Welcome to FE Soundbite - Soundbite is the weekly e-newsletter and collated e-journal from FE News giving you a round up of the latest news from this week on FE News and our exclusive thought leadership articles. This is edition 659. We know you are busy, so the aim of Soundbite is to give you a snapshot of the latest news, reports that have been released or big announcements from the past week and also some interesting exclusive thought leadership articles, so you can easily see what has happened across the sector in the past week. This is a free e-journal and if my maths is correct, we have been collating FE Soundbite for over 12.5 years!

It has been a busy two-week period with people receiving their results, learners signing up for courses or asking for advice... team members traditionally on holiday in August and for the working parents juggling the school holidays (not long to go now... the last lap bell is nearly there)... then there is a lot going on.

This week we had #ResultsDay part 2 (with GCSE Results day... as last week was results day part 1 with A Level, T Level results and L3 Vocational results). We put together one of our famous sector response articles and the GCSE results day article has had 23 comments from experts across the sector.

Teach First released an interesting report, literally the day before GCSE Results day: Disadvantaged young people twice as likely to be out of work or education as their wealthier peers. So this was an easy one to miss... but I would highly recommend checking it out.

My mate Deirdre Hughes wrote a really helpful article: When the Exam Results Dust Settles. I also thought Katy Walsh's article was interesting reading: My experience teaching the first ever cohort of T Level students.

Apprenticeships or University Destinations: Parity of Esteem on Results Day?

Anna Ambrose wrote a really interesting article: Apprenticeships or University Destinations: Parity of Esteem on Results Day?

Jessica writes about the next stage of the NCFE Innovation Fund: What changes in assessment will support learners of the future?

Giancarlo has written a really interesting piece: Teachers are at breaking point, it’s time to push wellbeing up the agenda.

Mental Health, Well being and Emotional Intelligence

I am really enjoying Nahla's articles.. and at times, I think she is writing just for me... if you are feeling a bit frazzled with work and life balance, me being a working parent, the last couple of weeks have been tricky with juggling a busy work period... so hopefully if you are feeling similar, you will find this as helpful as I did: How we can survive the pressure of work and life?

Digital Skills Gap

We also had two really interesting articles on the digital and data skills gaps:

Why closing the UK’s data literacy gap is key to future global success and Tackling the Digital Skills Gap requires concerted effort – Ethical financing is only part of the solution.

Finding the next generation of leaders to create inclusive businesses

Caroline Casey wrote a gem: Finding the next generation of leaders to create inclusive businesses

So I hope you have either an exciting bank holiday or a super chilled bank holiday weekend lined up.