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Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 790: 28th March 2025 | How will DfE Build up T Level Student Numbers? | FE Soundbite 790
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
Wow, another hectic week of announcements. So, the big announcement this week was the Spring Statement. Not much new in there for FE, Skills and Construction. Many announcements were made on the Build-up to the Spring Statement. So in the Build-up (sorry, couldn't help the Dad joke), there was the massive £600M announcement on Construction Skills.
Is this a glimpse of more employer incentives for hard-to-reach Skill priority areas?
Loads in here, from employer incentives of £2000 per each Construction Foundation Apprentice ... will this be the case (eg payments to employers for taking on an Apprentice) for other 'priority areas' for future skills needs? There were also the 'big announcements' from the Spring statement covering Welfare Reform from announcements from last week... Eg Keep Britain Working and Pathways to Work Green Paper... so nothing new for FE, Skills and Employability in the Spring Statement really.. the £600M for Construction Skills Training is actually great news.
NAO tell DfE to build up T Level numbers.. just 25,508 T Level learners in Sept 2024
This week we also had a Record jump in Apprenticeship achievement rates and the National Audit Office told DfE to Build up the number of T Level learners (sorry, there was a building theme this week)! Seeing as T Level numbers are very low (25,508 students started a T Level in September 2024: 42% of DfE’s November 2022 estimate)... putting this into context, 25,000 out of 1.2M learners in total in post 16 education.. this is like 2%! So very low!
How will DfE build up the T Level numbers?
How will DfE build up the T Level numbers? That is a massive ask, do schools, employers, even Uni's know what T Levels are? Do employers know how to engage in the work experience part of T Levels. Seems like a lot needs to be done and Built up to achieve the NAO's aims!
Record Jump in Apprenticeship Achievement Rates as Reaches 60.5%
The apprenticeship achievement rate (QAR) for apprenticeship standards has increased by 6 percentage points, now standing at 60.5% for the 2023/24 academic year, compared to 54.3% last year. This is the biggest increase since the standards were introduced and a fantastic result.
Removing Social Mobility Barriers
Baroness Manningham Buller wrote an exclusive article this week asking for your help to over come social mobility barriers for NEETs, the economically inactive etc... she wrote this exclusively for FE News and you, so please do respond to her call for evidence and solutions on removing social mobility barriers and how to address the nearly 1M NEETs!
Articles that are worth a deeper dive this week on FE News:
Well, I mentioned the Baroness already. Love it that she wrote this article to you all and asking for your help.
I loved How to Close the Retrofit Skills Gap By Charlotte Ravenscroft, Author of “Closing the Retrofit Skills Gap“ on the recent Gatsby report... loads on Construction this week, Retrofit is key to achieve our Net Zero aims!
I also loved The Rise of Digital Badges: Why Consistent Design is a Blind Spot for the Sector By Tim Riches, Founding Director, Navigatr ... just purely that I had never realised that there are different shaped Digital Badges for the different types of learning. You know me, I love stackable skills.. so this for me was really interesting.
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, How Can Barriers to Social Mobility be Removed? By Baroness Manningham-Buller, the Chair of the House of Lords special inquiry, Social Mobility Policy Committee
Secondly, The Rise of Digital Badges: Why Consistent Design is a Blind Spot for the Sector By Tim Riches, Founding Director, Navigatr
Finally, The Importance of Maintaining Devolved Qualifications Regulation By Stuart Martin is the Founder of George Angus Consulting
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
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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
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