Adult Education Plays a Vital Role in Shaping Not Just Individuals, But Entire Communities.

We also had a great live stream on Data... yes.. you heard me, Data.. on Innovation in Assessment... we even had someone join as a guest from a treehouse in India. Who doesn't want to see that?!

So next week we are wrapping up the Innovation in Assessment live stream season and then kicking off a new Future skills live stream season (Ep1 is all about Engineering)

I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.

Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles

Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week

Firstly, Pathways to Work: How Work, Health and Skills Services need to work Together to Transform Lives By Stephen Evans, Chief Executive of Learning and Work Institute

Secondly, Sink Or Swim: Will UK Education Keep Its Head Above Water In The New Industrial Revolution? By Neil Wolstenholme, Kloodle Chairman

Finally, Adult Education Plays a Vital Role in Shaping Not Just Individuals, But Entire Communities By Arinola Edeh, Principal for Westminster Adult Education Service, and Dr Katerina Kolyva, CEO at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF)

This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!

How FE can Bridge the Finance Skills Gap By Sarah Beale, CEO, Association of Accounting Technicians(AAT)
Changing The Way We Think and Work Through Unseen Observation By Claire Curry, Functional Skills English and Maths Coordinator and Coach at Walsall College
Bridging the Digital Divide: Local Solutions for Skills and Employment By Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance

What’s New in the World of FE?

Announcements

Curriculum and Assessment Review Interim Report – Sector Reaction By the Department for Education (DfE)
UK Benefits Reform 2025: How the New Welfare System Will Work By the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
ONS Labour Market data: Youth Unemployment Surges by 106,000. Sector Reaction By the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
ESFA update on Adult Skills Funding plans for 2025-26 By the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
New Plans to Fix the Digital Divide in Education By the Department for Education (DfE)

Reports

New Keep Britain Working Review report By the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
New Report Highlights Urgent Need to Close the Retrofit Skills Gap By the Gatsby Charitable Foundation

Teaching and Learning - Event

Further Forward - Event

Innovation in Assessment - Livestream

Innovation in Assessment – Ep2 – Data

Voices

The Power of Teaching and Learning in FE By Dr Sam Parrett CBE, Group CEO, London South East Colleges
Forging London’s Future: The Power of Skills Competitions in Further Education By Jason Turton, Deputy Principal for Barking & Dagenham College
Robin’s Digifest 2025 Reflective By Robin Ghurbhurun, Managing Director for Further Education and Skills; Executive Director of Nations, AI, Advice and Training at Jisc
Restricting AI in education is a missed opportunity for deeper learning engagement By Dr. Raoul-Gabriel Urma, Founder and Group CEO of Cambridge Spark