EuroSkills 2023: Well wishes pour out for Team UK ahead of Poland competition

The skills minister has praised the “dedication and expertise” of the 20 young people representing the UK in this year’s EuroSkills ahead of the competition taking place next week.

Robert Halfon congratulated the team and wished them and good luck ahead of the three-day tournament in Gdańsk, Poland.

“I want to send my congratulations and good luck to Team UK at EuroSkills in Gdańsk, who are ready to showcase the pinnacle of British skills, ranging from cooking to industrial robotics,” said Halfon.

The 20 gifted young tradespeople from across the UK will compete in 17 skills such as cabinet making, hairdressing and web development,. They will look to beat the 2018 results, where the UK won one gold medal, three bronze medals and 7 Medallions for Excellence.

Halfon said that the competitors’ skills they will bring to the competition are a “testament to the excellence of our skills education”.

“WorldSkills UK is fostering the next generation of skilled workers and ensuring equal access to opportunities, whilst championing technical education globally,” he added.

The event marks the first EuroSkills competition since 2018, which was held in Budapest, Hungary. But the leadup to this year’s EuroSkills for the UK has been nothing if not rocky.

After Hungary, the 2020 event, due to be held in the Austrian city of Graz, was pushed back by a year due to the pandemic.

In an unprecedented decision, the UK pulled out of the competition because of “too much ongoing uncertainty” and changing conditions of Covid security – the first time the UK has pulled out of any WorldSkills competition in its 73-year history.

The eighth biennial event was originally scheduled to take place in St Petersburg, Russia this August, but was postponed after Russia and Belarus were suspended from the WorldSkills and EuroSkills 2023 competitions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, Poland was chosen to host EuroSkills 2023. With the event now finally within sight, well-wishers from across the industry have come together to support Team UK.

“Seeing representatives from Team UK competing with the very best in the world really serves to highlight the skills and talent we have across the sector,” said Emma Meredith, director of skills policy and global engagement at the Association of Colleges.

“These students are the very people who will be helping to drive the country’s economy and businesses forward, now and in the future.”

Paul Warner, director of strategy and business development at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “I want to wish a massive good luck to Team UK as they embark on their trip to Gdansk for next week’s EuroSkills. This year, learners from some of AELP members are taking part in the UK’s entry and we look forward to seeing how they get on.”

Former Team UK members also came out to wish the team good luck, such as web developer Lewis Newton, who was a Team UK member at the WorldSkills Special Edition 2022. “As we count down the days to EuroSkills, I wish Team UK the very best of luck,” he said.

Employers such as Siemens also recanted their pride in the competitors Ben Love and Lucy Yelland for their achievement in making Team UK.

Joanne Gogerly, head of Siemens Professional Education UK & Nordics at Siemens Plc, said: “Well done to Lucy and Ben, Siemens is extremely proud of your progress in this competition. Good luck in Poland.”

“Lucy and Ben have been fantastic since they entered the WorldSkills UK National Final in Mechatronics only a year ago,” Professor Mehmet Karamanoglu from Middlesex University said. “Really proud of your achievement, Good luck in Gdansk.”

Team UK will fly to Gdansk on September 4 in preparation for the competitions which will run between September 6 and 8.

FE Week is Team UK’s media partner and will be joining them for the whole week and will be producing an on-location supplement following the closing ceremony on September 9.

Keep up with all the action from the competition on feweek.co.uk or on Twitter with the handle @FEWeek and the #TeamUK hashtag.

Three new deputy FE commissioners join Legrave 

The FE commissioner’s team of deputies has been revamped with three new appointments.

Nigel Duncan, Becky Lazzarato Edwards, and Phil Cook have all been approved by education secretary Gillian Keegan to the roles.

They now form part of Shelagh Legrave’s team, who had her term extended as chief FE commissioner in August. 

The deputies work with colleges who have either requested support or who are in formal intervention due to concerns with poor quality of education provision or poor financial health. Each deputy is expected to undertake up to 200 days’ work per year. They are currently each remunerated at £700 per day.  

The SMB Group is the latest college to be put into intervention, after the Education and Skills Funding Agency found in July that it was facing “severe cashflow problems”. 

But the number of colleges entering intervention has fallen sharply since a high of 13 in the year to August 2020. That fell steeply to two in the year to August 2022. 

Nigel Duncan has been appointed until 31 August 2026. 

Duncan was appointed as an FE adviser in August 2019 and then served as an interim deputy commissioner in January 2021. Before that he was principal of Fareham College for seven years. He was named an OBE for services to further education in 2019, and worked at seven colleges in total. 

Becky Lazzarato Edwards has been appointed until 31 August 2026. 

Edwards spent three years as an FE adviser after her appointment in March 2020. She was also a finance director at both the City of Bristol and Strode Colleges. 

Phil Cook has been appointed until 31 August 2026. 

He spent more than 20 years in the education sector, which included a nine-year stint as chief executive of the Education Training Collective. While there he led the merger of Stockton Riverside College and NETA Training in 2015, and then a further merger with Redcar and Cleveland College in August 2018. He was made an OBE this year for services to education.

They join Frances Wadsworth, who was reappointed for a third term as deputy commissioner back in April. She will remain in post until 2025.

Meredydd David, Steve Hutchinson, Martin Sim and Andrew Tyley, who were set to leave their posts as deputy commissioners, have now had them extended until the end of 2023 to help the transition. 

Meanwhile, two former college principals have left their role as national leaders of FE. Kate Roe, has left Darlington College after nine years as its principal to go travelling. She is replaced by David Gartland, who joins the college after five years heading up Abbeygate Sixth Form College in Bury Saint Edmunds. Paul Phillips has also stood down from Weston College and so vacates his national leadership role.

Investing in elite post-16 education is a wasted opportunity

The 15 new free schools approved by the government last week are an unforgivable wasted opportunity and the direct opposite of ‘levelling up’.

Nine of the 15 new schools will be elitist 16 to 19 year free schools. These new schools will be focused on selective and mostly academic level 3 provision. They are therefore explicitly an investment in provision for young people who have already achieved well at age 16. ‘Levelling up’ should be primarily about the young people who have fallen behind at age 16.

By increasing the number of selective schools and colleges that focus only on recruiting half of young people at age 16, we marginalise and undervalue the other half of our young people. And by institutionally separating those two halves from each other based on academic attainment, we are recreating at age 16 a system with the same fundamental flaws as grammar schools impose on 11-year-olds.

Moreover, we risk investing less and thinking less about those who don’t make the grade at age 16 and don’t enjoy the parental or other support to catch up.

This is already happening. In talking about the small number of young people who will access these new schools, ministers and media commentators seem totally uninterested in what we could or should be doing for young people who do not achieve five good GCSEs.

Education policy should instead be focused on directly and significantly improving investment, opportunities and results for the more than half of young people who will not benefit from new and elitist 16 to 19 free schools. In particular, post-16 education policy must create a system that works for all of our young people.

A quick win would be to ensure FE colleges benefit from the same VAT status as the new 16-to-19 free schools will enjoy (and already applies to schools and academies). There is no rational reason for this difference in treatment, which results in less funding to resource frontline teaching and support for young people from our most disadvantaged communities. The proportion of young people in FE colleges who stem from the most deprived communities is often double that in selective academic sixth forms.

We are at a critical stage in the development of our national 16-to-19 education system. We need to see real investment in the sector. This isn’t just a matter of equity for young people; it is also crucial to the governments’ agenda to deliver the skills the economy and employers need.

They put at risk the stability of FE colleges

Every area now has a local skills improvement plan (LSIP) led by local employers. FE colleges are required by law to match their courses and curriculum to these LSIPs’ priorities. But these new free schools won’t be subject to the same legal requirement. They can, and probably will, completely ignore their LSIP.

In the places where they are established, their main impact will be to increase the choice of schools and colleges for young people who want level 3 academic study. This will increase competition between providers and eventually lead to the unplanned and chaotic failure and closure of other school sixth forms or college provisions. The overall impact will be felt worst by young people who do not immediately follow a level 3 academic programme.

National investment in education should carefully take account of the wider impact of changes to the structure and stability of the whole system. Recent decisions do not do this. These new schools will increase local competition for those who are already more advantaged and well served by the education system and put at risk the stability of FE colleges who provide for young people from all backgrounds and attainment levels.

Post-16 education planning and policy are dysfunctional. Local authorities continue to have the main legal responsibility for sufficiency of 16-to-19 education and training, but they have no formal role in the kind of decision making process that resulted in the investment in 15 new free schools.

It is a fundamental flaw that there is no effective local or national accountability or responsibility for creating a post-16 education system that has ‘sufficient suitable education and training provision for all young people’.

The long-term interests of young people will be better served by fixing that.

8 key findings from DfE’s first FE workforce data release

Underrepresentation of ethnic minority leaders, gender pay gaps, the size of vacancy rates and scale of governors serving for over 10 years have been revealed in new FE workforce data.

The 2021 Skills for Jobs white paper set out Department for Education plans to introduce a mandatory, comprehensive data collection on the FE workforce, the same as they do with schools and higher education.

The first release, published today, covers the 2021/22 academic year and includes data from over 1,250 general FE colleges, sixth form colleges and private training providers.

Here’s what you need to know…

9 in 10 FE leaders are white

In 2021/22, 18.9 per cent of the further education workforce identified as belonging to an ethnic minority group – which is around the same proportion as the ethnic minority population in England and Wales (18.3 per cent).

But ethnic minorities are not equally represented at leadership positions.

In general FE colleges, just 8.4 per cent of leaders are non-white, compared to 7.9 per cent in sixth form colleges and 6.2 per cent in private training providers.

Proportion of white staff by job role

Sixth form college teachers earn almost £10k more than GFEs

The median average annual salary for teaching staff in 2021/22 was £33,400 in general FE colleges, compared to £42,100 in sixth form colleges.

Over in private training providers, teachers are paid £28,100 a year on average.

The median salary for leaders in both general FE colleges and sixth form colleges was around £65,000, while leaders in private providers earn on average £50,000 a year.

Comparing those figures to schools, data shows that as of November 2022, the average school classroom teacher’s salary was £40,251. Meanwhile, school leader average pay was £70,831.

More women in the sector…

There are an estimated 205,200 people working in FE – 65.6 per cent of which are female.

General FE colleges had a higher proportion of female “leaders” (55.6 per cent), compared to sixth form colleges (49.3 per cent) and private providers (51.7 per cent).

Three out of every five (60.2 per cent) FE teachers are female, which is similar to the 61 per cent of learners participating in FE and skills in 2021/22 who were female.

The data also shows 0.4 per cent of the FE workforce “identifies in another way”, while 6.5 per cent preferred not to identify their gender.

…but men are paid more

The data shows that males earn more on average than females in almost all areas of the FE workforce and all provider types.

Female leaders in general FE colleges earn on average £64,011 compared to £66,569 for males.

And female general FE college teachers earn £32,445 on average compared to £34,174 for males.

Pay differs by region and subject

If you’re an FE teacher in London you’ll earn more than all other areas of the country, where the average salary is £37,697, followed by the West Midlands where the average salary is £36,155.

The lowest average FE teacher salary is paid in Yorkshire and the Humber – £30,400.

There was a £12,800 (47 per cent) difference between the highest and lowest paid average salary by subject.

Teaching staff teaching geography as their main subject had the highest median annual salary of £40,100, while teaching staff teaching animal care as their main subject had the lowest median annual salary of £27,300.

5.4 per 100 teaching position vacant

Colleges and private providers have found it increasingly difficult in recent years to recruit and retain teachers, as they struggle to compete with salaries offered both in industry and schools.

By the end of 2021/22, the DfE’s data shows that 5.4 per 100 teaching positions were vacant across the sector.

Sixth form colleges (1.4 per 100 positions) had the lowest unfilled vacancy rate for teaching staff and other public funded providers the highest (6.3 per 100).

General FE colleges had an unfilled vacancy rate for teaching staff of 1.4 per 100 positions, while private providers had 4.5 per 100 positions.

By region, the highest unfilled teaching vacancy rate for general FE colleges was in Yorkshire and The Humber (8.5 per 100), and for sixth form colleges, was in the West Midlands (3.8 per 100).

There was also 2.6 per 100 management and leadership positions vacant by the end of 2021/22.

Scale of governors serving for over 10 years revealed

There were 3,000 governors serving in general FE colleges in 2021/22, and around 800 in sixth form colleges.

In December, FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave said the number of governors who are “too comfortable” as they have served more than 10 years was a key issue for her, but figures to aid this concern were not released.

The FE governance guide says in the section on Terms of office (under Recruiting and developing governors): “All the governance codes used by corporations emphasise the value of board membership being refreshed at intervals.”

Today’s data shows that 5.3 per cent of governors in general FE colleges have served for nine to 12 years, while 3.7 per cent had served for over 12 years.

Meanwhile, 8.3 per cent of governors have served in sixth form colleges for nine to 12 years, and 9.7 per cent have served for over 12 years.

In terms of characteristics, 55 per cent of governors were male and 17.5 per cent were from an ethnic minority group.

Zero hour contracts more common in GFEs

In the 2021/22 academic year, 81.9 per cent of the whole FE workforce had permanent contracts.

Breaking this down by provider type, just over 20 per cent of workers in general FE colleges were on a zero hour or variable contract, compared to 17 per cent in sixth form colleges, and 7 per cent in private providers.

New FE workforce data reveals a significant recruitment challenge

New data on the further education (FE) workforce released for the first time by DfE today reveals that FE teachers working in general FE colleges earn significantly less than their colleagues working in other educational institutions. In 2021/22, the median salary for an FE teacher working full time in a general FE college was £33,426. Notwithstanding how the characteristics of FE teachers in FE colleges may differ from those teaching in other institutions (e.g. in number of years of experience), overall this was over £6,000 lower than for a classroom teacher in the schools sector in the same year. It was also nearly £9,000 lower than for a FE teacher working in a sixth-form college.

The extent of the recruitment challenge

The data shows that, across all FE providers at the end of the 2021/22 academic year, there were 5.4 vacant teaching positions per 100 teaching positions. These rates differed by region, with the highest rate in Yorkshire and the Humber at 8.5 vacancies per 100 teaching positions. Vacancy rates differed by subjects, with construction, electronics, agriculture and engineering and manufacturing subjects all double the national average.

Sixth form colleges vs FE colleges

The data also reveals that, while there were about 10 times more teaching staff in general FE colleges than sixth form colleges, the latter had lower vacancy rates (1.4 per 100) than the former (5.7 per 100).

While some of this may relate to the differences in median salaries, the data highlights distinct differences in contract type across the different providers. In sixth form colleges, 86 per cent of teaching staff were on a permanent contract while under five per cent were on fixed or zero-hour contracts. In comparison, 76 per cent of teaching staff in general FE colleges were on permanent contracts while around 10 per cent were on fixed-term or zero hour contracts.  

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The data reveals that male staff were more likely to work full-time and on a permanent or fixed-term contract than female staff, although teachers in the FE workforce were predominantly female (60 per cent), white (81 per cent), and with a median age of 47.  The reported median salaries for male teaching staff were higher than for female teaching staff in most FE providers, except in sixth form colleges.

Building insight and understanding

This data is a valuable new resource on the FE workforce in England – how it is recruited, retained, deployed and developed. Overall, the data provides key contextual information on the FE workforce and highlights some of the significant recruitment challenges faced by the sector.

Today’s publication of this new high-quality data is a welcome first step to addressing these challenges, by building awareness of the scale of the challenges within the sector and among policymakers. Before now, data on the FE workforce had largely been absent until the Augar review of post-18 education’s recommendation that the government ‘improve’ data collection across the sector. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) launched the FE workforce data collection in 2021 to fill this gap, which became mandatory for all eligible providers from September 2022.

This has brought data collection capacity for the FE sector in line with state-funded schools and higher education, which have had comprehensive, mandatory workforce data collections for more than a decade.

However, today’s data release is not without its limitations. The DfE notes that, while response rates to the data collection for general FE colleges and sixth form colleges were very good, they were lower for private sector and other publicly-funded providers and thus may provide an incomplete picture for those types of providers.

Additionally, since this is the first year of data, it is not yet possible to estimate retention rates for FE teachers, nor is it possible to analyse trends over time. The value of the workforce data will therefore only increase over time, as response rates improve and future waves of data enable practitioners, policymakers and researchers to draw out even more practical lessons, insights and nuance.

ESFA intervenes as Leicestershire college group hits ‘serious cashflow pressures’

A college group in Leicestershire has been placed in formal FE Commissioner intervention as it grapples with “serious cashflow pressures”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency published a financial notice to improve for the SMB Group today.

The letter, dated July 27, said “serious cashflow pressures” leaves the college at a “heighted risk”. SMB Group must now put together an improvement plan which could include staff cuts, while the need for emergency bailout funding from government will also be explored.

A spokesperson for the college group said it was facing a number of “challenges” impacting the wider sector, “including the aftermath of Covid-19 and significant economic challenges”.

“As such, the college has proactively invited the FE Commissioner in early to support our efforts to remain an economically sustainable FE provider, whilst continuing to make strides with improvements to the quality of our study offer and ensure our learners get the best possible education,” the spokesperson added.

SMB Group, which has almost 3,000 learners on its books, was created from a merger of Stephenson and Brooksby Melton colleges in 2020. Last May, Dawn Whitemore, the group’s chief executive told the Melton Times the merger was a “lifesaver” for both colleges as one was asset rich and the other was cash rich, which enabled the group to go “from strength to strength”.

But it has faced multiple financial hurdles over the last year. 

In March its finance and resources committee warned that the group was facing a “very challenging” financial climate made up of high inflation and increased transport costs, amid a “smaller learner base”.

SMB Group recorded a deficit of £3.6 million in its most recent accounts despite aiming for a surplus, which it blamed on “increasing inflation and recruitment challenges”. Those centred around high agency costs and “having to match higher salaries to attract staff in a difficult marketplace”.

In October 2022, the group noted that it was facing a clawback of T Levels funding from the government after it had recruited 50 fewer learners than it was meant to. The group was downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted in February 2023.

The FE Commissioner has now intervened to assess the “college’s capability and capacity to make the required changes and improvements”.

SMB Group must put together an outline recovery plan by the end of September, including financial planning tables, and plans to explore “further staff savings” in 2023/24 and 2024/25 alongside “a thorough review of curriculum areas”.

It must also submit a monthly cashflow template to the Department of Education, and explore the “potential for and, if necessary, the extent of any financial support required”.

The college must attend regular meetings with DfE, and if it is deemed that the college has failed to “take the necessary actions” within the timescales set out, the department “will take further action”.

David Johnston appointed children’s minister as Coutinho promoted

Former education committee member David Johnston has been appointed children’s minister after Claire Coutinho was promoted in today’s mini reshuffle.

Johnston, the MP for Wantage, becomes the fifth children’s minister in just under two years.

The post also has responsibility for the important SEND reforms, which are finally set to be trialled in chosen council areas before being rolled out across the country in a few years.

He becomes the seventh children’s minister since a landmark review to reform the broken system was launched in 2019.

Other responsibilities of the post include children in care, mental health, alternative provision, behaviour and school attendance.

Coutinho has been promoted to energy and net-zero secretary. She is known as an ally of prime minister Rishi Sunak and worked as a special adviser at the Treasury while he was the Chancellor.

She is thought to be the first MP from the 2019 election cohort to hold a seat in cabinet.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan tweeted that Coutinho will be “fantastic” in the new role, adding she was “looking forward to welcoming” Johnston to her department.

But Clare Howard, chief executive of specialist college body Natspec, said: “It is an unenviable achievement to become the fifth children’s minister in less than two years and the seventh to oversee the government’s landmark SEND reforms.

“The government needs to move away from its merry-go-round approach to governance – previous ministerial changes have led to delays in addressing serious issues, and those providing education and training to young people with SEND desperately need stability, effective leadership and prompt action to address these long-standing issues.”

What do we know about David Johnston?

Like Coutinho, Johnston became an MP in the 2019 election. He served on the education select committee from March 2020 until October 2021.

He was then parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Education for ten months before resigning in July last year in protest against Boris Johnson’s premiership.

Before becoming an MP, Johnston was chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation for more than 10 years, and also served on the Social Mobility Commission.

He was appointed an OBE in 2018 for services to social mobility and education.

According to Wikipedia, Johnston has held governor posts at Sir George Monoux Sixth Form College, where he attended as a pupil, and Pimlico Academy, founded by former academies minister Lord Nash.

Training sector pays tribute to ‘big character’ Gareth Phillips

Tributes have been paid to awarding body boss Gareth Phillips after he died following a battle with cancer.

Phillips worked in the skills training and awarding sectors for over 20 years. Most recently he founded Vistar Qualifications Ltd in 2015, which is an end-point assessment organisation for nine apprenticeship standards.

Regulator Ofqual published a notice today stating that Vistar has surrendered its recognition following Phillips’ death. The company will now be wound down.

Innovate Awarding has stepped in to maintain a record of EPA results issued by Vistar. Innovate’s chief executive Charlotte Bosworth described Phillips as “one of the big characters of the awarding and EPAO sector”.

She said: “Gareth was always on hand to provide sound advice and be a critical friend. Gareth and his contributions will be hugely missed by the sector and personally I will miss his friendship.”

Before setting up Vistar, Phillips led on commercial development at awarding body BIIAB. He was also the director of Educational Development International (EDI) Ltd before it was acquired by Pearson in 2011.

John McNamara, the incoming interim chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies and current chair of Innovate Awarding, said Phillips was a “staunch advocate for vocational skills training and always sought to put the interests of learners first.

“He is sadly missed for his positive and optimistic view on life. Whenever I met him at FAB conferences or other events, he generated energy and friendly enthusiasm, and of course humour. My thoughts and condolences go to his family at this sad time.”

Anna Phillips, who worked with her father Gareth Phillips at Vistar Qualifications, said: “Gareth will be dearly missed by all friends, colleagues, and the sector, of which he contributed greatly to, demonstrated by the kind words and heart-felt tributes received from so many people.

“He was never willing to compromise on quality and expected the highest standards and commitment from his team. Gareth guided, mentored, supported, and believed in others throughout his professional and personal life to help them to be the best they can be, and we hope this continues to positively contribute to the sector.”

Phillips was also managing director of training provider People 1st in the mid-2000s.

Paul Warner, director of strategy and business development at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “It is really sad news to hear Gareth recently passed away. As chief executive of Vistar, he brought a wealth of experience to the skills sector and his commitment to work-based learning speaks for itself. All those at AELP who knew Gareth will be thinking of him and his family.”

Lifelong loan entitlement faces ‘significant’ timescale challenges, warns DfE perm sec

The lifelong loan entitlement faces “significant challenges” that could delay the planned 2025 rollout, the Department for Education’s most senior civil servant has warned.

In a recently published assessment, DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood concluded that the flagship skills reform policy represents “good value for money and is feasible to deliver”.

However, she warned that the biggest risk to the feasibility of LLE is “significant delivery challenges to meet the 2025 launch”, including several external factors outside of the department’s control.

She has consequently imposed a further assessment at full business case stage in 2024 and a re-test of the government’s accounting officer standards.

Legislation to introduce the LLE was passed through the House of Commons in May. It is currently making its way through the Lords.

The policy, which is planned to launch for the 2025/26 academic year, will provide learners up to the age of 60 with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years – around £37,000 – of higher education study.

They will be able to use the funding over their lifetime through a credits system to study qualifications at levels 4 to 6, for both modular and full-time study at colleges, universities, and other providers registered with the Office for Students.

Acland-Hood evaluated the programme against the government’s four accounting officer standards: regularity, propriety, value for money, and feasibility.

In her evaluation, published last week, she noted that a “substantial suite of regulations” needs to be made under primary legislation and that DfE aims to lay these in 2024, “before or early in the student recruitment cycle for the 2025 to 2026 academic year”.

She said the “economic appraisal” shows that the LLE programme is likely to deliver value for money. It is expected that the entitlement will “incentivise more people to study at levels 4 to 6, including those who would not have otherwise studied because of the barriers they face in the current system,” she explained.

However, some elements of the programme are yet to be designed, and the “behavioural response” of students and providers remain “very uncertain”, Acland-Hood warned.

But the main feasibility risk of LLE is meeting the 2025 delivery timescale, and there are factors outside of the programme team’s control that “may delay the reform”.

She said: “The design and delivery of the system is highly complex, with multiple interdependencies across the whole of the HE and FE landscape.

“Furthermore, the LLE attracts interest from a wide group of political stakeholders and the public. Such complexity and public scrutiny might impact deliverability of the system within the publicly announced timescales, given the need to find compromise between different stakeholders across several interlinked areas.

“In addition, the programme depends on good partnership with the Student Loans Company and the OfS and their delivery of new systems and processes. It also depends on behavioural change among providers, learners and employers, as well as continued funding.”

Acland-Hood said she had “confidence” that the programme team is managing these risks and dependencies, adding that a recent review “recognised that the programme has so far successfully managed to deliver on time, despite its complexities”.

She concluded: “I therefore assess that, though it is not without risk, the programme meets the feasibility test, though continued attention needs to be paid to the timeframe for reform.”

A DfE spokesperson told FE Week said: “We remain on track for launching the LLE in 2025.”