FE Week

📢Apprentices will get a 31p rise to £8.31 an hour from April 2027, the smallest percentage increase since 2021. The budget also confirmed the return of the union learning fund and extends apprenticeship brokerage to 14 mayors feweek.co.uk/budget-2026-...

🔎 An awarding body that failed to investigate suspected malpractice at a training provider until it registered and certified more than 100 learners in less than 24 hours has been fined £185,000 by Ofqual. feweek.co.uk/innovate-awa...

⭐️ Campaigners, led by @getfurther.bsky.social, calling for the pupil premium to be extended to 16-19 year-olds have received a £120k grant to build their case to ministers feweek.co.uk/120k-boost-f...

❗ More jobs are at risk across City & Guilds after new owner PeopleCert announced plans to integrate its four training providers under a single division. feweek.co.uk/job-cuts-loo...

Laurence Frewin will retire as principal of South Devon College at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, following 17 years at the college and eight years leading it https://feweek.co.uk/south-devon-college-principal-laurence-frewin-to-retire-in-2027/

Following this week’s Bell review, education minister Josh MacAlister argues that adopting the IHRA definition will help schools and colleges tackle antisemitism while protecting debate on Israel feweek.co.uk/defining-ant...

🐌 Just 270 reformed apprenticeship assessment plans have been published, falling well short of Skills England’s August 2026 deadline to review all 700-plus apprenticeship standards https://feweek.co.uk/frustration-at-skills-englands-apprenticeship-review-slowdown/

💪 Councils, training providers and one FE college are among the organisations chosen to deliver the flagship youth jobs guarantee across England, Scotland and Wales feweek.co.uk/dwp-picks-12...

🔎 College leaders have been told to consider their approach to staff wearing or displaying political symbols, following a landmark review of antisemitism in education feweek.co.uk/antisemitism...

Breaking: DfE's top civil servant, Susan Acland-Hood, will be replaced next month after six years in post feweek.co.uk/acland-hood-...

🗳️ ‘Chaos’ at Lakes College leads to formal staff dispute https://feweek.co.uk/chaos-at-lakes-college-leads-to-formal-staff-dispute/

⛔ Adult learners are being turned away from adult education providers due to inflexible funding rules and eligibility constraints, a parliamentary inquiry has warned feweek.co.uk/providers-tu...

🆕 Ministers are drawing up plans to force employers to pay more for training older apprentices than younger apprentices https://feweek.co.uk/employers-face-paying-more-for-training-older-apprentices/

🆕 Further education and skills providers have been excluded from a new independent complaint review service set to be launched by Ofsted https://feweek.co.uk/ofsted-to-pilot-independent-complaint-reviews-but-not-for-fe/

📢 A collective nationwide ballot of college staff will be staged by the University and College Union to boost the impact of potential industrial action feweek.co.uk/ucu-turns-sc...

📍 Just 92 of the 1,000 extra T Level work placements Andy Burnham claimed to have delivered can be confirmed, an FE Week investigation has revealed feweek.co.uk/burnham-put-...

🚣‍♀️ Ministers have U-turned on plans to scrap a batch of maritime apprenticeships after employers and MPs warned axing specialist standards due to low enrolments was 'illogical' https://feweek.co.uk/dwp-row-back-on-plans-to-sink-maritime-apprenticeships/

🔄 Budget and cost pressures have forced a council to consider switching its adult education services to a fully subcontracted model feweek.co.uk/croydon-pois...

💰 Ministers must be prepared to write off SEND deficits accrued over the next two years, councils have warned, after predicting they will rise to £10bn even after historic debts are wiped https://feweek.co.uk/councils-call-for-more-bailouts-as-send-deficits-to-top-10bn/

Exclusive: Hundreds of staff at awarding giant City & Guilds are set to vote on strike action over plans to require employees to work from the office at least two days a week https://feweek.co.uk/city-guilds-staff-to-vote-on-strike-action-over-return-to-office-plans/

🚨 BREAKING: The embattled City & Guilds Foundation has pulled Ben Blackledge’s chief executive job offer just days before he was due to start. Blackledge will stay at WorldSkills UK - which had already advertised for his successor feweek.co.uk/city-guilds-...

👎 The Association of School and College Leaders’ union has said it has no confidence in Ofsted’s leadership to 'address the damage being done by the new inspection system' following a vote of its ruling council feweek.co.uk/ascl-council...

🗣️ A pilot to tackle weak coordination and long waiting lists for English language lessons has been launched by the Greater London Authority feweek.co.uk/esol-waiting...

📢 The Conservatives' two-year-old apprenticeships and HE funding policy was torn to shreds in Birmingham this week ... by its own education heavyweights ... who then fought each other, writes @ukshane.bsky.social feweek.co.uk/bickering-bi...

💷 Councils are scrambling to spend extra adult education funding that was previously delivered by independent training providers and overseen by Whitehall officials feweek.co.uk/pathway-to-d...

🆕 Three quarters of FE providers inspected under Ofsted’s report card regime said the process affected staff wellbeing, according to the watchdog’s own research https://feweek.co.uk/inspections-are-harming-wellbeing-fe-staff-tell-ofsted/

✒️ Fewer than a quarter of councils in the UK have agreed to set up local taskforces to tackle NEET numbers in their area as part of a new drive led by Alan Milburn https://feweek.co.uk/fewer-than-a-quarter-of-councils-sign-up-to-milburns-neet-taskforce/

🏠 About 800 careers advice staff have moved to work in-house at the Department for Work and Pensions following 14 years of outsourcing feweek.co.uk/hundreds-of-...

🇬🇧 Two golds, a silver, three bronzes and 13 medals for excellence: our WorldSkills Shanghai supplement has every Team UK result, @annieiseating.bsky.social's diary from the competition floor and the road to Aichi 2028 via Düsseldorf. Read it here: feweek.co.uk/worldskills-...

💷 College staff should receive a 3.5 per cent pay rise this year where members can afford it, the Association of Colleges has said feweek.co.uk/aoc-recommen....

✅ More than nine in 10 plans outlining how local areas will implement government’s SEND reforms in return for a near-complete write off of historical deficits have been approved by ministers feweek.co.uk/government-a...

🙅‍♀️ Half of England’s population will be excluded from a £240 million mayoral brokerage programme to boost apprenticeship recruitment, prompting warnings of a ‘two-tier skills system’. feweek.co.uk/healeys-appr...

Analysis: Multiverse has stretched its lead as England’s biggest training provider based on apprenticeship income after revenue jumped 45% in a year https://feweek.co.uk/masters-of-the-multiverse-net-45-apprenticeship-income-gain/

We finished the day with our evening receptions with @edupolicyinst.bsky.social Skills Builder UK and @schoolsweek.bsky.social & @feweek.bsky.social. Both saw colleagues from across the education sector join with MPs and Ministers for important discussions and reflections on the conference so far.

💸 Two training providers face a combined £800k clawback over rule breaches - some of it through the same subcontractor. DfE also named the wrong training provider and left the report online for over 24 hours. feweek.co.uk/itps-hit-wit...

⛅ Blue Sky Assessing & Consultancy has become the first apprenticeship provider to be rated ‘exceptional’ for inclusion under Ofsted’s report card framework https://feweek.co.uk/blue-sky-flies-as-first-apprenticeship-provider-judged-exceptional-for-inclusion/

🆕 Nationally procured adult skills fund contracts will end next year as the government expands its 'pathway to devolution' programme https://feweek.co.uk/national-adult-skills-fund-contracts-to-end-next-august/

⚽ ‘Football scouts for apprenticeships’ scheme to be expanded, with chancellor John Healey announcing an 'extra £100m' for local apprenticeship brokerage services https://feweek.co.uk/football-scouts-for-apprenticeships-scheme-to-be-expanded/

📢 LABOUR CONFERENCE LIVE BLOG: It’s day 2 of Labour’s party conference, with the first events now in full swing. Follow our live blog for rolling updates feweek.co.uk/labour-confe...

🥇 UK skills champions have secured their best WorldSkills haul in over a decade earning 19 medals, including two gold, one silver and three bronze medals feweek.co.uk/gold-rush-te...

Team UK’s car painting competitor Oisin McKerr has won a bronze medal at WorldSkills 2026. Congratulations!

Congratulations to mechanic Joe Wilton who has achieved a medal for excellence in the autobody repair competition at WorldSkills 2026.

Team UK aircraft maintenance competitor Elyot Harmston, who has won the UK’s first silver medal at WorldSkills this year. Congratulations Elyot!

Well done to Logan Cook, Team UK’s 3D digital game art champion, who has won a medal for excellence at WorldSkills 2026

Team UK renewable energy competitor Madeleine Warburton has won a medal for excellence at WorldSkills 2026. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Emily Bettridge and Liz Hopkinson – Team UK’s mechatronics team - on their medal for excellence win at WorldSkills Shanghai

Congratulations to Caolan McCartan and Patrick Sheerin, who have achieved a medal for excellence for team competition Industry 4.0 at WorldSkills 2026

Congratulation to Tomas Ankers, who has achieved a medal for excellence for his skill, CNC milling at WorldSkills 2026

Ruth Douglas has won a gold medal for chemical laboratory technology at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026. Congratulations Ruth!

Congratulations to Team UK’s additive manufacturing competitor Oliver Coombs who has won a bronze medal at WorldSkills 2026