For a country to be successful, its education system must enable its citizens to achieve their full potential. The world is an ever more competitive place and with the advent of AI, technology is transforming the way we work, the way we live and the way our nation’s future will be shaped.
While university is a great option, so are apprenticeships. Crucially apprenticeships are varied and wide-ranging. Nowadays young people can do apprenticeships in finance, software design and the green economy. In fact, I often wonder if apprenticeships were offered like they are now, whether I would even have gone to university in the first place. I am just better at learning when I am more hands-on, watching others, learning practically.
That is why this National Apprenticeship Week we need commit to turbo-charging apprenticeship uptake, giving people choice and flexibility as they choose their way in life. When I was president of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, too often I heard from employers about how great their apprentices were and the value they brought to their business. Crucially, these apprentices weren’t just on their first jobs. They were starting careers, inserting themselves into the DNA of their chosen businesses and becoming the future leaders of tomorrow.
While there is broad agreement among most politicians about the value of apprenticeships, just last week, analysis of data from the Centre for Social Justice showed that there were over 700,000 university graduates out of work and claiming benefits. That should tell us all that too many are ending up in university with degrees that won’t end up in jobs and huge amounts of debt at the end of three years of academic learning. That isn’t good for them and that isn’t good for the country. This is why turbo-charging apprenticeship uptake must be a national mission for all of us.
The economic case for apprenticeships is strong too. Apprenticeships offer immense value for money. For every £1 invested in level 3 apprenticeships, there is a £28 return to the wider economy. They’re also a fantastic way for businesses to tailor people’s skills for the specific role, and critically, they don’t burden people with the huge student debts that come with going to university.
The Conservatives recognise this. That’s why Kemi Badenoch committed to doubling England’s apprenticeship budget at conference.
We would fund this increase by cutting funding for rip-off degrees that leave young people with poor job prospects and an inability to pay off their crippling student debt. At present, taxpayers have to spend around £8 billion per year writing off unpaid student loans. This is a complete injustice. Hardworking taxpayers – many of whom have never been to university themselves – should not be forced to pick up the burden for poor-quality degrees that don’t get a good return.
That’s why the Conservatives want a more balanced approach that puts apprenticeships front and centre of our further education system. With nearly 1 million young people not in work, employment or training, it is clear that investment in apprenticeships is essential if we are to get the economy moving again.
The Conservatives can speak on this with great authority. As the party of aspiration, I am proud that the Conservatives created 5.5m apprenticeships between 2010 and 2024. Let there be no doubt that we are resolute in our ambition to get our young people into secure work. They deserve hope and they deserve a future. Or to adapt what Margaret Thatcher once said, when it comes to our future generations, apprenticeships are vital in “turning mirrors into windows”.
Previous Job: Director of Excellence, Learning Curve Group
Interesting fact: Rachel endured the equivalent of 35 years’ worth of Ofsted inspections – 7 across the group – in her first year at LCG
Chris Duncan
Vice Principal, Finance and Resources, Leeds College of Building
Start date: January 2026
Previous Job: Deputy Director of Finance, Leeds Trinity University
Interesting fact: Chris first walked through the doors at Leeds College of Building almost twenty years ago as a first-year trainee with KPMG as part of their audit team
A London scheme that paid £400 for every adult learner who found work in key sectors used only 2.5 per cent of its £5.4 million budget, FE Week can reveal.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan began offering job outcome payments from the capital’s adult skills fund through his Mayor’s Skills Academies programme in 2021.
Colleges and providers could claim a £400 “bonus” if a learner landed a job related to one of the mayor’s priority sectors within five months of completing an AEB-funded course.
But only £142,269 was paid out for job outcomes – from the £5.4 million available between 2021-22 and 2024-25.
And college and provider leaders complained the volume of paperwork involved meant the payments were a waste of effort.
The GLA stopped offering the payments last April after admitting take-up was “lower than expected”, but plans to re-introduce incentives with updated criteria this year.
Quality and outcomes
Job outcome payments are not usually offered to colleges or training providers through the government-managed adult skills fund, but have grown in popularity among mayors who control their own budgets.
Announcing the approach in 2018, Khan said the skills system was “too heavily focused” on delivering qualifications rather than “quality and outcomes”.
Then in 2020 the government launched skills bootcamp training courses for adults, which offer training providers a final “milestone three” payment of 20 to 30 per cent of funding per learner if learners achieve a “positive” job outcome.
Other combined authorities including West Midlands, Liverpool City Region and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough also offer payments of up to £400 for providers whose learners move into jobs after completing a work-focused training programme, although the level of uptake has not been shared publicly.
Gareth Thomas, a skills policy adviser and former director at the government’s Learning and Skills Council, welcomed the renewed interest in job outcome payments after working on national programmes that offered them in the late 2000s.
But he warned incentives for providers must be “at a level” that makes them worth the additional paperwork needed to prove learners have secured work.
London’s ‘academies’
London’s job outcome payments were available through the Mayor’s Skills Academies, a long-running programme that has co-opted colleges, independent training providers, local authorities and NHS bodies into “hubs” focused on boosting employment in priority sectors such as the green economy, creative, digital and health.
About £16 million has been spent on hub staffing, marketing, a GLA ‘quality mark’ for courses and bespoke support for underrepresented groups.
Until this week, the London authority had not released performance data for its programme and had only published one of the two programme evaluations it commissioned since 2021.
Data shared with FE Week shows colleges and training providers only claimed 336 individual payments for learners on the academies programme, which recorded 53,152 Londoners participating in training and education as a result of “hub activity”.
Only six of the 40-plus organisations that joined the academies programme claimed job outcome bonuses, with most of the funding (£110,000) going to Waltham Forest College.
Providers ‘baulk’ at paperwork
The GLA maintained strict thresholds for job outcome payments for three years until March 2024, despite knowing that training providers were concerned about the paperwork burden.
Criteria for payments included jobs being at least 16 hours per week, that the job lasted at least four consecutive weeks, paid at least the London Living Wage, and did not involve the use of zero-hour contracts.
An unpublished interim evaluation of the academies programme completed in 2023, seen by FE Week, reported that providers “baulk” at the amount of staff resource needed to make a claim.
A follow-up report by the same evaluators released late last year warned £400 was “not a sufficient incentive” for providers, with some worried that claiming the funding carried “risks of clawback”.
When contacted for comment, providers echoed these concerns – but also praised the academies programme for its “collaborative approach” to supporting “many people” into training and work.
Nishan Rajput, head of skills and employment at Big Creative, an independent training provider in north-east London, said his team found it challenging to find entry-level jobs or apprenticeships that met GLA’s London Living Wage requirement, which is equivalent to a £28,860 full-time annual salary.
Big Creative could have claimed a total of £156,000 in job outcome bonuses but only received £16,243.
Rajput told FE Week that the £400 payment was “not a massive amount” and “a bit disincentivising” for the amount of resource needed to support people into employment.
Meanwhile, West London College did not claim a single job outcome payment despite having a potential total allocation of £171,200.
Its CEO Karen Redhead said she was proud of her college’s work leading a green skills hub, which included employer-led partnerships, job coaches and employability leads.
But she added: “Whilst we recognise the need to evidence job outcome payments, this is not always straightforward to collect and payments are sometimes unclaimed.
“Consequently, the hub did not claim any job outcomes payments from the funding that was made available.”
The GLA appears to have taken this criticism on board.
Under its inclusive talent strategy, which will replicate the academies model with closer involvement from employers, it will offer providers a £500 fee for “good work” which pays at least the London Living Wage, and £300 for “other work” which pays at least the national minimum wage.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said the skills academies “played an important role” in fast-tracking Londoners into good jobs in key sectors.
They added: “These academies have helped Londoners to access free accessible training and gain the skills they need to succeed, and have supported over 21,000 Londoners into employment in sectors such as the creative industries, health and the green economy.”
One of England’s smallest colleges has been handed £1.5 million in emergency funding while it explores a potential merger.
Newbury College was placed in government intervention last year following receipt of a funding advance from the Department for Education to cover a “cashflow gap” caused by delayed proceeds from a property sale and its burdensome PFI contract.
It entered into a formal emergency funding agreement with the DfE in December to allow for the outstanding “advance of funding” sums to be repaid and to cover its costs in the short term.
The FE Commissioner’s office is facilitating a structure and prospects appraisal (SPA) to evaluate whether merging with another further education partner is necessary.
A conclusion is expected in May.
Newbury’s recently published 2024-25 accounts explained that “ahead of this decision”, the college “prepared forecasts to July 2027 which shows that, with the emergency funding support agreed with the DfE and the receipt of the delayed land sale proceeds, the college will hold sufficient funds to operate and pay its liabilities as they fall due until July 2027”.
The college is one of England’s smallest, with total income of £15 million in 2024-25. It employs 310 people, and enrolled 1,076 learners aged 16 to 18, alongside 373 apprentices and 2,197 adults last year.
Accounts also reported a deficit of £1.6 million for 2024-25, compared to a deficit of £1.5 million the year before.
Newbury is one of only a few FE colleges to operate under a PFI (private finance initiative) agreement. The contracts, greatly expanded under New Labour, saw private firms build and operate public sector infrastructure and facilities, with above-inflation repayments scheduled over many years.
The college entered into its PFI contract in 2002 and has since been crippled by “very high” repayments costs. This contract is due to end in 2027, at which point Newbury will own its building.
Around eight acres of land were sold in September 2023 for the development of a “mixed-use” facility to be known as Mayfield Point, as part of its “strategic plan to ensure the college’s financial health”.
The first capital payment was received that month, the second was in February 2025 and the remaining payments are due in three tranches over the next three years. Accounts reveal the timeline was extended due to “logistical and contractual difficulties”.
Principal Lee Probert said: “We are committed to securing a sound and sustainable future for Newbury College and continue to be focused on delivering excellence and developing skills for our communities providing ‘careers, not courses’.”
Pat McFadden has been forced to correct the record after claiming 60 firms – including Tesco – had already signed up to employ NEET young people through Labour’s job guarantee scheme.
In a statement to Parliament on January 29, the work and pensions secretary thanked “over 60 employers who have already committed to providing jobs for participants of the scheme”, and then named E.ON, JD Sports, Tesco and TUI as taking part.
But the minister corrected his original statement this afternoon due to a “minor error”, namely that the employers had not “committed” but had merely ““expressed an interest”.
McFadden’s January 29 statement opened the application process for jobs guarantee delivery organisations.
Guidance published that day revealed that delivery organisations, which can be colleges, training providers, local authorities or other specialist employment organisations, will be paid up to £2,650 for each eligible young person they place into paid work.
The defunding of BTECs and other applied general qualifications could be delayed further, the skills minister has indicated.
Jacqui Smith told the Sixth Form Colleges Association’s annual conference that the Department for Education would confirm “transition” plans to new V Levels in a “matter of weeks” alongside its response to the level 3 and below pathways consultation.
The consultation, launched in October with the post-16 education and skills white paper, committed to removing funding for all existing diploma and extended diploma-sized qualifications of 720 guided learning hours and over in T Level subject areas in 2026 and 2027.
Teaching of the first V Levels is due to begin in September 2027.
Smith acknowledged that colleges had raised “substantial concerns about the pace of transition” and assured leaders she had “no intention of putting young people’s futures at risk” before suggesting the defunding timeline could be changed.
Speaking on Wednesday she said: “I know you want confirmation of the qualifications that will be defunded for 2026 and 2027 and that you need this information as soon as possible.
“I do hope to be able to set out that final position alongside the response to the level 3 consultation, so we can provide you with that full picture.
“We don’t want to keep having to do year-by-year changes, but rather to have a plan about how we transition to an end-state situation that I hope all of us can support and the students can benefit from, and we’ll publish that in a matter of weeks.”
Catherine Richards, principal of East Norfolk Sixth Form College, pleaded with Smith to push back the defunding timeline for diploma and extended diploma qualifications, telling her that allowing the courses to be funded for a further two years would make a “huge difference”.
She explained colleges are “not sure what to do” with prospective students from this August because they do not know what will be funded.
Responding to Richards’ two-year delay request, Smith said: “I hear you. That’s why we… I won’t go back to say we did have a plan last year which people are now asking us to change… but that is the basis on which we’re now thinking.”
Plans to defund qualifications that overlap with T Levels began under the previous government. After the 2024 general election, Labour carried out a “short review” which resulted in the defunding of 157 qualifications paused by one or two years depending on their route.
After the skills minister’s speech this week, a DfE spokesperson said: “As per the usual processes, we are considering all the responses to the consultation on post-16 pathways. We will set out our response and the transition arrangements to reach the new qualifications in due course.”
Veering to V Levels
V Levels are being designed as a vocational pathway at level 3 to sit alongside academic A Levels and technical T Levels, pitched at students who want to “explore different sectors before deciding where to specialise”.
V Levels will be a similar size to a single A Level – 360 guided learning hours – with the intention being that students can mix and match between the two qualifications. Officials have said they will also consider creating medium and larger-sized V Levels if there is wide-ranging support for this in the consultation feedback.
The plan is for the first V Level classes to start in September next year, but very few are expected to be available at that stage. The full rollout is due to take four years until 2030-31.
Similar to the T Level rollout in 2020, V Levels will be introduced route-by-route. A full timetable will be confirmed when the government responds to the consultation.
Under current plans, students will not be able to enrol on BTECs in health and social care, applied science or IT for the next academic year, with BTECs in business and engineering set to be removed in 2027. These courses are currently being studied by around 70,000 16 to 19-year-olds in England.
The Protect Student Choice campaign, led by the SFCA, has urged ministers to allow students to enrol on diplomas and extended diplomas in T Level subject areas over the next two years while the V Level rollout takes shape. Without this delay, youngsters are at risk of falling through a “qualifications gap” in key areas of the economy, the campaign argues.
Following Smith’s speech, SFCA CEO Bill Watkin told FE Week: “We welcome the minister’s commitment to ensuring a smooth transition to the new qualifications landscape and her determination not to put young people’s futures at risk.
“In the autumn, the Protect Student Choice campaign shared compelling evidence with the Department for Education to support the case for a pause to the defunding of diplomas and extended diplomas in T Level subjects to aid the successful transition to V levels.
“Since then, we have welcomed the opportunity to engage in constructive bilateral discussions with government officials about this matter and it is our hope that a positive statement on transition arrangements will accompany the government’s response to the post-16 qualifications consultation.”
Jo Grady could face a re-ballot over her position as University and College Union leader amid claims she broke campaign rules.
Ewan McGaughey and Vicky Blake, who came second and third in the vote for a general secretary two years ago, will present their case to the Certification Officer – a trade union watchdog – next week listing seven alleged election violations.
They relate to UCU rules which prohibit candidates from using member email lists or other UCU resources for campaigning purposes, FE Week understands. Rules about opportunities to attend hustings to meet members were also allegedly breached.
UCU said the accusations were “totally unfounded” and would be “robustly” challenged at the Certification Officer hearing on Tuesday.
The Certification Officer is an independent officer appointed by the business and trade secretary and funded largely via a levy collected from trade unions and employers’ associations.
Stephen Hardy took up the role in October and is responsible for the statutory functions of trade unions and employers’ associations.
He deals with complaints and investigates potential legal breaches, fraud or financial irregularities. Hardy has the power to make enforcement orders, which can include financial penalties and ballot reruns.
The hearing was originally set for November but was delayed after the claimants submitted new evidence.
If their complaints are accepted, McGaughey and Blake have requested that Hardy orders a re-election at the “earliest possible opportunity”, FE Week understands.
A UCU spokesperson said: “The UCU categorically denies these allegations.
“They are totally unfounded and we will be robustly contesting them at the certification hearing.”
Grady’s narrow win
Jo Grady was re-elected as general secretary for a second five-year term in March 2024.
The ballot was conducted by single transferable vote, where members select candidates in order of preference.
Grady won in the third round of voting by just 182 votes over McGaughey, who is a law professor at King’s College London.
In total, 17,131 valid votes were cast, with a turnout of 15.1 per cent of the UCU’s 114,310 eligible members.
Grady was elected with 7,758 votes to McGaughey’s 7,576.
Blake, a contextual outreach lead officer at the University of Leeds, came third, and Liverpool John Moores University senior education lecturer Saira Weiner came last.
Charlie used to carry a knife to school for protection. If he had not secured a place at Leeds City College’s 14+ Academies, he believes he probably would have ended up on the streets.
“They’ve taken their time to actually help me,” he says. He received not only help for his dyslexia that had been unavailable at school previously, but also anger management support.
Increasing numbers of young people, many of whom have stopped attending school altogether and been classed as ‘electively home educated’ (EHE), are rediscovering the value of classroom-based education through their local FE colleges.
Our analysis of college data found that three-quarters (74 per cent) of the 50 biggest colleges by learner numbers currently teach 14-16 year olds. Of these, over half offer EHE pathways, and over a third ‘school links’, in which young people study vocational courses part-time at college while still enrolled with a school.
‘EHE’ placements doubled from 2,410 to 4,800 in just seven years up to 2023-24, Association of Colleges (AoC) research found. And 14 colleges, including Leeds’ provision for 14-16 year olds, offer full-time direct-entry placements.
Some see colleges’ 14-16 provision as a key solution to rising levels of young NEETs (not in employment, education or training) and ongoing school attendance challenges.
Yet young people like Charlie are often invisible in government policy, because data on college 14-16 placements remains fragmented and obscured. EHE and direct-entry placements come via 16-18 funding, but the DfE does not hold data on the number of 14-16 year old EHE students enrolled at colleges, nor on those placed there by schools or local authorities.
Learning at South Gloucestershire and Stroud (SGS)’s 14-16 provision, SGS Create
Cultural differences with schools
Colleges tend to take a more relational or trauma-informed approach to 14-16s than many schools.
There are no strict uniform policies (learners are sometimes distinguished from others by different coloured lanyards), and teachers are often referred to by their first names.
14+ Academies headteacher Niki McKenna says his provision tries to “remove all barriers to education”, and “reflect what being an adult in the world of work is like; I don’t call my boss ‘sir’”.
“They know we’re teachers and we’re in charge, but it doesn’t need to be forced on them.”
Where school class sizes average 25 to 28 for that age, South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS)’s Create provision has no more than 22 learners in a class. Leeds’ and South Devon College’s 14-16 classes run with around 20.
A survey of Leeds’ students found that 94 per cent did not enjoy attending their previous school, and 76 per cent felt unsafe there. By the time they left Leeds, all reported feeling safe and 95 per cent cared more about their education.
“A teacher might be playing the ukulele and singing a song to teach, which seems completely bizarre but it works because it’s memorable,” says Charlie.
However, deputy head of South Devon’s 14-16 ‘high school’ James McCauley says he has toinitially “bust a lot of myths” about 14-16 provision. Some young people arrive thinking it will be “more chilled” and they will just be “building brick walls all day”, he explains.
“It is more informal, but that doesn’t mean lower standards.”
Plumpton’s principal Jeremy Kerswell says their 14-16 provision has become more school-like over time.
“We really took a step back and thought about how we need to totally approach this differently. We appointed people into school-like roles and adopted policies more akin to school policies and ways of working with assemblies, a house point system, heads of year and pastoral tutors.”
Plumpton principal Jeremy Kerswell
From disruptive pupils to anxious ones
Colleges used to be seen as places where schools sent their most disruptive pupils. But since Covid, leaders say they are now predominantly taking on socially anxious young people with a history of low school attendance, which they often put down to being bullied.
Alun Francis, chief executive of Blackpool and the Fylde College (B&FC), has “reservations” about 14-16 provision, having previously seen some “terrible” provision used as “a sink option for schools’ naughty children”.
But he says B&FC’s ‘school links’ programme, still in its first year, is “quite carefully managed…to make sure there is progression and improved performance”.
B&FC has led work withMyerscough College and five schools in Fylde Coast Academy Trust to develop a curriculum for “disengaging” young people, giving them a “stepping stone towards a vocational option post-16”.
Francis is willing to take a gamble on the provision. Half the town’s school leavers fail their GCSE English and maths. But he would be “worried if the government started to wholesale go into the 14-16 route without really thinking through what that should mean”.
Bradford College has provided 14-16 alternative provision for almost 15 years, growing from 80 to 200 learners in the last five years alone. Head Tracy Wilkinson says a “growing proportion” present with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs, emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), and SEND needs. They are supported by her team of pastoral and intervention officers, academic intervention officers and on-site safeguarding and wellbeing staff.
Learners at SGS Create
Selective entry as demand grows
College 14-16 provision is generally in high demand, and colleges can be selective in which learners they recruit.
North East Surrey College of Technology’s website explains its 14-16 provision only accepts those with an education, health and care plan who “are home schooled, have lost their confidence or are unable to attend school”. It says it is not for those “more suited to a pupil referral unit”.
Similarly, Capital City College says its home education hub programmes “may not always be suitable for young people with significant behavioural issues”.
When EKC governors questioned in a meeting if its 14-16 ‘direct entry’ junior colleges were viewed by local schools as alternative provision, its director said they are “making it explicit to headteachers that junior colleges are not alternative provision to try to avoid this misconception”.
14+ Academies at Leeds City College has been oversubscribed every year since its second intake in 2014. This September, it increased its year 10 intake from 120 to 140 learners, with one in five applicants successful in securing a place. Learners come from as far as 20 miles away.
“We try to select the ones that we feel can help the most,” says McKenna. “If they’ve gone through some sort of trauma that we know of, we’ve got a specialist and the wellbeing team to support them. If they’ve got the desire to change…then great. But if they just say, ‘well, I just can’t get out of bed’, unless we can really delve down and figure out why, then we’re not sure we can help them.”
Similarly, Hull College can only offer one place for every six applicants, despite expanding its provision to help keep pace with demand.
Darlington College is poised to open a new £2.6 million pre-16 learning centre to cater for an additional 50 under-16s on top of the 100 it currently teaches, while Bolton College is hoping to introduce 14-16 provision from September.
But some colleges are hamstrung by lack of available capacity, at a time when demand for 16-19 provision is also rising. One FE leader in an area with a rapidly growing population of young people said he “would be happy” to take on more 14-16 year olds, but explained: “We haven’t got anywhere to stick them.”
Darlington College which is expanding its 14-16 provision
College asks applicants for videos
A rigorous application process helps colleges pick the right learners for their programmes.
Applicants for SGS Create must not only write a “handwritten personal statement” but also produce a “short to camera video, demonstrating why they want to come to SGS”, says its head, Thomas Beer. Some are “absolutely incredible…One did a Kill Bill style movie.”
Beer’s team then sits down with officers from the local authority to corroborate the information young people have sent, and whether there has been social care involvement to “help us build a picture”.
Last year Plumpton College was “flooded” with over 60 applications for its EHE provision in the first 20 minutes of it going live on the website”, and “probably could have filled every space we had three times over”, says its director of education pathways and foundation learning, Scott McCue. This year they have provided a “four-week window” and “made it clear” to families that it is not offered on a “first come first served” basis.
Plumpton College’s ‘hub’ for 14-16 learners
Electively home educated
Nationally, the number of young people opting out of the school system has risen dramatically since Covid. In the two years to 2024-25, EHE numbers rose by 38 per cent from 80,900 to 111,700. Meanwhile ‘children missing education’ (CME) rose 59 per cent from 24,700 to 39,200. Ofsted described these figures as a “significant concern”.
Many colleges have increased their EHE provision to meet rising demand. EHE placements at Plumpton went from 145 in 2022-23 to 216 this academic year.
Wigan & Leigh College’s EHE provision was launched in 2023, after the number of EHE in the borough shot up from 80 to over 400 after Covid.
Some learners lacked friendships due to having not attended school for many months or years. Principal Anna Dawe recalls that the morning the provision opened, her vice principal was “sat in a car with a parent trying to coax a young man into class”. But strong friendships between learners soon formed, and parents “made a community amongst themselves”.
Dawe admits setting it up was “a risk” as Ofsted “might come in and question the quality. But we do what’s right for our community.”
“It’s hugely labour-intensive. But it’s also one of the most rewarding things I’ve done, and has worked phenomenally well for these young people.
“Otherwise they would literally have been in their bedroom for two years, then land in college at 16 with the very same issues they’d had at school.”
Paying for SEND support for a college’s EHE learners is at the discretion of the local authority.
SGS is named on education, health and care plans by the three local authorities it works with, and is “funded quite effectively” for SEND needs.
Plumpton does not get this funding from East Sussex Council. So it has to be “explicit” with parents that learning support assistants cannot be provided, says McCue. But Plumpton tries to provide other resources, such as “overlays for dyslexia” that a learner might need from its own pocket.
Wigan & Leigh principal Anna Dawe
Stopping schools treating colleges as ‘dumping grounds’
School link programmes allow pupils to attend college part-time while remaining on a school roll, with SEND support following the learner.
But one education leader said some schools seek to use colleges as “a dumping ground” for disruptive pupils. They now send out a guidance document to schools explaining what the college can and cannot provide.
While colleges appear to have scaled back on alternative provision commissioned by local authorities or schools where the college is that young person’s only form of education, many now provide this school link pathway instead.
In October 2025, Northumberland College launched a 14-16 engineering academy with a local school to teach engineering design and manufacturing.
Catherine Sezen, the AoC’s director of education policy, sees potential for the school links route to be expanded further.
AoC’s submission to the Milburn review on young NEETs suggests colleges piloting day release programmes for small groups of young people as transition support for those leaving schools.
The number of colleges offering direct entry provision, where learners attend college full-time, declined from 19 in 2017-18 to 14 this year.
Some colleges pulled out due to affordability concerns. Schools receive a base funding rate of £6,113 for their 14-16 pupils, but colleges get the lower 16-18 year old rate of £5,105 for for 2025-26.
Gemma Simmons-Blench, Luminate Education Group’s deputy CEO for quality and curriculum, says the timeline for payments is the “more fundamental issue”. Schools receive this funding from September, while colleges delivering 14-16 provision must wait until April.
“We therefore have to deliver and cover expenditure for over six months with no income.”
Some colleges have grown the size of their direct-entry provision. In September 2025 East Kent Colleges Group (EKC) opened a new “junior college” on the Isle of Sheppey, providing direct-entry placements. EKC provides junior colleges across four of its colleges, where 14-16 year olds take specialisms such as catering, sport or digital studies.
Some schools fear having to compete with colleges for 14-16 placements in their local areas.
McCauley says South Devon College has an agreement with one local school to only take up to 30 of their year nines. “We’re not seen completely positively by the schools but we are seen very positively by the local authority and that’s where the support comes from,” he says.
Bradford College’s 14-16 learners on a barbering course
Attendance a major challenge
Colleges create separate spaces on their campuses for direct-entry provision, but other 14-16 pathways deploy various methods to keep their under-16s safe and, in many cases, separate from older cohorts of learners.
Plumpton invested “significant funds” to create a 14-16 hub with its own common room, which is “consistently staffed throughout the week with members of our pastoral team”, explains McCue.
Some colleges insist their 14-16 cohort remain on campus. For others, going off-site at lunchtime is a privilege which can be taken away, according to the AoC’s 14-16 reference group minutes.
East Sussex’s alternative provision students are “escorted by a mentor at all times whilst on campus, including break and lunch times”. They are “able to have five minutes out of lessons if they need space to regulate their emotions”, the college says.
As most 14-16 year olds in college did not previously attend school regularly, boosting their attendance can be an uphill struggle.
Attendance for this cohort in colleges was on average 66 per cent in 2023-24, according to VLE Support’s data on college registration systems.
McCauley describes attendance as “the single biggest challenge” for his 14-16 provision.
But when attendance rates are viewed in comparison to that young person’s previous school attendance, it has often improved significantly – even if it is not hitting the 90 per cent standard.
“For the kids who have not been in school for two years, getting up to 50 per cent attendance is remarkable,” says Beer.
Last year, Wigan & Leigh’s EHE maths and English GCSE cohort achieved an 89 per cent attendance rate. That compares with a 24 per cent average while those students were at school.
Bradford College 14-16 provision
Some staff less keen to teach 14-16 than others
Learners arriving at college vary from those who have always been home educated to those who withdrew from school more recently. Catering for students with “such different journeys” involves SGS being “adaptive and flexible” with curricula, says Beer, adding that “making up for lost learning is quite challenging in their first year”.
A big incentive for colleges providing 14-16 provision is the pipeline it creates for future 16-19 programmes.
But “a consistent approach” is “harder” to achieve in vocational subjects.
McCauley says South Devon’s 90 per cent retention rate into 16-19 provision “is significantly higher than our next best feeder school”.
Attracting suitably experienced teachers can be challenging too, when colleges pay less than schools to teach the same cohort.
Finding a suitable science teacher has become “one of the banes of my life”, McCauley says. Meanwhile, some vocational teachers are more on board with 14-16 provision than others. “Some start their career in FE because they had a career in a school previously and didn’t like it, and want to just teach those older students.”
Pressure for school-based provision
Despite the success of college 14-16 provision in turning young lives around, many more young people not in school are still being left with no (or poor quality) educational provision. Political pressure is therefore building for schools to bring EHE young people back into their settings.
Myerscough College recently said that “after extensive discussions with our local authorities regarding the future of home education, it is clear that the government is focused on prioritising the reintegration of many home-educated young people back into mainstream education”. It was therefore altering its EHE pathway to instead focus solely on school-funded alternative provision.
Reaseheath College is ceasing its EHE pathway from September for the same reason.
“There is an open dialogue with the Department for Education and local authorities, and we will take guidance as to how this may develop in future,” it said.
More oversight, standardisation and time limits for unregistered alternative provision are also expected to be introduced by the government soon. Colleges with alternative provision will be eyeing these reforms closely to see if they affect them.
Ofsted has warned that alternative provision should be “viewed as a fixed-term intervention, not a long-term solution”, and said it is “concerned that high numbers of children do not attend school on a full-time, permanent basis”.
Such reforms may impact the flexibility colleges currently have to adapt their provision to learners’ needs.
Beer describes college 14-provision as “transformational” for some young people.
“Schools are doing a great job for lots of young people, but they don’t work for everybody. We have the flexibility and the freedom to be able to offer something different.”
Further Education (FE) and skills professionals show up every day to change lives. They problem-solve, multi-task and can carry the weight of rising expectations with resilience and creativity. But this often leaves little time to pause, reflect, connect and grow. The FE and skills sector is driven by the power of learning. Yet the uncomfortable truth is that continuous professional development (CPD) often slips to the edges of the working week. And when that happens, everyone misses out.
Without a strategic, embedded approach to professional development, it becomes even harder for teachers, support teams and leaders to deliver the best for learners. Small problems can fester and grow. Inefficiencies linger and valuable opportunities for shared learning falls through the cracks. Worst of all, learners miss out and their learning outcomes suffer.
The missing ingredient: a structure that makes learning stick.
Most colleges and training providers are deeply committed to developing their people. What’s often missing is a structure and framework that makes professional development part of the routine. If the goal is better learner outcomes, stronger staff retention and organisational performance that can withstand pressure, the answer is clear: adopt a strategic, long-term approach to professional development.
Put simply: professional development should not be a box to tick. It should be built into the fabric of every college and training provider. That’s why the Education Training Foundation (ETF) developed ETF Partnership: a structured approach to organisational development that raises standards, retains great people, and delivers better outcomes for every learner.
Building a culture of learning at York College
York College & University Centre supports around 4,000 students each day across academic and vocational routes. “Our students come to us with very high aspirations,” explains Victoria Lindberg, Director of Quality of Education. “Our job as teachers is to support those aspirations and help them make brilliant next steps.”
York College’s strategy was not a quick fix. Instead, the focus was on building a culture where professional development is consistent, supported, and taken seriously. That is why the college committed to ETF Partnership, which helps leaders and educators make professional development part of everyday practice.
“We have a moral purpose to invest in our teachers,” says Luke Zwalf, Head of Teaching and Learning. “If we’re able to support our teachers correctly, ultimately the knock-on impact is for our students.”
For Victoria, the value was immediate and practical. “Partnering with ETF has opened up a whole world for us, connecting our teachers with others across the sector.” Victoria links that investment directly to learner achievement: “We’re absolutely delighted that our ETF Partnership has led to improved outcomes for our students and apprentices. Teaching is now better, more students achieve their ambitions and more get higher grades.”
Partnering with ETF has opened up a whole world for us, connecting our teachers with others across the sector,” Victoria Lindberg, Director of Quality of Education, York College.
As the professional body for FE and skills, ETF stands up for workforce development. We set the standards, provide the development and recognition, and build a thriving community and skills system.
ETF Partnership draws on all ETF has to offer to help colleges and training providers build professional development into their culture. In practical terms, ETF Partnership provides a model for professional excellence, including:
national standards that build confidence: using national teaching and training standards helps your team gain confidence and credibility.
CPD that sticks: embedding high-quality CPD and tools into day-to-day practice alongside peer-mentoring turns progress into a habit.
recognition that grows careers: Providing routes into professional status recognition including Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS Status) and Advanced Teacher Status (ATS) support educators to grow their impact within your organisation, at every stage of their careers.
community that connects: connecting your teams to the wider FE and skills sector through our inspiring membership community, where ideas thrive and best practice is shared.
Quick health check: is CPD built into your culture?
If professional development is not truly embedded, it usually shows up in a few familiar ways. Which of these symptoms do you recognise?
CPD depends on a handful of champions, not a shared approach
Great practice stays in silos instead of spreading
Training days deliver a “sugar rush” of energy, but little changes afterwards
Recognition is patchy, so progress feels invisible
FE and skills professionals are already changing lives every day. ETF Partnership exists to support their development and help colleges and training providers build a culture of learning and success. Together, we can unlock the full potential of a professional FE and skills system. Learn more about the Education Training Foundation at etfoundation.co.uk.
