Experiences beyond our familiar boundaries enable us to challenge ourselves, learn new things and grow. Our European neighbours offer such experiences, with their diverse economic, social and environmental landscapes, and different languages, cultural traditions and histories. Despite this rich variety on our doorstep, does the FE and skills sector make the most of the opportunities available for its learners and its workforce?
The landscape of vocational and technical education across Europe – including within the European Union – is complex, with different education systems and policies across nations. However, many of the challenges are similar to those facing our own FE and skills sector. Our European counterpart, The European Training Foundation, treats green skills as a priority and there is a shared focus on employer engagement in shaping an industry-ready workforce. Sharing effective practice and innovation, building partnerships and collaborating in these areas can help us, as a sector, to improve our own approaches and deliver against our government’s ambitions to drive clean growth, address skills shortages and break down barriers to opportunity.
At an institutional level, there is also a competitive edge to be gained by considering how international partnerships and experiences might benefit learners and staff alike. On a much broader scale, global issues such as the development of skills to manage the climate crisis and the upskilling and reskilling of people affected by conflict cannot be tackled in isolation. They require a collaborative, cross-border approach.
Higher education (HE) institutions in the UK have long benefitted from collaboration and partnerships with our European counterparts. Universities have been particularly active in receiving EU funding through programmes like Horizon Europe, driving success in research and innovation. Before the UK left the EU, universities’ use of the Erasmus programme to provide students with overseas exchange opportunities was widely known across HE. Less well known, and significantly underused, were the broader opportunities available under Erasmus, expanded to Erasmus+ in 2014, both for learners and organisations across our wider education system and beyond.
Erasmus+ offers a variety of opportunities to individual learners and educators in vocational and technical education settings and in adult education. These range from studying or taking a traineeship abroad, to short exchange experiences and professional development opportunities through training or networking periods abroad. There are also opportunities for organisations and employers to engage in development and networking opportunities and to support policy development. These are all ways for our sector to innovate, improve and build fruitful partnerships – often with funding support. Through my role as an evaluator of Erasmus, I had the privilege to observe first hand examples of vocational and adult education European partnerships, from tackling inclusion and mental health to digital innovation or intergenerational learning.
While the UK has not had access to Erasmus+ since it left the EU in 2020, ongoing negotiations could soon enable us to benefit. If this becomes a reality, the FE and skills sector must take full advantage of the wide range of opportunities for shared learning, collaboration and influencing. In the meantime, we must seize opportunities that exist outside of programmes such as Erasmus+. For example, it is fantastic to see collaboration and fruitful competition through events such as EuroSkills, organised by WorldSkills Europe, which is happening this year in Denmark. I am pleased to support this as part of the UK delegation. Ultimately, when we come together to address shared challenges and embrace overseas partnership opportunities, we build our own capacity to be a world-class FE and skills system that delivers for learners, communities and the whole nation.
The new academic year is a busy time in colleges, with the focus on enrolments and inductions. This year, however, a wave of announcements also deserve college leaders’ attention: the prime minister’s reshuffle, the defence skills policy, and the publication of the new Ofsted framework for inspection. Expect even more announcements in the coming months.
The extensive reshuffle, triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation, sees Bridget Phillipson survive as education secretary and Jacqui Smith as skills Minister. The twist though is that responsibility for skills has moved to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with Pat McFadden as the new secretary of state.
Reshuffles are disruptive, so Smith’s survival provides welcome continuity. With her strong grasp of the agenda, we expect the split of responsibilities to play out smoothly. But there is a lot to decide. It seems certain that the adult skills fund and the reformed apprenticeship levy will move to DWP, with regulation and oversight of FE colleges and 16-19 funding programmes remaining with DfE. This transfer will lead to a stronger focus on the youth guarantee and support for unemployed adults. So far so clear.
Current uncertainties
The future is less clear for the sponsorship of Skills England, leadership on technical excellence colleges and local skills Improvement plans, and operational details. We can only speculate at this stage.
The skills portfolio has moved several times in the past three decades. Colleges have each time adapted, showing their colours as vital anchor institutions supporting employers, their communities and the local economy. This move will inevitably lead to a strong focus on work skills but we need to fight hard to ensure that doesn’t overshadow the wider roles of adult education and lifelong learning – for a fairer, healthier, more tolerant and inclusive society.
The adult budget outside higher education was decimated from 2010, leading to millions of learning opportunities lost and reduced impact on people’s lives. If the focus now narrows, we will see even more neglect of the broader benefits of learning, such as health, well-being, inclusion, community and empowerment. All these are core to the government’s overall ambitions for opportunity, better health and economic growth.
The Ministry of Defence’s investment in skills is a welcome development. It brings new money into our sector, with colleges playing a central role. It is also recognition that other government departments need to invest to equip people with skills for growth industries rather than simply expecting the labour market to do that for them.
Ofsted changes
The third big development this week was the publication of the new Ofsted inspection framework. The last few months has seen great resistance from schools, and deep concern among unions and leaders. We in the college sector have been less critical, but have set out our concerns about the need for inspectors to have great experience and understanding of FE and skills. This ensures more consistent judgements across regions, and better, quicker complaints procedures.
It looks like positive changes have been made in response to our feedback, but some have not. This reflects a diversity of Ofsted stakeholders Ofsted, and belief in the efficacy of its approach. That is usual in a consultation. Ultimately, however, the first inspections will determine whether the new approach works. Now we have a very short window to digest the new arrangements before inspections start on November 10. It is not the best time for college leaders to prepare for that, coinciding with the busiest time of the year while enrolment and inductions are underway.
We anticipate more important publications this autumn, including two white papers on post-16 education and skills and the SEND system, and the final report of the curriculum and assessment review. It will be a busy time for us all as we read them and make sense of the implications.
Pudsey Sixth Form College opens this month in West Leeds after a massive and at times highly challenging undertaking. This bold project has been nearly ten years in the planning. But it was only 12 months in the making.
The original decision to create a new college in Pudsey was prompted by a lack of local provision and a looming demographic change. The sixth forms at local schools were over-capacity. And, with the number of 16-18 year olds across Leeds predicted to rise, the pressure on places was only set to intensify.
So in 2018 a new, dedicated sixth form college that could offer a broad range of subjects was proposed by a partnership led by Leeds Sixth Form College, Crawshaw Academy, Co-op Academy Priesthorpe and Leeds West Academy.
We’ll be offering up to 650 young people from our partnership’s schools the chance to study a wide range of A level, T Level, hybrid and GCSE courses.
The culmination of our project’s journey will be in year three when we’ll be at full capacity. Our journey so far has not been without some significant hurdles.
One of our original partners dropped out. And there were significant delays to the project. But the ‘fun’ really started when the Office for National Statistics reclassified FE colleges as public sector bodies in 2022. The impact of this on how colleges could manage their finances meant that we had to quickly reconsider how we were going to finance what ended up being a nearly £13 million endeavour.
The original plan had been to secure most of the money through commercial borrowing. But the new lending rules scuppered that. Given the resources – including some £1 million in design, consultancy and planning costs – that our partnership had already invested, allowing the project to fail wasn’t an option.
So we quickly mobilised, teamed up with organisations like the Association of Colleges, and contacted politicians spelling out our concerns. Thankfully, in April 2023 DfE introduced a scheme to help colleges overcome such obstacles. This enabled us to finance our college via a £12.7 million loan.
Meanwhile, there were other obstacles to overcome in the planning process. Some residents and councillors had raised concerns about the college’s likely impact on the local road network and parking. Since maintaining excellent community links and becoming part of the fabric of Pudsey was a core, non-negotiable part of our vision for the college, we were determined to tackle this head-on. We proposed a raft of traffic calming measures which we’ll be monitoring, alongside Leeds City Council, to ensure they work as intended.
But the loss of a disused playing field on the development site next to Crawshaw Academy created the greatest uncertainty. Sport England’s objections meant the Secretary of State could have ‘called in’ our proposals for further scrutiny. This would have potentially delayed or even scotched the project. Thankfully, this was not judged necessary.
Since our plans were approved in May 2024, we’ve been working flat-out with our contractors Caddick Construction. In February we were delighted to give the Chancellor, Leeds West and Pudsey MP Rachel Reeves, a tour of the under-construction building.
To get to this point is a great achievement. And many valuable lessons have been learned. The most extreme challenge has been just how quickly we’ve had to do it all. Within just over an academic year the college has been built, staffed and promoted to prospective students. Ideally, we could have done this in stages but that’s not been possible. We’ve had to make a viable and full offer from the start.
In hindsight, I also wouldn’t have timed having a baby. Our second child Emily was born in November 2024. During all this!
But we’re on track and we’ll be making this new sixth form college the best it possibly can be. It will help learners to progress into great careers or universities hand-in-hand with an inclusive approach so everyone fulfils their potential.
While we already run a successful sixth form, Leeds Sixth Form College, we know that we can’t just trade off that reputation in Pudsey. Proving our credentials to the community will rely on forging close collaborations with its organisations and businesses. That might just be the biggest, and most exciting challenge of all.
Ministers intend to introduce new digital “school profiles” for colleges, it has been revealed.
The plan was unveiled yesterday in the Department for Education’s response to a consultation on school accountability reform.
Officials are developing a new “digital service” to act as a “one-stop shop” for parents and the wider public to view a “broad range of information” about a school.
It will feature information from inspection report cards, along with performance data, like exam results, along with achievement and attendance stats.
A pilot version will be tested this academic year, with “the aim for the service to be launched publicly in 2026-27”.
DfE said it considers it “important for there to be coverage of 16-18 institutions as many young people will carry on their 16-18 education in schools or colleges”.
It added: “We will therefore also undertake further research in 2025-26 to explore how best to introduce similar profiles for 16-18 institutions, which will include further education colleges.”
At present, there are multiple online databases for the public, such as “get information about schools”, “compare school performance”, Ofsted’s website and scores of weekly, monthly and annual publications on things like attendance.
DfE intends to discontinue the “compare school and college performance” and “analyse school performance” tools once profiles are up and running.
WorldSkills UK boss Ben Blackledge officially opened this year’s EuroSkills competition at an entertaining opening ceremony in Denmark earlier this evening encouraging Europe to unite against skills challenges.
The UK chief roused a crowd of thousands tonight at the Jyske Bank BOXEN arena in Herning, Denmark and welcomed the 600 competitors, delegates and supporters to Europe’s largest skills competition.
Team UK will go head-to-head against hundreds of their peers from 33 countries in 17 skills from tomorrow in an intense three-day competition.
The team of 19 students and apprentices proudly flew the flag across the stage in front of thousands of audience members and cheers from training managers, ex-competitors and families in the crowd.
WorldSkills UK boss Ben Blackledge says this year’s competition shows ‘collective effort’ of Europe to unite on skills challenges
Ben Blackledge, chief executive of WorldSkills UK and recently appointed chair of WorldSkills Europe, officially opened the competition, and told competitors they were not only shaping their own future, but Europe’s opportunities and challenges.
“Skills are heart of how we work together for a sustainable future, how we build inclusive pathways for people from all backgrounds and abilities and how we adapt to new technologies,” he said.
“In a world where challenges such as how we respond to changing technologies and the climate crisis do not stop at boundaries, our collective effort is essential,” he added.
It is expected up to 100,000 visitors from across Denmark and abroad will attend the event over the next three days.
EuroSkills Herning is the ninth biennial competition for 33 member countries across the continent.
Team UK experts and supporters cheer on champions at EuroSkills opening ceremony
This year’s event will be the testbed to see if Team UK have what it takes to go up against the world’s best young tradespeople at the hotly anticipated WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.
Last September, during WorldSkills Lyon, France, delegates were treated to a mesmerising show by the Chinese team, just a small taste of what to expect in 2026.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, former prime minister of Denmark, chairman of EuroSkills 2025 board, welcomed the competitors or “athletes” of Europe with an encouraging message.
“To the competitors, you are the true stars of, what some may call an event, but what I call summit,” he said.
“You carry the promise of Europe’s future,” he added.
Rasmussen, who was PM of Denmark from 1993 to 2001, told the audience that the 33 countries coming together this week was a “strong message” to those who “threaten Europe’s competitive strength and values”.
In July Denmark took over the presidency of the European Union council. This week also marks a meeting between European ministers in Herning, including UK skills minister Jacqui Smith, to discuss vocational education.
“We are here together. We are stronger than ever,” Rasmussen added.
At tonight’s opening ceremony, the audience was also treated to performances from Danish singer/songwriter Malte Ebert.
Two competitors and two experts were then asked to acknowledge the WorldSkills oath, which promises to compete and officiate “fairly” by respecting the code of ethics and conduct, the competition rules, and the WorldSkills values.
The competitor’s oath is as follows: “In the name of all competitors, I promise to compete fairly, respecting and abiding by the code of ethics and conduct, the competition rules, and the WorldSkills Europe values – all in the true spirit of WorldSkills Europe.”
New experiences reach new heights
For many, this week’s competition will be a one-of-a-kind experience. Four competitors have added flying abroad to their roster of new experiences.
Despite flying to Herning from London with some turbulence, graphics design competitor Melody Cheung said the flight was smooth sailing. She hadn’t been on an airplane since she was a baby and told FE Week that she was excited to do more in the future.
Meanwhile, Ryan Sheridan, the training manager for the mechanical engineering CAD skill, had to pull out of the event at the last minute for personal reasons.
WorldSkills competition rules state that training managers cannot be replaced but Stuart Lyons, the Team UK competitor, will be supported by Bryn Jones, an expert in the additive manufacturing skill and lecturer at Coleg Menai, Wales.
Ofsted has cut the number of areas of judgment for FE providers and colleges and renamed its colour-coded five-point grading scale following a consultation on report card reforms.
But an independent review warns that the “stress” and “high stakes” consequences of inspection are unlikely to change for education staff and leaders once the reforms are fully embedded.
Unions have said the tweaks announced today are “minor and cosmetic changes to a flawed rationale” and fear the reforms are a “recipe for professional burn-out”.
Meanwhile, the watchdog has taken aim at a “small but vocal minority” who are “calling for reduced accountability or removing grading altogether” and promised to “not hesitate” to call out providers that are failing learners.
Ofsted’s reforms, first proposed in a consultation launched in February and refined today after 6,500 responses, were prompted by a coroner’s ruling in 2023 that an inspection of Caversham Primary School in Reading “contributed” to the suicide of its headteacher, Ruth Perry.
The inspectorate believes its reforms will offer “more granularity and nuance” about a provider’s performance and help to “raise standards” for learners.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said: “Children deserve the best possible education; their parents deserve the best possible information and education professionals deserve to have their work fairly assessed by experts. The changes we are presenting today aim to achieve all three of these things.”
Reformed inspections will start from November 10. There will be no routine inspections in the first half of the autumn term for state-maintained schools and FE and skills providers.
From ‘urgent improvement’ to ‘exceptional’
Ofsted’s consultation proposed that overall effectiveness judgments would be removed, but multiple areas would be cast along a colour-coded scale of ‘exemplary’, ‘strong’, ‘secure’, ‘attention needed’ and ‘causing concern’.
But amid fears this wording was “confusing” and “too harsh”, the watchdog has decided to change this terminology to:
o Urgent improvement (red)
o Needs attention (orange)
o Expected standard (green)
o Strong standard (dark green)
o Exceptional (blue)
This replaces the current ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ grades.
In a change from the initial proposals, providers will not be asked to submit case studies for approval to gain an ‘exceptional’ grade. Instead, inspectors will “evaluate ‘exceptional’ practice by applying the toolkit, subject to the usual quality assurance and consistency checking”.
An area will be graded as ‘urgent improvement’ when Ofsted evaluates a provider to be “failing overall or failing a significant group of children or learners” or if the watchdog identifies “serious, critical or systemic shortcomings in practice, policy or performance, against professional/statutory or non-statutory guidance and requirements”.
The inspectorate said: “If we identify that standards for children and learners must be urgently improved, we will not hesitate to call it out.”
As previously announced, there won’t be an overall effectiveness grade for FE and skills providers from now on.
Example FE report card
Maximum evaluation areas reduce from 20 to 16
For FE and skills providers, Ofsted’s consultation originally proposed up to 20 graded areas – double the number of previous reports.
To reduce this, the watchdog has merged ‘developing teaching and training’ with ‘curriculum’ to create a single ‘curriculum, teaching and training’ evaluation area.
Ofsted will introduce three evaluation areas for each provider as a whole: ‘inclusion’, ‘leadership and governance’ and ‘safeguarding’.
Providers will then be judged on their ‘curriculum, teaching and training’, ‘achievement’ and ‘participation and development’ for each provision they offer including ‘young people’, ‘adults’, ‘apprenticeships’ and ‘high needs learners’.
Colleges and designated institutions will continue to be judged on their contribution to meeting skills needs but in a change from the consultation, this area will be judged on the new colour-coded scale like across other remits instead of the current ‘limited, reasonable or strong’ system.
Safeguarding will either be judged ‘met’ or ‘not met’ at provider level, as is current practice.
So for an FE college offering courses to young people, adults, apprentices and learners with high needs, this would see the number of grades they receive rise from the current 10 to 16.
The detailed report card will sit below an overview grid and provide a narrative for each evaluation area. It will explain strengths and areas for development.
A new “suspend and return” policy was introduced last September for schools that lets inspectors pause an inspection to allow a school to resolve safeguarding, “where that is the only issue in the school”.
This will now be adopted in FE and skills inspections.
Ofsted said: “Inspectors can suspend an inspection to allow a provider to resolve issues with safeguarding within three months, where there are no concerns in other evaluation areas.”
Reforms won’t reduce ‘stress’ and ‘high stakes’
Ofsted commissioned Sinéad Mc Brearty, chief executive of well-being charity Education Support, to carry out an independent review of the impact of its inspection reforms on the workload and well-being of the education workforce.
She concluded that stress related to inspection is “unlikely to materially change whilst the ‘high stakes’ consequences remain broadly intact” despite the reforms.
In response, Ofsted said: “We recognise that inspections can be stressful. That is to some extent inevitable in an inspection system fundamentally aimed at ensuring that proper standards of education and safeguarding are in place, and that parents are fully informed on those matters.
“However, we are determined to minimise this stress where we can. We fully believe the changes we have made do this, and that they will lead to a more informative, transparent and fairer system of reporting that better serves children and learners, parents and carers, and professionals and providers.”
It is not yet clear what accountability measures the Department for Education will attach to Ofsted results under the new report card system.
Ofsted vs unions
Ofsted’s consultation response goes heavy on parental backing for its reform proposals.
The watchdog said independent polling from YouGov showed almost seven out of 10 of parents surveyed said they prefer the new-look report cards to Ofsted’s current inspection reports. And just 15 per cent said they preferred the old system.
Ofsted also recognised that a “small but vocal minority are calling for reduced accountability or removing grading altogether”.
“We do not agree,” the inspectorate said, and added: “The changes we are introducing are fair and empathetic for professionals, but without losing sight of our core purpose to raise standards.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, hit back.
“Inspections should do two things – provide parents with an accurate reflection of a school’s performance while doing so without placing an excessive burden on staff. Ofsted’s plans achieve neither objective,” he said.
“The tweaks made to its proposals following the consultation period are just that – minor and cosmetic changes to a flawed rationale. To make matters worse, the planned introduction of this system is far too rushed and gives little time to prepare for a huge change in how they will be inspected.”
Di’Iasio warned the “consistency” of Ofsted judgments will continue to be “unreliable” and the new inspection system will place a “huge amount of stress on school and college leaders and their staff because they will face so many judgements across so many areas”.
“Let’s remember that this entire process began with the suicide of a headteacher under the previous inspection system. Yet here we are with a reformed system which appears to be even worse. We are gravely concerned about the welfare of leaders and teachers as well as the impact on recruitment and retention,” he added.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said Sir Martyn Oliver “has failed” in his attempt to bring in a system that reduces pressure.
“Removing the single word judgment was meant to be a powerful revolution, but this makes things much worse. More of the same. More pressure. More ranking and competition. More labels.”
He added that NEU “completely reject that a Nando’s style 1-5 grading scale is good for children or parents”.
A letter has been sent to education secretary Bridget Phillipson today signed by unions and a host of national organisations, ex-school inspectors and Ruth Perry’s sister Julia Waters requesting that the government intervenes and delays the roll out of new Ofsted system “before it’s too late”.
David Hughes, CEO of the Association of Colleges said: “We will only know if this is going to work from the first inspections implementing it.
“We remain concerned about the speed of implementation at the busiest time of the year for colleges, with enrolment and induction underway of new students at the start of the academic year.”
Further education, apprenticeships and skills training providers will see more grades and more performance data in their inspection reports from November as Ofsted introduces its new-look report cards.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver set out to reform inspections with a bolstered focus on inclusion and teacher workload and report cards that better flag what providers do well and what needs to improve.
Ofsted received over 6,500 responses to its consultation on its reform proposals and has today announced its decisions affecting inspections from November.
Here’s your FE Week guide to the key decisions…
New grading scale
From November, familiar ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ grades will be replaced.
Ofsted will proceed with a new five-point grading scale, but the grade titles have changed from what was proposed in February.
Initially proposed replacement grades like ‘secure’ and ‘causing concern’ were “confusing” and “too harsh” on providers, according to consultation feedback.
The new scale will be: ‘exceptional’, ‘strong standard’, ‘expected standard’, ‘needs attention’, and ‘urgent improvement’.
Ofsted said their baseline expectations across the new inspection system are for the ‘expected standard’ grade. Anything below that will get you ‘needs attention or ‘urgent improvement’ and above will get you ‘strong standard’ or ‘exemplary’.
Plans to replace ‘outstanding’ with an elite committee-approved ‘exemplary’ grade have been ditched for being “too complex” and burdensome.
Instead, the ‘exceptional’ grade can be awarded in the same way as the other grades, by meeting the criteria set out in the toolkit (more on that below).
Providers receiving a ‘needs attention’ grade in their inspection will be subject to a one to two-day monitoring visit, but it’s not yet known how the new grades will trigger contractual or FE Commissioner intervention.
Alongside inspection grades, Ofsted’s new report cards for FE and skills providers will also feature performance data. This will include the 16-18 overall achievement rate, 19+ achievement rate, apprenticeship pass rate and apprenticeship overall achievement rate.
Example FE report card
Reduced headline grades
Following the consultation, the maximum number of grades an FE and skills provider can be awarded under new inspections has reduced from 20 to 16.
Consultation respondents said Ofsted’s original proposals for up to 20 could be “difficult to manage”.
Report cards will now list and explain three grades per provision-type, rather than the proposed four. Planned curriculum and developing teaching and training grades have been merged.
So a large further education college with apprenticeships, programmes for young people, programmes for adults, apprenticeships and high needs will get three grades for each type of provision: curriculum, teaching and training, achievement and participation and development.
Colleges and designated institutions will continue to be graded on ‘contribution to skills needs’, but this will now be graded on Ofsted’s five-point scale, rather than the current, ‘limited’, ‘reasonable’ and ‘strong’ scale.
Alongside those, each inspection will deliver a provider-wide grade for inclusion, leadership and governance using the five-point scale, and safeguarding using the familiar ‘met’ or ‘not met’ grades.
FE respondents to the consultation flagged existing criteria around behaviour and attitudes and personal development did not match up with the new evaluation areas. Ofsted said it has now embedded these in the participation and development criteria in the new toolkit.
Getting the grades
From November, each inspected provider will get a grade for ‘inclusion’ based on how well the needs of disadvantaged and traditionally underperforming students and apprentices are met.
That will include learners who have been eligible for free meals while at school, others from low-income families, learners and apprentices with SEND and high needs, learners who are in social care or are care leavers and those who are “known or previously known” to the youth justice system.
Inspectors will expect to see “high expectations” for those learners for the length of their course, qualified SEND professionals and that learners’ needs are “generally” met for a provider to achieve ‘expected standard’.
Leaders at all providers will have to ensure their staff have “manageable” workloads and “consider” their wellbeing in order to achieve ‘expected standard’ in the new leadership and governance grade.
But if inspectors find “inappropriate use of subcontracting” or leaders “imposing unsustainable workloads on staff which undermines moral and performance,” that could land the provider with an ‘urgent improvement.’
Example FE report card
Ofsted’s published inspection toolkit lists its criteria for each provider-level and provision-level grade to achieve each of the five possible grades.
For example, for the curriculum, teaching and training grade for each provision type, inspectors will want evidence on the quality of curriculum leadership, curriculum design, teaching and learning quality and inclusive teaching practices.
The achievement grades will depend on evidence proving inclusive attainment, progress and preparation for positive destinations.
And participation and development will include the quality of leadership, attendance, behaviour, dealing with bullying and learners’ access to development and enrichment activities.
‘Not such a burden’
Ofsted said it has taken concern about inspection-related workloads “extremely seriously” and claimed “nothing” in the new toolkit adds to providers’ to-do lists.
It assures providers: “We do not expect any provider to be doing more than it needs to just ‘for Ofsted’.”
The inspectorate said it accepts that unacceptably low standards are more often because professionals are “struggling in difficult circumstances” rather than “malign intent”.
As a result, it wants to balance protecting children and learners with “giving professionals the support they need”.
It hopes to “ease concerns” through changes include capping hours inspectors can be on site each day, reducing evaluation areas, clarifying distinction between grades, and changing inspectors’ approach to the ‘exceptional’ grade.
The early proposals were first “tested and revised” with providers in April and May, which found many FE and skills providers “disagreed” that their workload would be reduced.
In response, Ofsted said it reduced evaluation areas, revised its methodology, clarified and “constrained” expectations and removed the “deep dive” approach.
To avoid burdening providers with long days,new operating guidance says inspectors should not arrive on site before 8.30am and should leave by 5.45pm, other than in “exceptional circumstances”.
‘Likely to cause stress’
The inspectorate also commissioned an independent ‘wellbeing impact assessment’ that found the introduction of a new framework is likely to cause stress as providers adapt.
The assessment, carried out by consultancy Education Support between April and July, found that long-term stress levels are “unlikely to change materially change” while the high stakes consequences of inspections remain intact.
A key concern of the review is the “pervasive perception” across the education sector that additional work is created through the need to keep an “audit trail” of records for inspectors, which creates “additional work”.
Ofsted could “shift the dial” on this under its new framework – but only if the inspectorate establishes an “evidence base” of current demands on providers and carries out an independently verified evaluation.
The time and resource the inspectorate has put into should also “gradually increase trust”, but stakeholders’ “deep frustration” with “tokenistic consultation” on the design of the new framework has had a negative impact.
In response to specific recommendations in the report, Ofsted said it hopes that reforms to the “whole process” of inspection will improve wellbeing, particularly for principals who face isolation and high levels of individual responsibility.
Specific measures for leaders include naming chairs of governors in reports alongside CEOs, sharing emerging grades early to reduce “unexpected findings”, and tailoring inspections to providers’ contexts.
In the longer term, the inspectorate promises that its strategy and delivery unit – set up last year – will “track the progress” of actions it’s pledged to take.
It will also commission “in-depth qualitative research” of the renewed framework’s impact in spring next year.
The government has confirmed plans to create five “defence-focused” technical excellence colleges to “make the country safer and boost jobs”.
Applications for existing colleges to win funding to be a technical excellence college (TEC) will go live by the end of this calendar year, with successful centres to be launched in 2026.
The announcement was made in the government’s new defence industrial strategy published this week.
Other strategy elements include increased nuclear-related apprenticeships, a clearing style system for apprenticeships and a defence skills passport.
Defence secretary John Healey said: “It’s British workers who gave UK companies the leading edge in defence innovation and industry.
“Our defence industrial strategy puts skills at the heart of the Government’s plans to make the country safer and boost jobs across the UK.
“This is the biggest defence skills plan in decades, a plan to boost Britain’s security and create well paid, high-skilled jobs for young people for generations to come.”
The government hopes the defence sector plan will help make the UK a “defence industrial superpower” by 2035.
It has also earmarked £250 million in investment for “defence growth deals” for five locations: Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Sheffield and Plymouth.
The five colleges
The five defence TECs will follow ten construction TECs confirmed in August, which will each receive a share of £80 million in capital and £20 million in revenue over the next four years.
Officials will work with the defence industry to identify where the TECs would be “best placed” to address “large demand for skilled workers” from specialist industries.
As with the construction TECs, the funding will be both revenue and capital and will be aimed at building “capacity and capability” for teaching, curriculum development, specialist equipment and facilities for “cutting-edge defence skills provision”.
It is not yet clear whether the defence TEC’s will be UK-wide or just available in England like their construction counterparts.
Careers and upskilling
The college funding is part of a “comprehensive” £182 million package aimed at skills for the defence industry that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) says will help train people for roles such as submarine engineers, specialist welders, and cyber warfare specialists.
Through the National Nuclear Strategic Plan for Skills (NNSPS), launched last year, the sector aims to “double” defence nuclear apprentice and graduate intakes, creating 22,000 apprenticeships and 9,000 graduate roles over the ten years.
There are currently about 24,000 apprentices supported by the MOD each year.
To help plug workforce gaps, the ministry also plans to launch an ‘apprenticeship and graduate clearing system’ that will offer opportunities in the defence sector to those who narrowly miss out on defence graduate and apprenticeship schemes, which are “typically oversubscribed”.
Officials also plan to establish a ‘defence universities alliance’ for a “more strategic relationship” with the higher education sector, and will “explore” a partnership with the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to promote defence careers.
To encourage mid-career transitions into the defence industry, the MOD will “scope the development” of a ‘defence skills framework’ that will include a defence skills passport to enable a “smoother identification and transfer” between armed forces, defence industry and neighbouring industries.
The government says funding will also pay for “thousands” of short courses so that defence employers can train new and current staff “more quickly”, although details of this remain limited.
Skills England will play a “crucial role” in the MOD’s strategy to support the defence industry, by “providing the authoritative voice” on skills needs, analysing local and regional needs, and mobilising employers.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The defence sector doesn’t just keep the British people safe; it drives growth and unlocks opportunities for young people to learn pioneering skills and pursue a great career.
“This investment and our new defence technical excellence colleges will break down barriers to opportunity for people in every corner of our country, drive economic growth as part of our Plan for Change and secure the UK’s place in the world, putting us at the cutting edge of innovation and new technology.”
Three MPs from Labour’s class of 2024 have been appointed ministers at the Department for Education in this weekend’s reshuffle.
While education secretary Bridget Phillipson kept her role and skills minister Jacqui Smith was given a new department to co-work in, it was all change elsewhere in the ministerial ranks.
Schools minister Catherine McKinnell, children’s minister and Commons skills spokesperson Janet Daby and early years minister Stephen Morgan moved out.
In their place came Georgia Gould, Josh MacAlister and Olivia Bailey – all elected to parliament for the first time last year. While Gould replaced McKinnell at the minister of state rank, MacAlister and Bailey are at the more junior parliamentary under-secretary of state level. Their specific portfolios have not yet been confirmed.
The reshuffle comes at the start of a busy term for education. Ofsted’s inspection reforms will be announced tomorrow and the curriculum and assessment review, SEND reforms and schools and post-16 white papers are due before Christmas.
Here’s FE Week’s trusty need to know on the new education ministers…
Georgia Gould, education minister
Gould, the MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, was a councillor in the London borough of Camden from 2010 to 2024, serving as the authority’s leader from 2017 to 2024. Camden includes the constituency represented by Sir Keir Starmer
Before her promotion to become a minister of state at the DfE, Gould was a parliamentary under-secretary of state, a more junior minister, in the Cabinet Office. According to the government’s website, she had responsibility for public sector reform, oversight of government functions and public bodies policy
She is the daughter of New Labour grandee Lord Philip Gould and Baroness Gail Rebuck, the current chair of publishing house Penguin Random House
In 2015, Gould wrote a book titled Wasted: How Misunderstanding Young Britain Threatens Our Future. Writing about it, she said: “Young people don’t just want a job, they want the opportunity for creativity, entrepreneurialism and to be part of something bigger than themselves. The big challenge for Labour is to hold as many aspirations for young people as they do for themselves.” One of her solutions was for “radical devolution”
Gould told the Local Government Chronicle it was while attending Camden School for Girls that she saw the “depths of inequality” in her borough. “I saw more and more of my friends and people I was at school with leaving education early and meeting all sorts of barriers,” she said. In another piece, she described herself as a “proud feminist” and points out the school was founded by suffragist Frances Mary Buss
Within months of becoming an MP, MacAlister tabled a private members bill to ban smartphones in schools in October 2024. The bill has since been watered down, instead calling for the education secretary to research the impact of children’s use of social media and the digital age of consent to rise from 13 to 16 years. He has also called for a “resurgence of civics in schools”
In 2013, MacAlister established Frontline, a graduate social working training programme modelled on Teach First. It was provided with £45 million funding from the Department for Education in 2019
MacAlister is married to Matt Hood, an education policy expert who helped found and then lead the Oak National Academy
Olivia Bailey, junior education minister
Bailey became MP for Reading West and Mid Berkshire – a newly-created seat – in the 2024 election
Her family has education ties. Her mother worked as a secondary school teacher and her father, Roy Bailey, is deputy leader and executive member for education at Bracknell Forest Council
Bailey has brushed shoulders with senior party leaders, working as head of domestic policy to Starmer from 2020 to 2022. She also worked for two years as the party’s head of domestic policy
She previously worked as director and then partner at Public First, a consultancy which has clients in the education sector. Public First partner Ed Dorrell is currently advising the DfE on drafting its upcoming schools white paper
At university, Bailey served as women’s officer of the National Union of Students from 2009 to 2011. Here, she published the first national study into harassment and abuse suffered by female students
