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A day in the life of an ESOL teacher

In classrooms and community centres across the UK, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses are a lifeline to migrants and refugees whose potential is trapped behind a language barrier.

Those charged with unlocking that potential must deliver the curriculum intelligently and sensitively. Their classrooms have to be sanctuaries, and their methods as diverse as the backgrounds of learners in front of them.

ESOL teachers, such as Sam Pepper, don’t just teach the language; they actively support learners in establishing themselves in the UK despite underfunded services and a sometimes hostile atmosphere.

His success as an advanced learning practitioner at Camden Town’s WM College, including designing an ESOL IT course to give learners computer skills, earned him the ‘inspirational tutor of the year’ gong at the Mayor of London adult learning awards.

He tells Jessica Hill what a busy Monday looks like for him.

Sam Pepper reading his Russian language book

7am

I wake and have coffee with my wife who, like me, has a passion for languages.

She’s from Tajikistan, where they speak Tajik Farsi (Persian), and Russian because they were part of the Soviet Union. I’m trying to learn both, and Uzbek, her dad’s language.

I also speak French and I’m an Arabic translator, although translating jobs are scarce.

I’m very much a Londoner, and my grandfather was a tradesman in Camden. Many people travel overseas to make an impact on the world, but I’m proud to work in the place where my family are from.

9am

I cycle to Camden’s Gospel Oak Primary School as part of our community outreach work to teach an ESOL IT class with mums of pupils. These classes are for the hardest-to-reach learners who need English language and digital skills but may not have the family circumstances or self-confidence to come to our college. For them, the school is a familiar place.

Learners come from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt and Venezuela. Our aim is to build their confidence to support them with their ESOL journey.

At first, they were unsure about having a male teacher, so it took me time to build rapport. Because my wife is from a Muslim background, I have a good knowledge of that aspect of their culture, which helped me build trust. In my job you have to appreciate cultural sensitivities.

The course was hard to teach initially because of the two-factor authentication you need on phones to log in, then it’s tricky accessing Microsoft Teams and Office 365. Now we’ve got going I enjoy seeing their progress.

11.30am

I cycle on to WM College to teach a self-study workshop, which is a chance to teach learners about the computer and phone tools they can use to study at home.

At school, I was told to sit down, be quiet and work hard, but if I emulated that teaching style in adult education it wouldn’t work. I treat people as equals, empathising with their abilities and inabilities. If they can’t do a task, I ask what I can do to support them.

That’s doubly true with people who sometimes don’t know how to use a mouse.

Our ESOL learners, by and large, have had a difficult struggle to be where they are today. I learn about the human condition working with people from diverse backgrounds, and my patience has improved 100-fold since I started working here.

Our Afghan learners in pre-entry classes are often women who were unable to attend school as children. They’re not just learning English; they’re also learning how to organise their time, how to use a pen and paper and how to formulate letters.

Teaching literacy is totally different to the training I’ve received through my English teaching qualifications, which are all about language acquisition and communicative language teaching. I was out of my depth at first – you need a lot of patience to help people formulate letters when they don’t necessarily have the motor skills to write.

One Afghani learner, a mum of five in her 40s with no education background, has come to classes for two years. She’s super persistent. We’ve never had a conversation of more than three words but I like to think her inclusion is progress.

Our classrooms are quite unique human creations. We live in one of the most diverse cities on earth, but having all those people vulnerably share a space in a room is unusual and special. It’s an inclusive space.

Sam Pepper teaching a digital skills ESOL class

12pm

I have my weekly catch-up meeting with my line manager, Felix, who, like me, is interested in language generally and in social inclusion and community learning.

Like many ESOL teachers, I learned the craft because I wanted to travel the world. After graduating from the University of Essex with a degree in history and politics and teaching English for six months in India, I got my Celta (certificate in teaching English to speakers of other languages) in Prague before working for the British Council in Cairo for five years.

Cairo is a chaotic, lively place where people constantly communicate with each other, making it easier to pick up Arabic quickly.

I started teaching at WM College in 2021. Although the name stands for Working Men’s College, nowadays, 70 per cent of our learners are women, so there is a discussion about changing it.

12.30pm

I run an optional book club where learners read chapters of graded reader books. Then we meet and talk about the vocabulary themes. We’re currently reading Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Noughts and Crosses by Valerie Blackman last Black History Month didn’t go down well with some of my Ukrainian learners, who requested we read something happier!

The best way to teach language is to boost autonomous self-study, so the purpose behind the club is that learning also takes place when they’re at home.

1.15pm

I have seafood rice for lunch, which I made with my wife yesterday. Learners always say hello when they see me at lunchtime, but I avoid detailed conversations because I don’t want to break boundaries.

Over lunch I see unlikely friendships forming between people from very different cultures. In one class, a learner from Venezuela gets along really well with a Syrian lady. Although both have very limited English, they support each other a lot.

Sometimes learners who speak the same language prefer to sit together in class, but I try to pair stronger and weaker learners to support each other.

Learners sometimes stop me and ask for recommendations for British restaurants. I’ve told them that British restaurants are everywhere because our cuisine is international – although I also tell them about the nearby pie and mash shop which only takes cash.

2.30pm

I have an online class with level-1 learners, who join me from home.

All our learners are given a form at the beginning of the term, asking them about their education background, first language, interests and employment plans. That helps me work out what learners are into, and what they want to focus on.

The more I can stimulate class communication, the more their learning cements. So, I’ll show learners pictures from my own life, for example of my brother, who works in a music shop with his cat. My other brother is 12, which challenges their views of what a nuclear family should be.

Real life works better than a canned EFL textbook, which is often not well-pitched to learners’ lives.

3.30pm

I spend time preparing classes for tomorrow. I look at my scheme of work – the bigger picture of what I’m teaching, with a weekly theme – and think about what we did last lesson, what we need to recap and who struggled.

I also try to develop individualised material to motivate my learners.

I recently taught a lesson on Donald Trump. We didn’t talk about the US election result but looked at his biography. Learners really want to express their opinions, and there are some honest and sometimes amusing comments from people which it’s important to hear.

Last week I prepared a reading task on environmental issues, drawn from press articles. I used AI to adjust the language level to grade it to our learners. The articles were about Amazon rainforest deforestation, high levels of a dangerous particle in Honduras, and climate activists in Munich banned from protesting. They read the articles in groups, then fed back and presented to each other.

I use AI more and more. It saves me about two hours a week in preparation time. It’s good for summarising information, but if you ask it to pick out 10 language items in a text, it will give you 14. So you really need to check it.

We try to bring in as much cultural learning to lessons as possible – what the government calls ‘British values’. Many ESOL teachers are critical of that label because these are shared values for everyone. But some cultural knowledge is important. I recently planned a lesson on Bonfire Night. Learners who didn’t know about it might have been shocked by the noises coming from outside their window, so providing that knowledge was helpful.

I taught about Armistice Day as a factual lesson and as a chance for my learners to reflect on their own histories and how war has affected everyone’s lives, while also being sensitive to avoid triggering people.

Sam Pepper preparing for a lesson on Bonfire Night

4pm

I was asked to write a job reference for one of my learners who has applied for a volunteer shop assistant role at Mind. I suggested he write on the application form about why mental health is important to him. He’s a really optimistic guy who is one of several refugee learners who has slept rough on the streets.

We take safeguarding seriously at the college, so these things are escalated, and we try to provide as much guidance as possible.

We try to empower learners to use English to help themselves, but in difficult safeguarding situations where they don’t have the fluency, I step in to interpret.

5pm

After work, I’llgo for a swim in the local lido or do some yoga.

After eating some chicken soup for dinner, I’ll sometimes watch The Big Bang Theory on TV with my wife – she likes it, but it’s not really my cup of tea.

Then I’llread a book in Arabic or Russian to relax before sleep. Tomorrow I have an evening seminar at SOAS university, so I’m thinking about how to prepare for that.

It’s a busy life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you have a suggestion for a future day in the life of article, email jessica.hill@educationscape.com

ITP apprentice market share hits new heights and more from 23/24

There was a miniscule rise in apprenticeship starts last year, including in the number of young people for the third consecutive year.

However, as level 2 apprenticeships declined further, starts on higher-level programmes continued to grow.

And Multiverse delivered the second-highest number of starts last year, jumping two spaces in the top 10 provider league table.

Here’s your roundup of full-year 2023/24 apprenticeships data.

Level 2s are half what they were

Overall apprenticeship starts were up a paltry 0.7 per cent compared to the previous year, representing an increase of 2,440 and bringing the total for 2023/24 to 339,580.

Although that seems small, it’s only the second time in five years that apprenticeship starts have increased.

Following the trend of previous years, declining intermediate-level starts were offset by the rising popularity of higher-level apprenticeships.

Six years ago, nearly two in five apprenticeship starts were at intermediate level. Now it is one in five. Higher-level apprenticeships made up 36 per cent of starts last year, up from 19 per cent six years ago.

The number of young people aged under 19 has crept up slightly for the third year in a row. There were 78,930 young starters last year, which was 23.2 per cent of the overall total, up 0.1 percentage points from 2022/23. While it’s not bad news, the proportion of young people starting apprenticeships has still not recovered from pre-pandemic levels.

Nearly 20,000 more young people started apprenticeships in 2018 than in 2023. Labour said it plans to reverse this decline by diverting spending from level 7 apprenticeships and introducing new foundation apprenticeships.

On the level

Stats for last year show small rises in apprenticeship starts at every level above level 3.

At level 7, 23,860 people started an apprenticeship last year, up from 21,760 the previous year. As a proportion, level 7 apprenticeships coincidentally made up 7 per cent of overall starts, up 0.5 percentage points.

But there was a near-2 percentage point drop in level 2 apprenticeships. The decline here over time is substantial. Over 20,600 fewer level two apprenticeship starts were made last year than two years ago.

Early years educator, a level 3 standard, was the most popular apprenticeship for the second year in a row overall with 15,300 starts.

Two level 7 apprenticeships, accountancy and senior leader, maintained their places in the top 10.

In fact, there were 1,000 more apprentice senior leaders in 2023/24 than the previous year. And new apprentice solicitors nearly doubled, from 780 starts in 2022/23 to 1,350 in 2023/24.

Ministers insist that if employers value these level 7 programmes, they will self-fund them when levy funding is removed.

For under 19s, the level 3 business administrator was again the most popular apprenticeship with 4,800 starts (down from 4,990 the year before). Early years educator, hairdressing professional and installation and maintenance electrician were the next most popular for young people.

Two-thirds independent

Independent training providers increased their market share of apprenticeship starts last year, now delivering over two-thirds (66.7 per cent).

Further education colleges saw their share drop slightly from 17.4 percent to 17.2 percent. Back in 2018/19, a quarter of apprenticeships were started by FE colleges.

Apprenticeship starts in the “other” category, which includes higher education institutions and local authorities, also dropped slightly; by one percentage point.

The proportion of starts in schools, sixth-form colleges and specialist colleges remained stable at 0.1 per cent, 0.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively.

There was also a consistent proportion of apprenticeships that were funded by the levy, 68 per cent, suggesting small and medium-sized businesses are still struggling to boost their numbers.

Into the Multiverse

Lifetime Training remained untouchable at the top spot in our analysis of overall starts by training provider. Even though they started 660 fewer apprentices than in 2022/23, the training giant still clocked up 16,330 last year.

Our analysis of training providers with the most apprentice starts last year shows Multiverse jumped from fourth to second, increasing their annual intake from 5,770 to 7,910.

Multiverse displaced the British Army, which dropped to third, and BPP Professional Education, which dropped to fourth.

Corndel climbed to fifth with 6,780 starts, 1,540 more than the year before.

The only new entry to the top 10 was Marr Corporation, placing tenth with 4,130 starts.

Cumbrian college dealt ‘inadequate’ Ofsted blow

A college in Cumbria has been hit with an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted judgment after inspectors found a raft of leadership and governance failures.

Furness College was criticised by the watchdog for overseeing a “decline over time” in attendance, retention and achievement.

Inspectors found “overwhelmed” apprentices, insufficient control over the quality of provision, and “ineffective” governors who failed to hold leaders to account.

The college has now become the only college in England to hold the inspectorate’s lowest possible grade and is also in government intervention through the FE Commissioner.

A new chair of governors was appointed this month following the inspection which took place in October.

Principal Nicola Cove and new chair Gary Lovatt said in a joint statement they were “very disappointed” with Ofsted’s findings, adding that they recognised multiple issues identified by the watchdog and put in place plans to address them at the start of this academic year.

It was “unfortunate that the inspection took place so early in the year”, the leaders said, as the college was “not able to evidence the positive signs we’re now starting to see”.

Furness College, which took on Barrow-in-Furness Sixth Form College in 2016 through a merger, teaches almost 2,000 students.

Ofsted’s report shows eight out of the nine areas judged were deemed ‘requires improvement’. Leadership and management was the only category dealt an ‘inadequate’ judgment, which dragged the college’s overall effectiveness down to the lowest possible grade.

Inspectors praised “effective” safeguarding, highlighted the college’s “welcoming and friendly learning environments”, and noted that teachers help learners and apprentices who stay on their course to develop confidence and resilience.

But “too few” learners and apprentices routinely attend their course or training, Ofsted’s report said.

The college also makes a “limited contribution” to meeting skills needs, with inspectors criticising leaders for not implementing the “measures needed” to respond to “worklessness or meaningful education opportunities for young people”.

Ofsted said leaders “do not have sufficient oversight of the strengths and weaknesses of their provision”.

The targets and actions leaders set to remedy weaknesses are “not specific enough to bring about sustained and rapid improvement”.

There is a “decline over time in attendance, retention and achievement across all provision types and all age groups” and leaders are “too positive in evaluating the quality of their provision”.

For apprentices, Ofsted found that trainees complete much of their training in their own time. Apprentices feel “overwhelmed” with the amount of work and “do not complete in planned timeframes”.

Inspectors also criticised the quality of teaching for not being of a “consistently high quality”, and leaders fail to ensure that learners “have a secure understanding of fundamental British values”.

Governors were slammed for not holding leaders “well enough to account”. The board had become “too reliant on what leaders tell them rather than scrutinising the information that they have available to make the improvements that are needed”.

Principal Nicola Cove joined the college as a deputy in 2018 and became the top leader in 2023.

Furness’ previous chair, Jan Fielding, joined the board in 2016 and became chair in 2020.

Cove and Lovatt said: “We are focussed on looking forward and want to reassure all our students, parents, employers and stakeholders that our senior leadership team, staff and board of governors are wholly committed to delivering improvements.

“Furness College looks forward to working with the FE Commissioner’s office and Ofsted over the coming months. The support they provide will help us achieve this.”

The last general FE college to be judged ‘inadequate’ was Croydon College in 2023, which was upgraded to ‘good’ this month.

Ofsted ditched overall effectiveness grades for schools in September 2024 and plans to remove them for FE providers in September 2025.

GCSE resits: November 2024 entries rise by 21%

Entries to the November 2024 GCSE English and maths resit series shot up by 21 per cent compared to last year.

Provisional figures published by Ofqual this morning show that 152,610 students retook the subjects this month, up from 125,615 in November 2023.

The rise in entries follows increasing numbers of school-aged pupils who failed to achieve a grade 4 “pass” in the subjects during their GCSEs this summer – 175,898 for maths and 181,682 for English.

There were also more than 100,000 post-16 students in each subject who did not reach the pass mark and would have had to resit the exams again.

Introduced in 2014, the government’s resits policy forces students who have not achieved a grade 4 pass in English and/or maths GCSE by age 16 to continue to work towards achieving these qualifications as a condition of their places being funded.

GCSE subject breakdown

Today’s data shows GCSE English language entries increased by 28 per cent from 60,365 in November 2023, to 77,005 in November 2024.

GCSE mathematics entries rose by 16 per cent from 65,250 to 75,605 over the same period.

The figures mark yet another steep rise in November entries post-Covid. Entries in 2021 fell 13 per cent, then by a further 10 per cent in 2022 – the years when teacher-assessed grades replaced exams.

November resit entries then shot up by 23 per cent in 2023 and again by 21 per cent this month.

GCSE entry increases — Ofqual entries data since 2020

Ofqual pointed out that as well as the change in grading approach, cohort sizes have increased.

“The size of the 16-year-old cohort increased by 13 per cent in 2024 compared with the past five years, from 624,590 16-year-olds in 2020 according to ONS population estimates in 2019 to 706,006 16-year-olds in 2024 according to ONS population estimates in 2023,” the report said.

Catherine Sezen, head of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said colleges are “increasingly finding” themselves under “immense pressure” to be able to accommodate extra students.

She told FE Week: “Colleges want to give students as many opportunities as possible to achieve a grade 4 in English and maths, but are facing many challenges.

“The recruitment and retention crisis, exacerbated by levels of pay, in these subjects mean that some colleges are having to rehire retired teachers, employ agency staff, and train non-specialist staff. There are also issues around space, both in terms of class sizes and for the actual exam days, teaching time and entry fees, all of which cause further strain on students and college budgets.”

Sezen added: “The GCSE resit policy is not sustainable as it currently operates, and the curriculum and assessment review offers a great opportunity to radically rethink English and maths across all phases of education, to ensure all students can gain the skills they need for life beyond college.”

National Education Union deputy general secretary Niamh Sweeney resigns

Niamh Sweeney, the first elected deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, has resigned from the post part-way through her five year term, FE Week has learned.

Sweeney was elected in 2021 to the role, which was created as part of a restructure drawn up when the NEU was formed from a merger of the National Union of Teachers and Association of Teachers and Lecturers in 2017.

Her election was seen as an upset, after she beat two challengers from established factions on the left wing of the union.

A former sixth form college teacher and Labour councillor, Sweeney hailed from the ATL section of the NEU, having served on its executive since 2010 and as president between 2017 and 2018.

She stood unsuccessfully against Daniel Kebede in last year’s election to replace Kevin Courtney and Dr Mary Bousted as general secretary. Kebede had the backing of the union’s left factions.

Sweeney’s term was not due to come to an end until 2026.

‘An absolute honour’

Approached by FE Week, Sweeney confirmed she had left the role on November 15.

She said it had been an “absolute honour to represent NEU members as the first elected deputy general secretary”.

“I wish the NEU every success in the future, particularly the members in sixth form colleges taking strike action today.”

Sweeney did not give a reason for her departure from the role.

An NEU spokesperson said: “Having played a substantial role in seeing through the successful amalgamation between the NUT and ATL, into the National Education Union, and the transition of leadership, Niamh is now taking the opportunity to pursue new challenges.

“We thank Niamh for all her years of service and wish her all the very best in the future.”

The union said a timetable for the election to fill the post “will be agreed by the NEU executive in January”.

Our new trial could change the fortunes of your resit learners

For too long, further education has been the ‘Cinderella sector’ of education. This is not just in terms of funding for provision, but in terms of investment in high-quality research to inform its practice.

The news this week that the Education Endowment Foundation will spend the largest injection of cash in post-16 research to date signifies the start of a break with this convention.

I began my career teaching maths in a secondary school in Leeds. I remember the 16-year-olds – disproportionately those from lower-income backgrounds – who just missed out on a grade C in their GCSE.

This setback caused their options to narrow significantly. Many ended up dropping out of education altogether. Despite having the same potential as their wealthier peers, this moment shifted their life outcomes.

Witnessing this has shaped my belief in the importance of meaningful lifelong learning opportunities; 16-19 education has the potential to transform outcomes for young people who have had the misfortune to fall behind at school.

With the proper support, the overwhelming majority still have the potential to achieve gateway English and maths qualifications, regardless of their background or what happened earlier in their education.

That’s why I set up Get Further, a charity that supports students from disadvantaged backgrounds to secure English and maths qualifications in further education through high-quality, small-group tuition.

Tutoring is one of the most effective interventions for improving attainment, and wealthier families often source a tutor for their children if they fall behind. But those from low-income backgrounds are typically priced out of accessing this tailored support.

Get Further began with a small pilot programme in late 2018. Since then, we have dramatically scaled our reach, working with 5,000 students at over 90 campuses across England. Between 2021-23, the pass rate for students who attended a term or more of our GCSE tuition was 92 per cent higher than the national average for maths and 73 per cent higher for English.

I am proud that Get Further is now forming a key part of the further education landscape. But we don’t just want to be a part of the landscape; we want to lead the way in raising standards in post-16 English and maths education.

We hope this will help make a compelling case to government

Recently, we launched our new five-year strategy with an uncompromising focus on quality and impact. Our strategic goal for 2029 is to drive up pass rates for students from disadvantaged backgrounds undertaking gateway English and maths qualifications in the further education sector, setting a new standard for excellence on a national scale.

Strengthening the evaluation of our programmes is central to achieving this. As a key milestone in our new strategy, I am thrilled to announce that in 2025-26, we will partner with the Education Endowment Foundation and the University of Warwick to evaluate the impact of our GCSE resit tuition programme via a randomised control trial (RCT).

This trial will offer valuable insights into our work, helping us strengthen our tuition programmes further, but it’s not just the potential for improving our programmes that makes this trial exciting. This is one of the first studies of its kind in the UK to be conducted with 16-19-year-olds.

While further education has a vital role to play in ensuring that young people achieve the gateway qualifications they need to unlock opportunities, the sector is impeded by underfunding and understaffing. Funding for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds falls off a cliff at age 16.

We hope this trial will provide the evidence needed to make a compelling case to government on the potential of young people in FE and the urgent need to address the chronic lack of funding and resources in the sector.

With additional investment, such as a 16-19 Student Premium, further education settings would be able to put in place interventions to better support their students and improve pass rates for courses like GCSE English and maths.

In turn, this would provide thousands more young people with the qualifications to access opportunities for further study, high-quality training and career progression.

Colleges across England can make this vision a reality. We want to partner with you to deliver our innovative programmes to your GCSE resit students and, together, build an evidence base that will pave the way for meaningful policy change across the further education sector.

Active IQ: Shaping the Future of the Active Leisure Sector with 11 New Qualifications

We’re thrilled to announce that Active IQ has secured approval for 11 new active leisure qualifications, set to launch on 1st August 2025. These qualifications are designed to equip learners with essential skills, creating clear pathways to meaningful careers within the active leisure industry.

Why the Reforms Matter to the Active Leisure Sector

The post-16 reforms present a timely opportunity to modernise qualifications, aligning them more closely with industry needs. Over the past few years, employers and training providers in the active leisure sector have faced challenges recruiting adequately trained staff, noting gaps between existing qualifications and real-world demands. The government’s reform initiative aims to address these challenges across various sectors, and our 11 newly approved qualifications reflect this mission.

In active leisure, which includes roles in personal training, fitness instructing, coaching, and other wellness-related careers, the need for skilled talent is growing. As lifestyles shift and the importance of physical health is more widely recognised, demand for qualified professionals who can support people’s health and fitness goals has increased. Our new qualifications will not only help meet this demand but will also enable learners to build a sustainable, fulfilling career in a sector that makes a real difference to people’s lives.

Introducing Active IQ’s 11 New Qualifications: Meeting Sector Needs with a Future-Focused Approach

Each of the 11 qualifications has been carefully developed to provide a blend of technical knowledge, practical skills, and industry-standard assessments. By addressing specific needs identified through research and industry feedback, these qualifications deliver relevant, hands-on training that prepares learners to succeed in the field from day one.

This portfolio includes qualifications at various levels, allowing individuals to begin their journey in the active leisure sector and build expertise as they progress. From foundational courses introducing learners to the core principles of health and fitness, to advanced qualifications for those seeking specialised roles, each qualification has been crafted with career readiness and progression in mind.

A Pathway for Everyone: Creating Opportunities for All Learners

Lisa Skelton, Head of Business Development (Active IQ)

A key advantage of the reformed qualifications is their inclusivity. Whether a young learner is starting their first career, a career changer is looking to enter the active leisure field, or a professional is seeking to upskill, these qualifications offer tailored pathways that support individuals at all stages of their career journey.

Active IQ’s new qualifications also support combined study options, allowing learners to pursue both academic and technical subjects simultaneously. This approach reflects recent developments across FE, where flexibility in study programmes helps learners pursue diverse career paths or continue onto higher education. With our qualifications, a learner could combine fitness instruction with elements of business or sports science, equipping them with versatile skills that meet a range of employer needs.

Supporting Employers: Addressing Skills Gaps and Securing the Talent Pipeline

The active leisure sector plays a vital role in public health and community well-being, yet it’s a sector that, like many others, is experiencing skills gaps and a pressing need for fresh talent. By securing the development of these qualifications, we’re helping to build a strong pipeline of skilled professionals who can support the sector’s growth and meet its future demands. Our qualifications are also developed with employer collaboration, meaning they reflect the real needs of the industry, ensuring that learners graduate job-ready and equipped with the competencies required for success.

Employers are eager for well-rounded, knowledgeable candidates who can apply their skills immediately. Active IQ’s new qualifications prioritise applied learning, giving learners the confidence and practical experience they need to make an impact from day one. With this in mind, employers in active leisure can have confidence that these new qualifications will provide them with a skilled, prepared workforce.

A Vision for the Future: Building a Resilient Active Leisure Sector

With these new qualifications, Active IQ is not only responding to the post-16 reforms but is also looking forward, ensuring that the active leisure sector has a sustainable and resilient future. We’re committed to bridging the gap between education and employment, and by working closely with training providers, employers, and the government, we’re helping to shape a sector that offers meaningful careers to thousands of individuals.

As we approach the launch in August 2025, Active IQ is here to provide resources, guidance, and support for those navigating these changes. We encourage providers, employers, and learners to explore our new qualifications and see how they can support personal and professional growth in a vibrant, rewarding industry. Together, let’s shape the future of active leisure—one qualified, career-ready professional at a time.

For more information on Active IQ’s new qualifications, please visit our website or reach out to our team.

DfE waters down English and maths resit funding rule shake-up

The government has watered down controversial changes to GCSE resit funding rules.

Ministers today ditched plans to introduce a weekly minimum of three hours of teaching for English and four hours for maths. Instead, colleges will need to deliver 100 hours of teaching for each subject at any point in the academic year.

Plans to move to a 0 per cent tolerance threshold have also been shelved. The government will instead only reduce the rate from the current 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

The changes, announced in guidance published this afternoon, will come into effect in the 2025/26 academic year.

The Association of Colleges welcomed the relaxing of the new teaching hours requirements but warned that colleges will “still struggle to deliver them” due to the teacher recruitment crisis.

Cath Sezen, AoC’s director of education policy, said the decision to only halve the tolerance threshold is also “positive”, even though this looks “unrealistic given the very poor attendance of so many students in schools in key stage 4”.

She added, however, that it was “disappointing” that DfE has decided to go ahead with the additional conditions of funding rather than delaying any decision until the Becky Francis’ independent curriculum and assessment review, which is expected to recommend changes to resit rules, has concluded.

Andrew Otty, a former DfE post-16 English and maths policy lead, said the changes are “disappointing to see” as abandoning the removal of the tolerance would impact “the most disadvantaged and vulnerable” students.

DfE reduces resit teaching hours

The divisive “condition of funding” policy, introduced in 2014, means that colleges must help students who failed to achieve a pass – grade 4 or above – to retake their GCSEs, or else risk losing funding.

The Department for Education announced in February that it planned to introduce minimum teaching hours for the first time – initially as an “expectation” in 2024/25 before becoming a strict rule in 2025/26.

Under the initial proposal, colleges would have to deliver three hours of English teaching per week, which would total 99 hours over the course of a 33-week academic year.

And four hours of maths would total 132 hours.

Today’s change effectively removes the fourth planned teaching hour for maths.

DfE said it decided to alter the rule to 100 hours of teaching for each subject over the full academic year “in response to sector feedback, so institutions can use their professional judgement to timetable the hours in a way that is most beneficial to them and their students”.

The department repeated that the minimum teaching hours “must” be delivered as “stand-alone, whole-class, in-person teaching”.

Compliance with these requirements will be measured by data returns in the school census or individualised learner record (ILR). Funding will be clawed back if colleges and providers fail to hit the minimum hours.

Students that have an education, health and care plan or are on a supported internships are allowed to be taught the minimum hours in an “alternative format – for example, small group or embedded learning”.

While DfE agreed to reduce maths teaching hours, the department has “encouraged” colleges and providers to make “best efforts” to offer an extra 35 hours of teaching given pass rates for maths remain lower than those for English.

Gemma Simmons-Blench, deputy CEO at Luminate Education Group, said colleges “share policymakers’ ambitions” for young people to acquire high levels of English and maths skills, adding that providers need “greater and more flexible support to deliver this ambition, rather than increasingly rigid and punitive funding requirements”.

Ben Rowland, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said the previously planned condition of funding requirements were a “step too far”.

He told FE Week: “The extra delivery hours when there are no incentives on teacher recruitment would have been particularly challenging, especially when there is a real sector-wide challenge on recruitment, retention and pay.”

Sezen said colleges are seeing “huge numbers” of students who have not got their grade 4 in school, “putting enormous pressure on staff and students alike”.

She added that many colleges struggle to recruit and retain the staff needed to teach, and some do not have the physical space to accommodate them all.

The AoC wants the “barriers colleges face” to be taken into account when they have their audits.

DfE backtrack on zero tolerance

Currently, colleges are allowed to be non-compliant with the condition of funding rule up to a threshold of 5 per cent of in-scope learners.

Funding is removed for each student above the tolerance level at half the national funding rate.

DfE previously announced they would halve the tolerance to 2.5 per cent in the academic year 2025/26, which will impact funding allocations in the 2027/28 academic year.

This plan is still going ahead, but the proposed next step of scrapping the tolerance altogether in 2026/27 has now been dropped.

It is understood that the DfE decided to clamp down on the resits policy after internal research showed the most economically disadvantaged students were not meeting the condition of funding, and the tolerance was being misused.

FE Week analysis showed that colleges would be hit with fines of around £45 million annually if 0 per cent tolerance was introduced, based on recent trends.

Setting the tolerance at 2.5 per cent “ensures as many students as possible get support for English and maths, whilst acknowledging that (despite institutions’ efforts) it may not be appropriate to deliver this support to every student – for example, those at risk of dropping out”, the DfE said today.

Colleges and providers have been told to use their “professional judgement to consider what support for English and maths is appropriate for students who have been opted out under the tolerance, and their exclusion from the condition of funding should be regularly reviewed”.

Sezen said such a “tight” tolerance of 2.5 per cent “might punish colleges with the most inclusive approach to recruitment, something I am sure ministers do not want to see happening”.

Otty, who left the DfE last year, said: “It is disappointing to see DfE putting non-teacher lobbyists ahead of students. The fourth hour for maths has been funded by Treasury for three years now because those resitting maths are more likely to be starting from a grade 2 or lower, so it should be well embedded.

“We all know the 2.5 per cent of students denied English and maths teaching in the tolerance loophole will be the most disadvantaged and vulnerable.”

Youth guarantee: A ‘real chance’ or lacking ‘firepower’?

Labour’s promise of a “guarantee” of job support, an apprenticeship or training for every young person has been described as “a wrapper for several existing initiatives”.

Today, the government published its Get Britain Working white paper which sets out its plans for a “joined up” approach to cutting its growing benefits bill through employment support, education and health.

It includes details on a “youth guarantee” that was promised in Labour’s election manifesto to ensure every young person between 18 and 21 has a “real chance of either earning or learning”.

But rather than setting out new policies, the document admits the “guarantee” is “based, in the first instance, on existing provision and entitlements” that young people can access such as further education, apprenticeships, skills bootcamps and youth employment services.

The guarantee will be brought “to life” through eight place-based trailblazers, which were announced over night and backed with £45 million.

The mayors in charge of the eight areas will be tasked with identifying young people most at risk of falling out of education or employment and matching them to job or training opportunities.

New “transition plans” will also be created by the trailblazers to trial the ability to “automatically reserve” a place at a local college for disengaged young people.

Tom Richmond, a former government skills advisor, said a “guarantee” should address both supply and demand, through measures such as a Kickstart-style subsidised job programme and incentive payments for employers with apprentices.

He told FE Week: “It is therefore immensely frustrating that the new ‘youth guarantee’ for 18 to 21-year-olds appears to be little more than a wrapper for several existing initiatives rather than offering any new funding or innovative approaches.”

Through the youth trailblazer areas, mayors in the eight devolved regions will “work closely and at pace” with the government to design and test “persistent challenges around coordination, engagement and accountability”.

The paper promises “clear plans for delivery with agreed outcomes” alongside “evaluation and support”.

Richmond said £45 million for “a handful of pilot projects” next year in 2025/26 fails to “match the scale” of the almost one million young who are currently not in education, employment or training (NEET).

He added: “It lacks the ambition and firepower of a Kickstart-style scheme and lacks clarity in terms of who will be driving it forward and take responsibility for ensuring its success.”

A stronger guarantee could have included broadening the scope of the policy to target 16 to 24-year-olds, as some in the youth and employment sector have suggested.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute (L&W) said: “The youth guarantee is really welcome, as time out of work or education when young can damage long-term career prospects.

“One of the challenges this policy aims to tackle is the disparate array of initiatives currently. Putting local leaders in charge of drawing up plans to engage young people and offer them the right support is valuable in itself, but the government will also need to consider what extra investment or support is needed. We also think the youth guarantee should be extended to all 16-24-year-olds.”

However, Laura-Jane Rawlings, chief executive officer of Youth Employment UK, welcomed a change in “mood music” from the government for recognising that the country has a “youth employment problem” and taking a “joined up” approach of work support, healthcare and skills.

She said: “Young people’s needs are complex and we need to bring the system together better to get young people into jobs.

“We’re cautious about the guarantee, but let’s be ambitious about it and make sure these trial tests offer a real youth guarantee.”