A long-term multi-million pound funding commitment has been confirmed for a scheme supporting looked-after young people in post-16 education.
The Department for Education will pump £41.5 million into pupil premium plus post-16 funding over the next three years, after an evaluation of the pilot scheme found it was helping to “push back” the cliff edge of support at age 16.
The commitment until 2029 follows calls from pilot leads to extend the funding beyond one year so councils can strategically plan support for disadvantaged young people.
The funding forms part of the new ‘children, families and youth grant’, which will consolidate five funding streams, including the pupil premium plus post-16, into one grant worth £3.1 billion over three years.
Earlier this week, a report into the national rollout of the pilot was published, which had surveyed virtual school heads on how they managed to boost engagement and attainment among disadvantaged learners.
The research tracked three cohorts of local authorities that joined the pilot between 2021 and 2025 and found persistent gaps in funding and delivery.
Virtual school heads warned of a reliance on short-term projects in post-16 settings due to time-limited funding and inconsistencies in how the funding rate was doled out across England.
“Our school improvement plan is centred around three-year goals in our journey – unfortunately, the time-limited element means many plans we have for post-16 have often been short notice or one-off projects, nor can we enhance our structure further with permanent or longer-term posts,” one lead said.
The report also found a lack of parity with school funding was placing pressure on provision and called for an overhaul of the post-16 funding formula to mirror the statutory pupil premium plus in schools, alongside providing long-term funding certainty.
Some councils received as little as £110 per student, compared with £2,630 per pupil premium plus funding for looked-after children aged under 16.
But funding guidance from last month confirmed the DfE will not change the distribution formula used in 2025-26.
Two-tier system
The post-16 pupil premium plus pilot launched in 2021 with £3 million in funding for local authorities to appoint virtual school heads. These leads work with colleges, training providers and social workers to improve outcomes for looked-after young people and care leavers aged 16 to 18.
Thirty local authorities joined the first cohort, followed by an additional 28 in the second year and 94 from 2023-24. The DfE has spent around £40 million on the scheme so far.
The evaluation explored the programme up to the 2023-24 academic year and found earlier cohorts received higher overall allocations. Cohort 1 areas were awarded an average of £94,706, compared with £57,539 for those joining in cohort 3.
This reflected a funding cap that ensured councils in cohorts 1 and 2 did not see reductions of more than 15 per cent year-on-year. The cap was removed in 2024-25, meaning all authorities are now funded using the same formula.
Researchers said this change, alongside the expansion of eligibility beyond further education colleges to all post-16 settings, including apprenticeship providers, contributed to falling per-student rates.
Estimated funding per learner stood at £900 in 2021-22 and £920 in 2022-23, before dropping to £413 after eligibility widened in October 2023. Across the full 2023-24 academic year, this equated to an average of £355 per learner.
In 2023-24, average rates varied by councils depending on when they joined the pilot: £522 for councils in cohort 1, £440 for cohort 2 and £361 for cohort 3.
The report warned this was creating a “postcode lottery”, with allocations ranging from £110 to £1,257 per learner.
“This is despite DfE’s attempts to make funding allocation equitable across virtual schools and again suggests a postcode lottery effect in real terms,” it said.
The FE Commissioner will intervene in one of the country’s last surviving adult residential colleges after the government found “serious” cashflow pressures.
Richmond and Hillcroft Adult and Community College (RHACC), which teaches around 7,000 learners in south-west London, was issued a financial notice to improve by the Department for Education.
The intervention follows financial strains that include a near-£1.8 million DfE clawback, unsold campus sites and crippling country-wide cuts to adult education funding.
Leaders will be required to submit rolling cashflow forecasts to new FE Commissioner Ellen Thinnesen as well as plans to make staff savings and reviews of its curriculum.
The college incurred a deficit of £436,000 in 2025, a financial health grade of ‘requires improvement’, and £160,000 of unrestricted cash, according to its latest accounts.
RHACC’s chair Sharon Raj vowed in the accounts that the college’s cash balance would not fall below £100,000 and it would improve its unrestricted cash position. But she added the college was still reviewing staff and funded course cuts to offset drops in potential income from tuition fees.
Pressures on RHACC’s cash balances stem partly from a strict repayment schedule with the DfE, which made a £1,799,485 erroneous payment to the college in 2017.
Additionally, leaders had secured £5 million from Greater London Authority to redevelop its Hillcroft campus into a community learning hub, but the project collapsed in 2024 after planning permission for the residential element fell through.
The GLA is now clawing back around £45,000 of the £200,865 claimed to date for the project.
The college was banking on the sale of the campus to stabilise its finances and repay the remaining £200,000 owed to the DfE, according to its accounts, but the site still appears to be unsold.
The college has also anticipated “significant” funding reductions from its main funders, the GLA and DfE.
RHACC had received a flat rate of £5,088,948 in adult skills funding from the GLA for the past three years. London officials have indicated they will cut individual provider allocations by 1.65 per cent from 2025-26 due to a reduction in the overall ASF allocation it receives from the DfE.
College board minutes from last July show the GLA will slash funding by around £81,000 each year for the next two years.
Additionally, the college was locked out of extra cash from the DfE to help fund college staff pay rises last year because officials distributed the money through 16-to-18 funding.
RHACC and the GLA were contacted for comment.
A Richmond Council spokesperson said: “The council has not been approached either by the college or the GLA and therefore we regard this as a matter between those parties to resolve.
“RHACC’s provision remains very important to the borough, and we hope that the current financial challenges can be resolved so these communities continue to be served.”
Over the last 11 months, since I started in my role at Skills England, I’ve seen first-hand how we’re putting employers at the heart of the skills system.
From engaging in place, where employers are based, to gathering insights and valuable feedback about assessment reforms and skills gaps, their guidance is vital to our work.
I’ve been so impressed with the excellent contributions made by thousands of employers who work closely with us. And I fully appreciate that their expertise will be vital to getting it right with upholding quality, simplifying the system and becoming more responsive.
This battery manufacturing apprenticeship unit will help a new gigafactory in Somerset to deliver around 4,000 jobs and over £700 million in annual economic value to the south west.
To make this happen, we relied heavily on the expertise of the battery sector, mixing the knowledge of employers with data and the insight of academic experts in this field.
With their help and through our investment and infrastructure skills service, we turned this new apprenticeship unit around fast – hitting our target of meeting skills needs for major projects in three months, without reducing quality.
It’s a great example of how Skills England has been improving how we work with sector experts. Employers and learners in a key sector, right across the country, will ultimately reap the benefits.
We’re building on that through what we are calling our ‘expert network’. An important goal with this is to reduce the time burden for employers, speeding things up while keeping quality and enhanced employer expertise at the centre of our decision-making process.
Existing stakeholders will become part of a wider community of more than 4,500 experts; employers, SMEs, providers, unions, regional partners and regulators, which means the knowledge we already rely on will now be complemented by an even richer, more diverse pool of insight.
We heard from employers and sector partners at summits and roundtables that they want to stay involved – but they would like to do this in a way that feels proportionate, not a return to long meetings, fixed cycles or heavy admin.
So, Skills England will take on the administrative burden and typically produce the first draft, giving members a proper starting point so that their expertise can land where it matters most.
The focus is now on sharing insight, not struggling with process. And if a full group isn’t necessary, we will keep it light, using quick conversations, short surveys or emails instead. The whole approach is faster and more flexible, which will give people a way to contribute without the time-consuming processes everyone was keen to move away from.
But it’s not just about technical and transactional updates.
We will also bring people together for bigger picture work, groups that look across sectors and regions, spot emerging trends, and help us understand what’s coming down the track.
These groups will give us the real-world intelligence we need to keep the system moving at pace, making sure we’re responding to what employers, providers and learners actually need rather than waiting for a cycle to tell us it’s time.
The expert network represents a natural progression of how we already operate and will build on a huge amount of good work that has already been done.
It will allow us to capitalise on employer expertise in a more focused way, which works better for them, while adding value from training providers and other key stakeholders.
Together, we will make a real difference. By improving on how expertise is used and valued, we will be better placed than ever to close critical skills gaps, help businesses grow, and support future generations to succeed in rewarding careers.
Young people’s share of new apprenticeship starts plunged to the lowest level in five years during the first half of 2025-26.
Apprenticeship starts going to under-19s have hovered around 28 per cent since 2021. But this fell to 23.8 per cent this year as the rush to start higher-level apprenticeships before funding was withdrawn in January saw over-25s take one in two new apprenticeships between August and January.
Even discounting the level 7 spike, the number of year-on-year apprenticeship starts for under 19s fell from 56,470 in the first half of 2024-25 to 53,510 in the first half of this year, a 5 per cent drop.
The latest government statistics reveal 226,620 new apprenticeship starts recorded nationally between August 2025 and January, a 12 per cent jump on the same period the previous year.
The level 7 spike has also had an impact on the provider mix. Colleges saw their market share dip to 19 per cent, down from 21 per cent, even though they collectively started nearly 1,000 more apprenticeships than last year. Independent training providers increased their market share to 65 per cent, up from 62 per cent.
Across all ages, level 3 early years educator was the most popular apprenticeship with 11,500 starts. This was followed by level 7 senior leader, level 7 accountancy then level 5 operations manager. The latter three of these standards have been earmarked for defunding.
Foundation apprenticeships
Updated figures show 109 young people started a foundation apprenticeship between their launch in August and January. Of those, 40 started between August and October, up from the initially reported 36.
Onsite trades remained the most popular foundation apprenticeship, with 39 starts. Engineering and manufacturing followed with 33, then building services engineering with 30. Health and social care had six, while just one young person had started the hardware, network and infrastructure foundation apprenticeship.
There remained zero starts on the finishing trades and software and data courses.
New foundation apprenticeships in retail and hospitality are due to launch in April.
South Devon College claimed the highest number of starts (26) followed by GEM Partnership (18) and then Exeter and North Devon College (17).
A college campus funded by a PFI deal will have cost four times the build price when the deal ends, FE Week can reveal.
Newbury College is thought to be one of only a few English colleges to have set up a private finance initiative, which it used for a £10 million campus that opened in 2002.
Under terms agreed at the outset, it will have repaid £40.5 million when the contract ends after 25 years in July next year.
In response to a freedom of information request, the West Berkshire college said annual PFI costs were between £1.2 million and £1.5 million for the first 15 years of the deal.
But since 2018 the annual charge has increased – hitting a peak of £2.5 million last July.
The costs include debt repayment for the construction project, interest, “lifecycle” payments for major building upkeep, and other bills such as maintenance, cleaning and security.
Last year the Department for Education placed the college in intervention due to its “fragile” financial position. Ministers also approved a £1.5 million emergency loan in December. Newbury is one of the country’s smallest colleges with an annual income of £15 million.
Assessments of the its financial problems pointed to “very high” PFI repayments, delayed payments from a 2023 land sale, and missed new learner targets in 2024-25.
The FE Commissioner’s decision on whether Newbury should merge with another college is due this summer.
Newbury has agreed around 130 PFI contract “variations” since 2002, altering terms that include what can be taught in classrooms and the exact days or hours buildings are accessible.
In the five-year run up to the college taking full control of the campus, it has faced separate costs of about £1 million for hiring in-house facilities managers, building surveys and external legal advice.
Value for money?
Estimates suggest PFI costs the public purse up to 40 per cent more than government-funded projects.
However, the Labour government is again considering using private capital to fund new projects “where value for money for taxpayers can be secured”.
Spencer van der Werf, managing director of facilities adviser Help for Schools, said Newbury’s charges appeared to be “within the normal range” of similar PFI deals and costs would have been made clear to management at the outset.
He explained PFI charges become unaffordable for a range of reasons, including energy costs going “through the roof”, reductions in government funding, and “poor management”.
However, the government has never paid Newbury College additional grant funding to meet PFI costs, known as “credits”, while some schools and local authorities have received support.
College minutes from 2023 show management was frustrated with facilities management contractor Mitie’s “unacceptable” service around security, landscaping and cleaning. These concerns are understood to have been resolved.
Newbury’s PFI contract was among early “pathfinder” deals launched under New Labour, funding its move to a new campus on the edge of the town.
Originally, the private finance partner was London & Regional, founded by billionaire property developer brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone.
Since 2014, the PFI contract has been owned by Equitix, which is part of global investment firm Tetragon Financial Group.
The final stages
Lee Probert, Newbury College’s principal since January 2025, said: “Visitors to our campus can immediately see the benefits that the PFI has enabled through the exceptional standard of our facilities.
“Alongside this, significant growth in student numbers in recent years and the implementation of an effective balanced budget, the college is entering the final stages of the PFI from a position of financial security and confidence.
“Our focus remains on delivering ‘careers, not courses’, providing excellent teaching and skills development for our students and communities, and ensuring a sustainable future for Newbury College.”
An Equitix spokesperson said: “It is acknowledged by all project parties that the Newbury College PFI has delivered facilities of an exceptional standard with unitary charge payments as were envisaged at the outset of the contract.
“We continue to be focused on ongoing service delivery and on working collaboratively to ensure the facility will be handed back in the required condition in 2027.”
A Mitie spokesperson said: “We are committed to providing the highest standard of services across our contracts.
“These minutes are from 2023, and since then we have continued to work with the College to strengthen service delivery.”
The DfE told FE Week it does not collect information on which colleges have PFI contracts and that its private finance team was providing “some direct assistance” to Newbury College.
Sheffield College’s ESOL achievement rates have collapsed following investigations into claims of dodgy results.
Its level 1 regulated ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) achievement rate dived from 81.3 per cent in 2023-24 to just 28.4 per cent last year.
Meanwhile, the South Yorkshire college’s entry level regulated ESOL achievement rate fell from 92.4 per cent to 57.8 per cent.
The latest results, revealed in government data, follow claims of unreliable achievement rates and associated certification for ESOL students in the 2023-24 cohort.
In a statement released in February in anticipation of the statistics release, the college had said external investigations into unspecified discrepancies were ongoing, but admitted “maladministration” had been identified.
Angela Foulkes, chief executive and principal of Sheffield College, said “unsatisfactory” practices were found during an internal audit.
Major provider
The Sheffield College is the third largest ESOL provider outside of London – recording 5,350 leavers last year – and had some of the highest achievement rates of above 90 per cent.
The college’s non-regulated English language courses still achieve strong results.
In 2024-25, it scored a 96.2 per cent achievement rate from its non-regulated level 1 learners, which had 30 leavers. This compared to 98.5 per cent in 2023-24 when it had 470 leavers.
Meanwhile, non-regulated entry level ESOL provision for 1,320 leavers had an 89.7 per cent achievement rate in 2024-25, down from 96.4 per cent the previous year when 3,370 leavers were recorded.
Foulkes said: “We have completed a rigorous internal audit as part of our internal investigations into allegations affecting one curriculum area.
“We found some unsatisfactory practice within our ESOL provision which we identified as maladministration.
“Working with the awarding organisations, this has been addressed through rigorous quality processes which has resulted in a drop in achievement results in that area of the college for 2024-25.”
The college has set up a performance improvement board to prevent a repeat of the issue.
“One of the consequences of the work that we’ve done is strengthening our approach to quality assurance and compliance,” Foulkes added.
External investigations are ongoing.
When the ESOL malpractice claims emerged last July, Sheffield College reportedly suspended two senior staff members and opened an internal investigation. The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and awarding organisation City & Guilds also opened probes.
The combined authority funds the provision through the adult skills fund (ASF) and has repeatedly awarded Sheffield the largest share of its budget. It received a 13 per cent increase to its ASF income in 2023-24 to £11.58 million.
The same amount was allocated in 2024-25 and 2025-26, which accounts for more than one third of the authority’s £32 million annual ASF budget.
Starts on level 7 apprenticeships rocketed 345 per cent in the final two months before funding was switched off for people aged over 21 – amounting to nearly 10,000 more than the previous year, new figures reveal.
Ministers controversially axed funding for the highest level apprenticeships from this January in a bid to divert resources away from executive training and towards opportunities for dwindling numbers of younger apprentices.
Stats released today covered apprenticeship starts for the first two quarters of this academic year, August 2025 to January 2026.
Starts over both quarters combined increased by over 50 per cent in the lead up to the withdrawal of funding. There were 26,200 level 7 starts between August 2025 and January 2026, a 51.9 per cent increase on the same period the previous year.
It means level 7 starts represented 11.6 per cent of all starts reported for 2025-26. At this point in 2024-25, they made up 8.5 per cent of all starts.
But level 7 starts began rocketing, particularly on the senior leader and accountancy standards, since September 2024, when the government first announced it would remove public funding from level 7. Ministers confirmed in May 2025 that funding for level 7 apprenticeships for those aged 22 and over would be removed from January 2026.
Soaring starts
These figures, which are provisional and can increase as training providers submit further data returns, reveal the extent of the rush on level 7 starts piling pressure on the stretched apprenticeship budget.
Increases were modest in the first quarter of this academic year; 7 per cent in August, 10 per cent in September and 15 per cent in October.
But starts soared in quarter 2, increasing by 123 per cent in November and 845 per cent in December, the final month public funding was available.
In volumes, this means there were 7,576 level 7 starts in December 2025 compared to 802 in December 2024.
In January, once funding was removed for new level 7 apprentices aged 22 and above, starts dropped by 93 per cent from 3,106 in 2024 to 207 in 2025.
Senior leading the way
As expected, the sharpest increases in level 7 apprenticeship starts continued on the controversial senior leader standard. Today’s figures showed over 5,000 more apprentice senior leaders starting programmes in the five months leading up to the funding cut-off, 9,624 up from 4,264, compared to the previous year.
The pre-funding withdrawal rush on this apprenticeship, which attracts up to £14,000 in funding per apprentice, was particularly acute.
November saw 2.4 times more starts than the year before (3,043 up from 1,271), and December’s starts were 12 times higher than the year before (3,395 up from 274).
It means senior leader starts more than doubled in the months leading up to funding withdrawal, shooting up by 126 per cent.
But there was a larger jump, albeit with smaller volumes, in the senior people professional apprenticeship. Starts tripled in the run up to January, from 473 in 2024-25 to 1,321 in 2025-26, a 179 per cent increase.
For the accountancy and tax professional apprenticeship, the second most popular level 7 after senior leader, starts were up 32 per cent year on year between August and December.
Professional rush
Analysis broken down by individual training providers reveals the extent to which some companies rapidly expanded their level 7 intakes by hundreds of learners.
Specialist accountancy training provider Kaplan Financial recruited 2,954 level 7 apprentices between August and December 2025, 726 more than over the same period the year before – a 33 per cent increase.
BPP Professional Education also grew their level 7 offer over the period. Their senior leader starts grew from 71 over the whole of 2024-25 to 144 in the first five months of this year. BPP also recorded 190 senior people professional apprentices in the five months before funding was removed, compared to 164 in the whole of 2024-25.
Other examples of training providers that beat, or nearly beat, their annual total for level 7 apprenticeships in the months preceding defunding include QA, Knowledgebrief, Best Practice Network and University of Reading.
Market entrants
FE Week analysis found 19 training providers began delivering level 7 apprenticeships for the first time in the run up to the funding cut off.
Tend Training entered the market clocking up its first 480 starts across all levels between August 2025 and January 2026. Of those, 188 level 7 senior leaders were started before the funding dried up.
Just IT Training, Manchester Metropolitan University and The Opportunity Provider each recorded over 100 starts on senior leader or senior people professional apprenticeships between August and December despite not delivering them before. Others with smaller first-time entries over that period included Peabody Trust (21 senior leaders), Bournemouth University (15 solicitors) and Mary Hare (13 teachers for the sensory impaired).
The national apprenticeship achievement rate has risen to 65.4 per cent for the 2024-25 academic year, just missing the government’s longstanding target.
Data shows almost two-thirds of apprentices are successfully completing their training and assessment, with the proportion slightly shy of the 67 per cent ambition first set by ministers in 2022.
The target, introduced by then skills minister Alex Burghart, was widely viewed as “ambitious” considering the rate sat at just 51.4 per cent at the time, with sector leaders questioning whether it could be achieved by the end of the 2024-25 academic year.
But the overall achievement rate on apprenticeship standards hit 60.5 per cent last year and has now risen a further 4.9 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the retention rate on apprenticeship standards has been boosted by 4.8 percentage points, rising from 61.9 per cent in 2023-24 to 66.7 per cent last year. It means 33 per cent of apprentices dropped out before completing their training.
In a letter to the sector, work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden praised the improved picture but urged for achievement rates to exceed 70 per cent “in the coming years”.
He said: “This is another good result which speaks to the hard work of providers and employers alike.
“It is our collective focus on excellence that has brought us success, but we understand that quality is wider than achievements – it is also about learner experience, good delivery, and long-term value to the country. While many apprentices move on for positive reasons, the greatest value for the individual, the employer, and the economy comes from full completion.
“To maximise the impact of this investment and building on the strong foundations providers and employers have helped to create, I would like to see achievement rates reach and exceed 70 per cent in the coming years.”
McFadden added that the government “will not hesitate to intervene” where quality is at risk as new “products”, such as foundation apprenticeships and apprenticeship units, are introduced.
Ben Rowland, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “This is a genuinely strong set of results and a clear sign of sustained effort from learners and providers across the country. Seeing achievement rates rise again to 65.4 per cent is no small feat and reflects the focus, resilience and professionalism of the sector over a number of years.
“What makes this particularly striking is how close we now are to the ‘stretch ambition’ set by the then skills minister at AELP national conference in 2022. At the time, that felt out of reach. This progress should give real confidence that, even in a period of significant change, the system can continue to improve outcomes.”
ITPs grow the most
Independent training providers (ITPs) continue to dominate the apprenticeships market, accounting for 193,700, or 65 per cent, of the total 299,510 leavers in 2024-25, and saw the biggest increase in achievements.
Achievement rates for ITPs shot up 5.7 percentage points from 57.7 per cent to 63.4 per cent.
Achievement rates in FE colleges also improved, but at a lower rate, to 65.7 per cent from 62.3 per cent. Just under 55,000, or 18 per cent, of leavers trained at an FE college in 2024-25.
Apprenticeship achievement rates improved in each provider type except schools and sixth form colleges in 2024-25.
Officials categorise universities which deliver degree-level apprenticeships in an “other” category. Achievement rates for this group were higher than any other provider type, improving from 68.6 per cent to 73 per cent.
Multiverse dips as other large providers soar
Lifetime Training had 14,960 leavers last year, more than double the next closest provider, Multiverse, and saw its achievement rate soar 10.7 percentage points from 40.5 per cent to 51.2 per cent.
And while Multiverse scored a slightly higher achievement rate of 52.6 per cent, this was a 6.4 percentage point drop on the previous year.
Multiverse was one of four top-20 apprenticeship providers to record an achievement rate fall in 2024-25.
Marr Corporation recorded the largest increase among the giants, rising 17.6 percentage points from 42.6 per cent to 60.2 per cent.
The Royal Air Force recorded the highest achievement rate among the largest providers, hitting 81.3 per cent.
Only one training provider – Dyson Technical Training Limited – was redacted from the achievement rates stats this year due to unreliable data.
The provider, which is part of the global technology firm, was judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2024 but decided to put a stop to its degree apprenticeship programmes that year.
Dyson was approached for comment.
Health and care drives national rise
All but one sector subject area – social sciences – witnessed an achievement rate increase. Health, public services and care had one of the most notable changes after scoring a rate of 66.8 per cent, up 7.4 percentage points on last year.
Health, public services and care accounted for 84,250 leavers last year, the second highest number after business, administration and law with 88,680, which itself saw a 5.1 percentage point increase from 60.4 per cent to 65.5 per cent.
Science and maths recorded the largest achievement rate increase of 8.3 percentage points, moving from 66 per cent to 74.3 per cent.
Level 5 is staying alive
Achievement rates increased at all levels, with level 5 showing the biggest increase since last year – rising 6.6 percentage points from 59.6 per cent to 66.2 per cent.
Level 3 was close behind with a 6.3 percentage point rise from 60.1 per cent to 66.4 per cent.
For the third year in a row it was level 4 apprenticeships with the lowest achievement rate – 60.9 per cent – while level 6 apprentices remain the biggest achievers at 69.3 per cent.
19-23s score highest achievements again
Apprentices aged 19 to 23 remained the group that record the highest achievement rates for the third year running – rising 3.7 percentage points from 63.6 per cent to 67.3 per cent.
The biggest jump, however, was in the 24-and-over category with a 6.1 percentage point jump from 58.8 per cent to 64.9 per cent.
Ministers scrapped the English and maths functional skills exit requirements for adult apprentices aged 19 and older with immediate effect in February 2025, which could have had an impact on the rise in those age groups.
However, the achievement rate for 16 to 18s rose 3.8 percentage points from 60.5 per cent to 64.3 per cent – a similar rate rise to 19 to 23s.
Ethnicity and SEND gap shrinks
The gap between white and ethnic minority apprentices has continued to narrow.
There was a 3.3 percentage point gap in favour of white apprentices in 2024-25, down from 5.3 the year before and 6.8 in 2022-23.
The combined achievement rate for ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) was 62.7 per cent, compared to 66 per cent for white apprentices.
Meanwhile, the gap between apprentices with learning difficulties and those without has also shrunk.
There was a 3.6 percentage point gap in favour of apprentices without learning difficulties in 2024-25, down from 4.5 the year before.
The achievement rate for apprentices with learning difficulties was 62.3 per cent, compared to 65.9 per cent for those without.
Most deprived improve the most
The overall achievement gap between apprentices from the most and least deprived postcodes has also narrowed.
Officials use the index of multiple deprivation (IMD) to classify the home areas of apprentices into five quintiles of relative deprivation.
In 2024-25, the achievement rate for apprentices from the most deprived areas was 62 per cent – a 6.1 percentage point improvement from 55.9 per cent the year before. For those from the least deprived areas, the achievement rate increased 3.9 percentage points from 64 per cent to 67.9 per cent.
This means there was a 5.9 percentage point gap in achievement rates between the most and least deprived, down from 8.1 in 2023-24.
Colleges and training providers continue to support large volumes of learners through Functional Skills and GCSE resits, often alongside complex vocational programmes and increasing pressure on staff as policy expectations evolve.
Following the education and skills white paper, demonstrating progress and reducing resits in English and maths is now a clear priority for government, with this focus increasingly reflected in Ofsted’s inspection approach. As a result, training providers and colleges are under growing pressure not just to deliver these qualifications, but to evidence impact and improve outcomes more consistently.
Pass has developed a solution that supports this approach through evidence-based maths and English delivery, giving educators and learners confidence in when a learner is ready to pass.
Removing the Barrier
Maths and English remain a barrier for many learners, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. At the same time, tutors are managing increasing workloads, balancing delivery, assessment and administrative responsibilities.
However, with the right tools and support in place, meaningful progress is possible. Pass is proud to support HIT Training (HIT), part of The Opportunity Provider group, whose experience in working with a large and diverse apprenticeship population reflects this. Many of HIT’s learners arrive without prior success in English and maths, often carrying negative experiences from school:
Many of our adult apprentices left school without GCSE English or maths… the prospect of tackling these subjects alongside a demanding apprenticeship can feel overwhelming… getting the right starting point is essential in breaking down these barriers.
Micaela Barlow FIH, Quality and Curriculum Director at The Opportunity Provider
Improving Pass Rates
Many providers are now moving towards more data-driven delivery models, using insight to target interventions more effectively and improve learner outcomes.
At Pass, this approach underpins the design of the platform, which brings together the full learner journey in one place, from initial assessment and diagnostics through to structured learning and AI-powered mock exams.
For providers like HIT, this joined-up approach has addressed a long-standing gap:
Until now, we had not found an integrated initial assessment, diagnostic, and exam-preparation system that worked cohesively. Pass has changed that.
The impact of a more structured led approach is already being seen in delivery. At HIT, working with Pass has driven significant improvements in both engagement and achievement, with first time Pass rates now above 80 per cent:
Our success rates, already strong, are now exceptional… first-time Pass rates have soared beyond our expectations… learners are more confident, more willing to practise, and more motivated to succeed.
Effective Reporting
Alongside improved learner outcomes, educators and curriculum managers using Pass are also seeing operational benefits, including a significant reduction in marking time and improved visibility of reporting.
Pass is designed to support learners, tutors and senior leaders, combining an accessible user experience with detailed insight into performance and progress.
As HIT notes:
“Pass is an accessible, well-designed platform that just makes sense. Its intuitive interface, high quality learning resources and reliable reporting tools create a supportive learning environment for all users.”
Support from Awarding Organisations
Awarding organisations are also rethinking how they support centres beyond the final assessment.
Through their partnership with TQUK, Pass has developed a digital mock assessment platform that brings together diagnostics, past papers and automated marking in one place.
TQUK has long placed innovation at the centre of its approach, from remote invigilation to digital certification. This partnership builds on that foundation by extending support throughout the learner journey.
As TQUK explains:
We aren’t just invested in the outcome; we want to support learners throughout their journey… the ability to sit mock exams digitally gives learners an extra layer of comfort… they can benefit from instant feedback through AI marking.
Chris Brown, Head of Sales & Marketing at TQUK
TQUK past papers, previously only available as downloads, are now embedded directly into the Pass platform, allowing learners to complete them in a digital environment with immediate feedback.
Looking Ahead
As the sector responds to the findings of the skills white paper and increasing scrutiny from Ofsted, it is becoming essential for educators to ensure their maths and English delivery can clearly evidence progress and demonstrate that learners are entered for GCSE and Functional Skills exams only when they are ready to pass. There is now a more effective way to reduce ongoing resits and improve outcomes.
For providers reviewing their approach, the message from HIT is clear:
Book a demo with Pass now. You have everything to gain from exploring what’s possible.
To find out more about how Pass can support your provision, see the links below.
