On level 3 quals review, Jacqui Smith says ‘I hope you’ll think we have listened and made some progress’

💰 Fresh fears have emerged that dozens of colleges may be snared by Labour’s private school fee VAT rules feweek.co.uk/30-colleges-ri…

I love that the government's official picture for announcing its 're-wiring' England's local government system, including by trying to delete a few hundred local politicians, is a pic of Rayner taking a selfie with a few mayors

A summary of most of the changes the English Devo white paper pledges for skills, the biggest change being greater adult skills spending flexibility. The rest are more gradual changes such as "joint ownership" of local skills plans & an "important role" in 16-19 education.

Good evening! Here’s our first edition of 2025 🔍 How ESFA’s investigations are kept under wraps despite promises of transparency 😫 Teacher misconduct body is already backlogged, even before its remit gets expanded to FE 💸Where next for skills bootcamp funding? & ...

🚨Breaking: £300m announced for FE at the budget will be allocated for 16-19 education 2024/25 - one off grant worth £50m for 'priorities' inc pay 2025/26 - Remaining £250m for funding rate rise feweek.co.uk/dfe-to-release…

I spent a while pulling together numbers on what England's mayors are spending out of free Level 3 training funding the govt. gives them each year. Should the rules around spending this money be more flexible, so it reaches the right people? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Would/does this happen in schools? E.g. we've got a shortage of teachers and high demand for places, so lets count a few years experience as equivalent to a qualification

✝️ None of England’s Catholic sixth form colleges have applied to become academies – despite a church campaign that forced a legal change two years ago buff.ly/42KY2dJ

UPDATE: DfE confirms the new rule can be applied to apprentices already on-programme Providers given deadline of April 1 to 'agree with their existing adult apprentices whether to continue or discontinue studying towards English and maths and update their training plans'

Skills devolution spreads with plan for 6 new regions. Millions in skills funding will be handed to mayors, with ringfences lifted on budgets. More from FE Week Josh Mellor feweek.co.uk/skills-devolut… #education #educationnews

✂️ Incoming tax rises on hairdressing salons could eliminate popular apprenticeship places in the industry within two years, a new report has suggested buff.ly/4b8Esum

A fascinating view into a world of apprenticeship funding claims gone wrong, how the ESFA investigates and whether expensive "errors" should amount to a disqualification for the directors responsible. feweek.co.uk/former-apprent…

Fascinating to see #skills-devolved mayors approaches to boosting employment. West Yorks, West Mids, and Liverpool all rebooting the pandemic-era #Kickstart scheme Can they avoid past pitfalls while helping more into good jobs? One to watch. FE Week feweek.co.uk/mayors-reboot-…

🤼 A global game developer’s 'advanced' apprenticeship training operation has been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted feweek.co.uk/sumo-games-app…

📈 News of cash to help two northern cities meet a surge in FE students has prompted pleas to help the rest of the country cope with a youth population bulge. feweek.co.uk/its-not-only-l…

🚫 There are no plans to roll out T Levels to adults after a pilot scheme attracted just 14 people, FE Week understands feweek.co.uk/t-levels-for-a…