WorldSkills UK boss Ben Blackledge officially opened this year’s EuroSkills competition at an entertaining opening ceremony in Denmark earlier this evening encouraging Europe to unite against skills challenges.
The UK chief roused a crowd of thousands tonight at the Jyske Bank BOXEN arena in Herning, Denmark and welcomed the 600 competitors, delegates and supporters to Europe’s largest skills competition.
Team UK will go head-to-head against hundreds of their peers from 33 countries in 17 skills from tomorrow in an intense three-day competition.
The team of 19 students and apprentices proudly flew the flag across the stage in front of thousands of audience members and cheers from training managers, ex-competitors and families in the crowd.
WorldSkills UK boss Ben Blackledge says this year’s competition shows ‘collective effort’ of Europe to unite on skills challenges
Ben Blackledge, chief executive of WorldSkills UK and recently appointed chair of WorldSkills Europe, officially opened the competition, and told competitors they were not only shaping their own future, but Europe’s opportunities and challenges.
“Skills are heart of how we work together for a sustainable future, how we build inclusive pathways for people from all backgrounds and abilities and how we adapt to new technologies,” he said.
“In a world where challenges such as how we respond to changing technologies and the climate crisis do not stop at boundaries, our collective effort is essential,” he added.
It is expected up to 100,000 visitors from across Denmark and abroad will attend the event over the next three days.
EuroSkills Herning is the ninth biennial competition for 33 member countries across the continent.
Team UK experts and supporters cheer on champions at EuroSkills opening ceremony
This year’s event will be the testbed to see if Team UK have what it takes to go up against the world’s best young tradespeople at the hotly anticipated WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.
Last September, during WorldSkills Lyon, France, delegates were treated to a mesmerising show by the Chinese team, just a small taste of what to expect in 2026.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, former prime minister of Denmark, chairman of EuroSkills 2025 board, welcomed the competitors or “athletes” of Europe with an encouraging message.
“To the competitors, you are the true stars of, what some may call an event, but what I call summit,” he said.
“You carry the promise of Europe’s future,” he added.
Rasmussen, who was PM of Denmark from 1993 to 2001, told the audience that the 33 countries coming together this week was a “strong message” to those who “threaten Europe’s competitive strength and values”.
In July Denmark took over the presidency of the European Union council. This week also marks a meeting between European ministers in Herning, including UK skills minister Jacqui Smith, to discuss vocational education.
“We are here together. We are stronger than ever,” Rasmussen added.
At tonight’s opening ceremony, the audience was also treated to performances from Danish singer/songwriter Malte Ebert.
Two competitors and two experts were then asked to acknowledge the WorldSkills oath, which promises to compete and officiate “fairly” by respecting the code of ethics and conduct, the competition rules, and the WorldSkills values.
The competitor’s oath is as follows: “In the name of all competitors, I promise to compete fairly, respecting and abiding by the code of ethics and conduct, the competition rules, and the WorldSkills Europe values – all in the true spirit of WorldSkills Europe.”
New experiences reach new heights
For many, this week’s competition will be a one-of-a-kind experience. Four competitors have added flying abroad to their roster of new experiences.
Despite flying to Herning from London with some turbulence, graphics design competitor Melody Cheung said the flight was smooth sailing. She hadn’t been on an airplane since she was a baby and told FE Week that she was excited to do more in the future.
Meanwhile, Ryan Sheridan, the training manager for the mechanical engineering CAD skill, had to pull out of the event at the last minute for personal reasons.
WorldSkills competition rules state that training managers cannot be replaced but Stuart Lyons, the Team UK competitor, will be supported by Bryn Jones, an expert in the additive manufacturing skill and lecturer at Coleg Menai, Wales.
Ofsted has cut the number of areas of judgment for FE providers and colleges and renamed its colour-coded five-point grading scale following a consultation on report card reforms.
But an independent review warns that the “stress” and “high stakes” consequences of inspection are unlikely to change for education staff and leaders once the reforms are fully embedded.
Unions have said the tweaks announced today are “minor and cosmetic changes to a flawed rationale” and fear the reforms are a “recipe for professional burn-out”.
Meanwhile, the watchdog has taken aim at a “small but vocal minority” who are “calling for reduced accountability or removing grading altogether” and promised to “not hesitate” to call out providers that are failing learners.
Ofsted’s reforms, first proposed in a consultation launched in February and refined today after 6,500 responses, were prompted by a coroner’s ruling in 2023 that an inspection of Caversham Primary School in Reading “contributed” to the suicide of its headteacher, Ruth Perry.
The inspectorate believes its reforms will offer “more granularity and nuance” about a provider’s performance and help to “raise standards” for learners.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said: “Children deserve the best possible education; their parents deserve the best possible information and education professionals deserve to have their work fairly assessed by experts. The changes we are presenting today aim to achieve all three of these things.”
Reformed inspections will start from November 10. There will be no routine inspections in the first half of the autumn term for state-maintained schools and FE and skills providers.
From ‘urgent improvement’ to ‘exceptional’
Ofsted’s consultation proposed that overall effectiveness judgments would be removed, but multiple areas would be cast along a colour-coded scale of ‘exemplary’, ‘strong’, ‘secure’, ‘attention needed’ and ‘causing concern’.
But amid fears this wording was “confusing” and “too harsh”, the watchdog has decided to change this terminology to:
o Urgent improvement (red)
o Needs attention (orange)
o Expected standard (green)
o Strong standard (dark green)
o Exceptional (blue)
This replaces the current ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ grades.
In a change from the initial proposals, providers will not be asked to submit case studies for approval to gain an ‘exceptional’ grade. Instead, inspectors will “evaluate ‘exceptional’ practice by applying the toolkit, subject to the usual quality assurance and consistency checking”.
An area will be graded as ‘urgent improvement’ when Ofsted evaluates a provider to be “failing overall or failing a significant group of children or learners” or if the watchdog identifies “serious, critical or systemic shortcomings in practice, policy or performance, against professional/statutory or non-statutory guidance and requirements”.
The inspectorate said: “If we identify that standards for children and learners must be urgently improved, we will not hesitate to call it out.”
As previously announced, there won’t be an overall effectiveness grade for FE and skills providers from now on.
Example FE report card
Maximum evaluation areas reduce from 20 to 16
For FE and skills providers, Ofsted’s consultation originally proposed up to 20 graded areas – double the number of previous reports.
To reduce this, the watchdog has merged ‘developing teaching and training’ with ‘curriculum’ to create a single ‘curriculum, teaching and training’ evaluation area.
Ofsted will introduce three evaluation areas for each provider as a whole: ‘inclusion’, ‘leadership and governance’ and ‘safeguarding’.
Providers will then be judged on their ‘curriculum, teaching and training’, ‘achievement’ and ‘participation and development’ for each provision they offer including ‘young people’, ‘adults’, ‘apprenticeships’ and ‘high needs learners’.
Colleges and designated institutions will continue to be judged on their contribution to meeting skills needs but in a change from the consultation, this area will be judged on the new colour-coded scale like across other remits instead of the current ‘limited, reasonable or strong’ system.
Safeguarding will either be judged ‘met’ or ‘not met’ at provider level, as is current practice.
So for an FE college offering courses to young people, adults, apprentices and learners with high needs, this would see the number of grades they receive rise from the current 10 to 16.
The detailed report card will sit below an overview grid and provide a narrative for each evaluation area. It will explain strengths and areas for development.
A new “suspend and return” policy was introduced last September for schools that lets inspectors pause an inspection to allow a school to resolve safeguarding, “where that is the only issue in the school”.
This will now be adopted in FE and skills inspections.
Ofsted said: “Inspectors can suspend an inspection to allow a provider to resolve issues with safeguarding within three months, where there are no concerns in other evaluation areas.”
Reforms won’t reduce ‘stress’ and ‘high stakes’
Ofsted commissioned Sinéad Mc Brearty, chief executive of well-being charity Education Support, to carry out an independent review of the impact of its inspection reforms on the workload and well-being of the education workforce.
She concluded that stress related to inspection is “unlikely to materially change whilst the ‘high stakes’ consequences remain broadly intact” despite the reforms.
In response, Ofsted said: “We recognise that inspections can be stressful. That is to some extent inevitable in an inspection system fundamentally aimed at ensuring that proper standards of education and safeguarding are in place, and that parents are fully informed on those matters.
“However, we are determined to minimise this stress where we can. We fully believe the changes we have made do this, and that they will lead to a more informative, transparent and fairer system of reporting that better serves children and learners, parents and carers, and professionals and providers.”
It is not yet clear what accountability measures the Department for Education will attach to Ofsted results under the new report card system.
Ofsted vs unions
Ofsted’s consultation response goes heavy on parental backing for its reform proposals.
The watchdog said independent polling from YouGov showed almost seven out of 10 of parents surveyed said they prefer the new-look report cards to Ofsted’s current inspection reports. And just 15 per cent said they preferred the old system.
Ofsted also recognised that a “small but vocal minority are calling for reduced accountability or removing grading altogether”.
“We do not agree,” the inspectorate said, and added: “The changes we are introducing are fair and empathetic for professionals, but without losing sight of our core purpose to raise standards.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, hit back.
“Inspections should do two things – provide parents with an accurate reflection of a school’s performance while doing so without placing an excessive burden on staff. Ofsted’s plans achieve neither objective,” he said.
“The tweaks made to its proposals following the consultation period are just that – minor and cosmetic changes to a flawed rationale. To make matters worse, the planned introduction of this system is far too rushed and gives little time to prepare for a huge change in how they will be inspected.”
Di’Iasio warned the “consistency” of Ofsted judgments will continue to be “unreliable” and the new inspection system will place a “huge amount of stress on school and college leaders and their staff because they will face so many judgements across so many areas”.
“Let’s remember that this entire process began with the suicide of a headteacher under the previous inspection system. Yet here we are with a reformed system which appears to be even worse. We are gravely concerned about the welfare of leaders and teachers as well as the impact on recruitment and retention,” he added.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said Sir Martyn Oliver “has failed” in his attempt to bring in a system that reduces pressure.
“Removing the single word judgment was meant to be a powerful revolution, but this makes things much worse. More of the same. More pressure. More ranking and competition. More labels.”
He added that NEU “completely reject that a Nando’s style 1-5 grading scale is good for children or parents”.
A letter has been sent to education secretary Bridget Phillipson today signed by unions and a host of national organisations, ex-school inspectors and Ruth Perry’s sister Julia Waters requesting that the government intervenes and delays the roll out of new Ofsted system “before it’s too late”.
David Hughes, CEO of the Association of Colleges said: “We will only know if this is going to work from the first inspections implementing it.
“We remain concerned about the speed of implementation at the busiest time of the year for colleges, with enrolment and induction underway of new students at the start of the academic year.”
Further education, apprenticeships and skills training providers will see more grades and more performance data in their inspection reports from November as Ofsted introduces its new-look report cards.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver set out to reform inspections with a bolstered focus on inclusion and teacher workload and report cards that better flag what providers do well and what needs to improve.
Ofsted received over 6,500 responses to its consultation on its reform proposals and has today announced its decisions affecting inspections from November.
Here’s your FE Week guide to the key decisions…
New grading scale
From November, familiar ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ grades will be replaced.
Ofsted will proceed with a new five-point grading scale, but the grade titles have changed from what was proposed in February.
Initially proposed replacement grades like ‘secure’ and ‘causing concern’ were “confusing” and “too harsh” on providers, according to consultation feedback.
The new scale will be: ‘exceptional’, ‘strong standard’, ‘expected standard’, ‘needs attention’, and ‘urgent improvement’.
Ofsted said their baseline expectations across the new inspection system are for the ‘expected standard’ grade. Anything below that will get you ‘needs attention or ‘urgent improvement’ and above will get you ‘strong standard’ or ‘exemplary’.
Plans to replace ‘outstanding’ with an elite committee-approved ‘exemplary’ grade have been ditched for being “too complex” and burdensome.
Instead, the ‘exceptional’ grade can be awarded in the same way as the other grades, by meeting the criteria set out in the toolkit (more on that below).
Providers receiving a ‘needs attention’ grade in their inspection will be subject to a one to two-day monitoring visit, but it’s not yet known how the new grades will trigger contractual or FE Commissioner intervention.
Alongside inspection grades, Ofsted’s new report cards for FE and skills providers will also feature performance data. This will include the 16-18 overall achievement rate, 19+ achievement rate, apprenticeship pass rate and apprenticeship overall achievement rate.
Example FE report card
Reduced headline grades
Following the consultation, the maximum number of grades an FE and skills provider can be awarded under new inspections has reduced from 20 to 16.
Consultation respondents said Ofsted’s original proposals for up to 20 could be “difficult to manage”.
Report cards will now list and explain three grades per provision-type, rather than the proposed four. Planned curriculum and developing teaching and training grades have been merged.
So a large further education college with apprenticeships, programmes for young people, programmes for adults, apprenticeships and high needs will get three grades for each type of provision: curriculum, teaching and training, achievement and participation and development.
Colleges and designated institutions will continue to be graded on ‘contribution to skills needs’, but this will now be graded on Ofsted’s five-point scale, rather than the current, ‘limited’, ‘reasonable’ and ‘strong’ scale.
Alongside those, each inspection will deliver a provider-wide grade for inclusion, leadership and governance using the five-point scale, and safeguarding using the familiar ‘met’ or ‘not met’ grades.
FE respondents to the consultation flagged existing criteria around behaviour and attitudes and personal development did not match up with the new evaluation areas. Ofsted said it has now embedded these in the participation and development criteria in the new toolkit.
Getting the grades
From November, each inspected provider will get a grade for ‘inclusion’ based on how well the needs of disadvantaged and traditionally underperforming students and apprentices are met.
That will include learners who have been eligible for free meals while at school, others from low-income families, learners and apprentices with SEND and high needs, learners who are in social care or are care leavers and those who are “known or previously known” to the youth justice system.
Inspectors will expect to see “high expectations” for those learners for the length of their course, qualified SEND professionals and that learners’ needs are “generally” met for a provider to achieve ‘expected standard’.
Leaders at all providers will have to ensure their staff have “manageable” workloads and “consider” their wellbeing in order to achieve ‘expected standard’ in the new leadership and governance grade.
But if inspectors find “inappropriate use of subcontracting” or leaders “imposing unsustainable workloads on staff which undermines moral and performance,” that could land the provider with an ‘urgent improvement.’
Example FE report card
Ofsted’s published inspection toolkit lists its criteria for each provider-level and provision-level grade to achieve each of the five possible grades.
For example, for the curriculum, teaching and training grade for each provision type, inspectors will want evidence on the quality of curriculum leadership, curriculum design, teaching and learning quality and inclusive teaching practices.
The achievement grades will depend on evidence proving inclusive attainment, progress and preparation for positive destinations.
And participation and development will include the quality of leadership, attendance, behaviour, dealing with bullying and learners’ access to development and enrichment activities.
‘Not such a burden’
Ofsted said it has taken concern about inspection-related workloads “extremely seriously” and claimed “nothing” in the new toolkit adds to providers’ to-do lists.
It assures providers: “We do not expect any provider to be doing more than it needs to just ‘for Ofsted’.”
The inspectorate said it accepts that unacceptably low standards are more often because professionals are “struggling in difficult circumstances” rather than “malign intent”.
As a result, it wants to balance protecting children and learners with “giving professionals the support they need”.
It hopes to “ease concerns” through changes include capping hours inspectors can be on site each day, reducing evaluation areas, clarifying distinction between grades, and changing inspectors’ approach to the ‘exceptional’ grade.
The early proposals were first “tested and revised” with providers in April and May, which found many FE and skills providers “disagreed” that their workload would be reduced.
In response, Ofsted said it reduced evaluation areas, revised its methodology, clarified and “constrained” expectations and removed the “deep dive” approach.
To avoid burdening providers with long days,new operating guidance says inspectors should not arrive on site before 8.30am and should leave by 5.45pm, other than in “exceptional circumstances”.
‘Likely to cause stress’
The inspectorate also commissioned an independent ‘wellbeing impact assessment’ that found the introduction of a new framework is likely to cause stress as providers adapt.
The assessment, carried out by consultancy Education Support between April and July, found that long-term stress levels are “unlikely to change materially change” while the high stakes consequences of inspections remain intact.
A key concern of the review is the “pervasive perception” across the education sector that additional work is created through the need to keep an “audit trail” of records for inspectors, which creates “additional work”.
Ofsted could “shift the dial” on this under its new framework – but only if the inspectorate establishes an “evidence base” of current demands on providers and carries out an independently verified evaluation.
The time and resource the inspectorate has put into should also “gradually increase trust”, but stakeholders’ “deep frustration” with “tokenistic consultation” on the design of the new framework has had a negative impact.
In response to specific recommendations in the report, Ofsted said it hopes that reforms to the “whole process” of inspection will improve wellbeing, particularly for principals who face isolation and high levels of individual responsibility.
Specific measures for leaders include naming chairs of governors in reports alongside CEOs, sharing emerging grades early to reduce “unexpected findings”, and tailoring inspections to providers’ contexts.
In the longer term, the inspectorate promises that its strategy and delivery unit – set up last year – will “track the progress” of actions it’s pledged to take.
It will also commission “in-depth qualitative research” of the renewed framework’s impact in spring next year.
The government has confirmed plans to create five “defence-focused” technical excellence colleges to “make the country safer and boost jobs”.
Applications for existing colleges to win funding to be a technical excellence college (TEC) will go live by the end of this calendar year, with successful centres to be launched in 2026.
The announcement was made in the government’s new defence industrial strategy published this week.
Other strategy elements include increased nuclear-related apprenticeships, a clearing style system for apprenticeships and a defence skills passport.
Defence secretary John Healey said: “It’s British workers who gave UK companies the leading edge in defence innovation and industry.
“Our defence industrial strategy puts skills at the heart of the Government’s plans to make the country safer and boost jobs across the UK.
“This is the biggest defence skills plan in decades, a plan to boost Britain’s security and create well paid, high-skilled jobs for young people for generations to come.”
The government hopes the defence sector plan will help make the UK a “defence industrial superpower” by 2035.
It has also earmarked £250 million in investment for “defence growth deals” for five locations: Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Sheffield and Plymouth.
The five colleges
The five defence TECs will follow ten construction TECs confirmed in August, which will each receive a share of £80 million in capital and £20 million in revenue over the next four years.
Officials will work with the defence industry to identify where the TECs would be “best placed” to address “large demand for skilled workers” from specialist industries.
As with the construction TECs, the funding will be both revenue and capital and will be aimed at building “capacity and capability” for teaching, curriculum development, specialist equipment and facilities for “cutting-edge defence skills provision”.
It is not yet clear whether the defence TEC’s will be UK-wide or just available in England like their construction counterparts.
Careers and upskilling
The college funding is part of a “comprehensive” £182 million package aimed at skills for the defence industry that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) says will help train people for roles such as submarine engineers, specialist welders, and cyber warfare specialists.
Through the National Nuclear Strategic Plan for Skills (NNSPS), launched last year, the sector aims to “double” defence nuclear apprentice and graduate intakes, creating 22,000 apprenticeships and 9,000 graduate roles over the ten years.
There are currently about 24,000 apprentices supported by the MOD each year.
To help plug workforce gaps, the ministry also plans to launch an ‘apprenticeship and graduate clearing system’ that will offer opportunities in the defence sector to those who narrowly miss out on defence graduate and apprenticeship schemes, which are “typically oversubscribed”.
Officials also plan to establish a ‘defence universities alliance’ for a “more strategic relationship” with the higher education sector, and will “explore” a partnership with the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to promote defence careers.
To encourage mid-career transitions into the defence industry, the MOD will “scope the development” of a ‘defence skills framework’ that will include a defence skills passport to enable a “smoother identification and transfer” between armed forces, defence industry and neighbouring industries.
The government says funding will also pay for “thousands” of short courses so that defence employers can train new and current staff “more quickly”, although details of this remain limited.
Skills England will play a “crucial role” in the MOD’s strategy to support the defence industry, by “providing the authoritative voice” on skills needs, analysing local and regional needs, and mobilising employers.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The defence sector doesn’t just keep the British people safe; it drives growth and unlocks opportunities for young people to learn pioneering skills and pursue a great career.
“This investment and our new defence technical excellence colleges will break down barriers to opportunity for people in every corner of our country, drive economic growth as part of our Plan for Change and secure the UK’s place in the world, putting us at the cutting edge of innovation and new technology.”
Three MPs from Labour’s class of 2024 have been appointed ministers at the Department for Education in this weekend’s reshuffle.
While education secretary Bridget Phillipson kept her role and skills minister Jacqui Smith was given a new department to co-work in, it was all change elsewhere in the ministerial ranks.
Schools minister Catherine McKinnell, children’s minister and Commons skills spokesperson Janet Daby and early years minister Stephen Morgan moved out.
In their place came Georgia Gould, Josh MacAlister and Olivia Bailey – all elected to parliament for the first time last year. While Gould replaced McKinnell at the minister of state rank, MacAlister and Bailey are at the more junior parliamentary under-secretary of state level. Their specific portfolios have not yet been confirmed.
The reshuffle comes at the start of a busy term for education. Ofsted’s inspection reforms will be announced tomorrow and the curriculum and assessment review, SEND reforms and schools and post-16 white papers are due before Christmas.
Here’s FE Week’s trusty need to know on the new education ministers…
Georgia Gould, education minister
Gould, the MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, was a councillor in the London borough of Camden from 2010 to 2024, serving as the authority’s leader from 2017 to 2024. Camden includes the constituency represented by Sir Keir Starmer
Before her promotion to become a minister of state at the DfE, Gould was a parliamentary under-secretary of state, a more junior minister, in the Cabinet Office. According to the government’s website, she had responsibility for public sector reform, oversight of government functions and public bodies policy
She is the daughter of New Labour grandee Lord Philip Gould and Baroness Gail Rebuck, the current chair of publishing house Penguin Random House
In 2015, Gould wrote a book titled Wasted: How Misunderstanding Young Britain Threatens Our Future. Writing about it, she said: “Young people don’t just want a job, they want the opportunity for creativity, entrepreneurialism and to be part of something bigger than themselves. The big challenge for Labour is to hold as many aspirations for young people as they do for themselves.” One of her solutions was for “radical devolution”
Gould told the Local Government Chronicle it was while attending Camden School for Girls that she saw the “depths of inequality” in her borough. “I saw more and more of my friends and people I was at school with leaving education early and meeting all sorts of barriers,” she said. In another piece, she described herself as a “proud feminist” and points out the school was founded by suffragist Frances Mary Buss
Within months of becoming an MP, MacAlister tabled a private members bill to ban smartphones in schools in October 2024. The bill has since been watered down, instead calling for the education secretary to research the impact of children’s use of social media and the digital age of consent to rise from 13 to 16 years. He has also called for a “resurgence of civics in schools”
In 2013, MacAlister established Frontline, a graduate social working training programme modelled on Teach First. It was provided with £45 million funding from the Department for Education in 2019
MacAlister is married to Matt Hood, an education policy expert who helped found and then lead the Oak National Academy
Olivia Bailey, junior education minister
Bailey became MP for Reading West and Mid Berkshire – a newly-created seat – in the 2024 election
Her family has education ties. Her mother worked as a secondary school teacher and her father, Roy Bailey, is deputy leader and executive member for education at Bracknell Forest Council
Bailey has brushed shoulders with senior party leaders, working as head of domestic policy to Starmer from 2020 to 2022. She also worked for two years as the party’s head of domestic policy
She previously worked as director and then partner at Public First, a consultancy which has clients in the education sector. Public First partner Ed Dorrell is currently advising the DfE on drafting its upcoming schools white paper
At university, Bailey served as women’s officer of the National Union of Students from 2009 to 2011. Here, she published the first national study into harassment and abuse suffered by female students
Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to move adult skills policy out of DfE and into a new “super ministry” focused on workforce productivity and growth is a golden opportunity for the FE sector and the country.
Details are still emerging on exactly how this latest machinery of government change will pan out under its new secretary of state, Pat McFadden.
DfE officialdom will resent the fact that a large chunk of its FE budget is to be taken away. Education ministers are set to lose responsibility for at least £5 billion of annual public expenditure, including the apprenticeship budget and the adult skills fund.
Skills England shift
Skills England will become an arms-length body of a UK-wide department, which itself presents an opportunity to create a more coherent approach to skills and devolution. The emergence of “post-code lotteries” for adult learners and costly “parallel skills bureaucracies” across the UK has created stark inequities and inefficiencies in delivery.
McFadden, born in Scotland and representing an English Midlands constituency since 2005, is a stalwart of the Labour movement, having cut his teeth in student politics.
Of course, this move takes place in the context of a terrible decade for adult learning. Following the Wolf Review in 2011, the Conservatives significantly reduced the qualifications available to those seeking access to the lower rungs of the opportunity ladder.
Austerity delivered cuts of 40 per cent to the adult community budget. It meant that participation has plummeted, from 5 million 16-64 years in FE during the early 2000s to just above 2 million today. Historically, we are far removed from the working-class self-improvement movements of the nineteenth century that gave rise to the first mechanics’ institutes.
Sluggish growth
The tragedy is that this underinvestment in publicly funded skills capacity has coincided with sluggish productivity growth, exacerbated by the fact that private sector training volumes have halved since the abolition of the industrial training boards in the early 1980s. Many workers are paid little more in real terms today than they were at the time of the 2008 global financial crash.
It is one of the leading causes of today’s cost-of-living crisis. That’s because the skills engine has been allowed to decouple from the growth engine: policy has focused on tinkering around with skills supply instead of focusing more laser-like on tackling skills demand.
Focusing on demand requires an entirely different policy approach from the one that Whitehall officials have been pursuing. Instead of top-down training products designed by the centre and delivered via FE, the model needs to shift its focus to skills utilisation and creating good jobs in every community. It requires local differentiation within a universal framework of properly funded learning entitlements. Crucially, it requires the seamless integration between domestic skills policy and the issuance of work visas to overseas nationals.
The new ministry has these kinds of levers, should it choose to use them. For example, instead of the emphasis on taking minimum-wage jobs inherent in universal credit eligibility, it should now be possible to upskill and reskill the workforce to secure higher-paid employment.
It can also implement strategies to address the impending job dislocations that will result from increased automation and AI.
Levy upside
Apprenticeships are another area that could benefit substantially from a UK-wide approach. I dedicate a whole chapter to this issue in my forthcoming book.
After all, the growth and skills levy is collected on a UK-wide basis. Employment policy is reserved for Westminster. By reclassifying apprenticeships as part of employment policy, ministers would acquire the levers to ensure a common approach to apprenticeship standards and delivery regardless of whether apprentices and firms reside in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Such a move would help bolster the UK’s internal market, as well as reduce red tape for training providers and assessment bodies to work in all four nations.
Of course, success alone doesn’t come from government machinery changes. However, this move by Keir Starmer might just get what has been a hollow and hugely disappointing year for skills policy back on track.
Education Partnership North East CEO Ellen Thinnesen will become England’s fourth FE Commissioner in January – and face a new Ofsted inspection framework, a post-16 education strategy reboot and calls for a “reset” with the sector.
Announcing the appointment last week, the Department for Education said Thinnesen would be expected to “drive improvement at pace across the sector” and play a “key role” in helping the government tackle the rising numbers of young people not in education, employment and training (NEET).
Thinnesen said it was a “great privilege” to take on the role at a “crucial time when skills are vital to delivering the government’s missions for growth and opportunity”.
By the time Thinnesen officially takes over from current FE Commissioner (FEC) Shelagh Legrave, the new Ofsted inspection regime should be in place, the government will have set out November’s Budget, and the long-awaited white paper on post-16 education and skills should be published.
College and sector leaders say each of these issues will shape Thinnesen’s tenure as FEC at the same time as colleges battle mounting staffing, capacity and financial challenges.
The announcement came months after a national leader of FE, part of the FEC team, was parachuted in to support the interim principal of Burnley College after Ofsted inspectors found the college had “misled” students by inflating achievement rate data.
The incoming FEC will inherit an intervention caseload including South Devon College, which recently required a £1.5 million loan to ease cash pressures, and Weston College, which is under investigation for historic financial irregularities.
Legrave’s legacy
The FEC role first appeared in the 2013 DfE strategy document Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills as the government’s chief troubleshooter for underperforming colleges. Ministers empowered the post to demand “rapid”, “rigorous” and “decisive” improvements to struggling colleges’ financial management and/or education quality or face serious sanctions.
Since then, the role has evolved, with principals welcoming the current FE Commissioner Legrave’s focus on pre-emptive action and support services to avoid formal intervention.
Colin Booth, chief executive of Luminate Education Group, said the commissioner’s office must retain the supportive and approachable reputation it gained under Legrave.
Legrave
“I think Shelagh’s made the FE Commissioner’s office something you can go to for support and help. It’s much more approachable. There isn’t another part of the DfE that is almost entirely populated with people who used to run colleges,” he said.
Booth also valued Legrave’s visibility in the sector, particularly her frequent college visits, and hoped that will continue.
Alun Francis, CEO of Blackpool and The Fylde College and the government’s social mobility commissioner, agreed.
He told FE Week: “I think Ellen’s a really good choice. I’m particularly pleased to see somebody whose experience is in northern colleges and post-industrial towns. Having that perspective is helpful.
“What I would say about my experience of the last two FE commissioners is we’ve seen a real evolution in the way they’ve worked. They’ve made the role focused on the right kind of approach, which is early intervention support, less crisis intervention, more about helping people navigate the challenges of FE in a successful way.”
Stop. Collaborate and Thinnesen
While the FEC role has evolved, its core function remains turning around underperforming colleges. It’s not clear how one central intervention trigger – the ‘inadequate’ overall effectiveness Ofsted grade – will apply under the inspectorate’s proposed new inspection model, which does away with the headline overall grade and introduces up to 20 individual grades for colleges.
College finances are now overseen directly by the DfE following the closure of the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
David Hughes, chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said the relationship between the FEC, Ofsted and DfE was ripe for a “reset” and should be “set out clearly”.
Hughes added that the commissioner should avoid sliding back into a “punitive intervention regime”, and called for notices to improve on quality improvement to be issued “sparingly rather than liberally”.
He said: “I think there’s a reset moment I’m hoping Ellen will help lead, because what we don’t want is a return to a sort of punitive intervention regime. We want a balance, and intervention only where it’s the last resort.”
Booth mused that the upcoming white paper could call upon the FEC’s expertise beyond colleges, noting that crackdowns on subcontracting and talk of area reviews, mergers and insolvencies in universities mirror proposed solutions to colleges’ financial struggles over the past decade.
Francis believes the commissioner’s office should push harder on collaboration.
“Some of the new challenges for colleges are going to be how do you collaborate with neighbouring colleges, and with other partners like HE,” he said. The FEC, he added, is well-placed to spread good practice on curriculum efficiency, governance and leadership.
But Francis was clear that college staffing should be a top priority for Thinnesen.
“There’s a real challenge around wellbeing of our staff, not just recruitment and retention. I think that’s going to be an important theme over the next few years,” he said.
Jacqui Smith has been re-appointed as minister for skills in Keir Starmer’s ministerial reshuffle.
Number 10 confirmed today Smith will stay on as minister for skills, but will work in the Department for Work and Pensions as well as the Department for Education.
It’s means Smith now has two bosses, education secretary Bridget Phillipson and new work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden.
Smith told FE Week: “I’m delighted and proud to have been appointed as minister for skills working across DWP and DfE.
“Skills are critical for our plan for change, to ensure lifelong opportunity and now even more clearly at the heart of the Government’s growth mission.”
McFadden replaced Liz Kendall last night and took the “skills” brief from Phillipson. However it’s not clear what “skills” policy will move to DWP and what will stay in the DfE.
Phillipson said last night: “Delighted to remain in post as education secretary and minister for women & equalities in this Labour government.
“Now, we redouble our efforts to break the unfair link between background and success by giving children growing up in our country the best start in life.”
Schools minister Catherine McKinnell has left the government after declining a different ministerial role.
Her resignation letter to the prime minister said: “whilst I was honoured to be offered a role to remain in government, I have made the decision to resign during this reshuffle. I hope in the future I may be able to serve again in a role through which I can make a difference.”
Janet Daby, who was minister for children and families and represented Smith on FE, HE and skills in the House of Commons, has also left the government.
Stephen Morgan, who was minister for early education, has been redeployed to the whips’ office.
New ministers
Former council leader Georgia Gould has been appointed a minister of state at the DfE and Josh MacAlister and Olivia Bailey have become parliamentary under-secretaries of state (junior ministers).
Gould, Bailey and MacAlister were all first elected to the House of Commons in last year’s general election.
The government is yet to confirm the individual portfolios for these new ministers and who will speak on FE, HE and skills in the House of Commons given Smith sits in the House of Lords.
The government is planning to pull the skills brief out of the Department for Education and move it to a new department.
Prime minister Keir Starmer is understood to be moving the skills brief to the Department for Work and Pensions, under a new secretary of state, Pat McFadden.
This brings to an end nearly a decade during which policy for education and skills was managed together under one government department.
A new reported ‘growth department’ will be formed from the current Department for Work and Pensions and will include skills.
Pat McFadden, formerly of the Cabinet Office, moved jobs in today’s cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of Angela Rayner.
Skills minister Jacqui Smith will continue in the role across both the DfE and DWP. It is not clear whether responsibility for 16-19 education, universities or apprenticeships will be moved along with adult education.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson remains in post. Liz Kendall, who was work and pensions secretary, has been appointed secretary of state for science, innovation and technology.
Skills is no stranger to being bumped around government departments.
Government policy for employment and skills last sat together between 1995 and 2001 at the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE).
Then the last Labour government split DfEE, creating a Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and a Department for Work and Pensions.
Skills was moved to a Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) in 2007 until 2009 when it went to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
