How one FE college is turning the tide on NEETs

“Right now, you’re probably standing where the perfumes and aftershaves were,” says Blackburn College’s executive director of student support and experience, Matt Robinson. 

He leads me to a classroom for young people who, until recently, were not in education, employment or training. “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for”, one learner has scribbled on a display board. It feels like a fitting motto for this new ‘Launchpad’ hub, housed in a former Debenhams in Blackburn town centre.

The provision is part of a college and community partnership that Blackburn College credits with bucking the trend by slashing local NEET numbers at a time when national NEET rates have continued to climb.

Blackburn with Darwen Council credits the programme’s “positive impact” for the area’s 16-17 NEET rate dropping from 4.6 per cent last year to 3.3 per cent this quarter.

A standout feature of this centre is its flexible roll-on-roll-off provision, which enables more fragile 16 to 19-year-old NEETs to ease into college life gradually. The college has also teamed up with community partners to support adult NEETs at the site too.

Robinson is “incredibly passionate” about working with partners in “the heart of the community,” on provision that is “small and nurturing compared to the hustle and bustle of college”.

Launched in September, Blackburn College’s chief executive, Fazal Dad, sees the centre as a “new way of thinking about place-based leadership in FE”.

Launchpad’s Katie Torbay, Farooq Imran. Dr Fazal Dad and Matt Robinson

From talking to doing

Dad sits on several local and national boards, including Skills England, and says the issue of tackling growing numbers of NEETs has cropped up regularly. Although “there’s a lot of talking” and “hypotheses”, “nothing actually gets done” about it.  

But Dad is no dawdler. Two years ago, he took proactive action in his community. 

He had noticed more young people were arriving at college “not ready to learn”.

“The schools didn’t give us the real picture,” he says. Often these students had very poor school attendance and felt daunted by the busy college environment; within the first six weeks of term, many were dropping out.

To cater for this rising cohort, the college sunk £1 million into renovating the former Debenhams and JobCentre building which is a five-minute walk from Blackburn’s main campus. The local authority stumped up a further £50,000.

The original plan was to take on 120 young NEETs. The centre opened in September with 260, reflecting the scale of demand.

Farooq Imran and Akeeb Ahmed

Focus on flexibility

The ‘Future Focus’ programme at Launchpad can take on 16 to 19-year-olds “at any point in the year when they’re ready to re-engage with education”, rather than only when the academic calendar allows, says Dad. He believes this flexibility is “fundamental to genuine inclusion”. 

In many areas of the country, colleges partner with the King’s Trust to support NEETs through its personal development programmes. But Robinson points out that these typically 12-week programmes have three fixed entry and exit points a year. 

Future Focus’s provision generally starts “as small as possible”, explains head of inclusion Farooq Imran, with the first term spent on non-accredited qualifications to build up resilience, confidence and teamwork.

The curriculum is based partly on the needs of local employers, with a “clear progression road map” put in place for learners to focus on their next steps.

When they complete these initial courses and feel ready to move on, students continue being taught by their Future Focus teachers but on a skills pathway that prepares them for a full course starting at the main campus the following September.

Imran says the provision has not worked for a “handful of people” who have been referred back to the local authority. 

But by December, 55 of the initial 260 had graduated onto a mainstream college course and around another 10 were in employment, while Robinson says the others had “purposeful individual interviews” to set them onto alternative pathways. 

A party was held in the social hub with games and a DJ to celebrate the learners’ achievements.

One learner benefiting from this flexible transition approach is 18-year-old Akeeb Ahmed.

At 13, he took on the bulk of the housework and caring responsibilities for his three younger brothers, as his mother struggled with epilepsy.

He rarely attended school, fearing one of her seizures might cause her to “fall down the stairs and bang her head”. “I’d rather be at home and know mum was safe than be at school,” he says.

After his mother died in 2024, he moved in with his Nana, who passed away during his first year at Blackburn College, where he was studying a level 2 bricklaying course. His attendance dropped to 36 per cent.

Since joining Launchpad in September, staff have supported Ahmed to secure an ADHD diagnosis. He now values being able to access “a lot more one-to-one support if I need it”.

“It’s a lot quieter here, I feel I can focus better,” he says. “I feel like this place has given me a second chance.”

Ahmed, who is on a construction pathway, took a level two employability course as well as GCSE maths and English, and by January felt ready to return to the main campus. He is now attending taster sessions there in joinery, before potentially starting a joinery course in September.

He is also feeling more confident he will pass his GCSE maths and English this year, as he will be able to take them in a small room to reduce his anxiety.

Similarly, Kasey, 17, was initially so nervous about starting a hairdressing course at the main campus after completing her Future Focus employability course that staff had to walk her down to the salon. She now spends Thursdays in maths and English GCSE classes at Launchpad, and Wednesdays in hairdressing sessions on campus.

“The Future Focus staff help me get to where I want to be – they’re willing to put extra work in for me to prepare for my resits in June,” she says.

Future Focus programme learner Kasey

Small but powerful

In the past, the college would not normally find out which learners had been persistently absent from school until they had already arrived at college.

But now there are better data sharing systems with schools and the local authority to gauge those at greatest risk of becoming NEET, and to transition them into Launchpad from the outset since “prevention is better than a cure”, says Dad. 

Future Focus’s curriculum manager Katie Tormay says they also work with schools to find out what a young person’s areas of interest are, so they know “what lessons we can give them to get them interested in a college course for next year”.

Robinson believes there is a “misconception” in the FE sector that NEETs are predominantly “low level” learners, when “that isn’t actually the case at all”. “We have some students that have just had lots of things going on at home, poverty, social, emotional, mental health issues,” he says. 

Around 30 young people on Future Focus are currently on level 3 provision. Some have applied to universities.

Tormay says many of Future Focus’s learners have not attended school since year 7, having been classed by the system as ‘electivelyhome educated’ “but not really homeschooled”.

These young people often display low confidence and anxiety.

“Traditional college environments, however strong, can feel overwhelming, overly formal or inaccessible for this cohort,” says Dad. “Launchpad responds directly to that gap.”

Typical FE college classes accommodate between 15 and 25 learners. Launchpad has between eight and 10.

When Launchpad opens at 8.30am, breakfast is provided for all learners, and at lunchtime those entitled to free meals get vouchers to spend at nearby Blackburn market. 

“The independent act of going down there makes them feel more part of the community,” says Tormay.

As well as a specialist support team, the centre hosts pastoral and attendance staff who all share a “connect before you correct” approach to working with learners, she adds.

Imran says teachers often have to come into the students’ social hub before classes start to escort anxious learners into the classroom.

For some, Tormay says, “the hardest part is getting them through the door”. She recounts how her team spent the first eight weeks meeting one learner at the entrance, coaxing him in. 

A message board in a classroom at Launchpad

Supporting adult too

Launchpad was built on the principle that anyone from the wider community as well as 16-19 year olds can come through its doors and be offered “quality information, advice and guidance on next steps and what they need to get there”. 

Tormay says the open doors approach is paying off, with some unemployed parents of Future Focus participants coming forward to seek retraining support themselves.

Launchpad also acts as an educational base for Newground Together, the charitable arm of housing association group Together Housing, which provides education engagement programmes for around 300 adults a week in a designated training room there.

Their provision, funded under the Department for Work and Pensions’ Restart programme, reflects for Dad just how much housing associations have become “community anchor institutions like colleges serving their community”.

The centre is also used by local organisations such as We are Noise, a creative arts and music charity, and Blackburn Foodbank.

And some rooms are occupied by the college’s Skills for Work team and the local authority for short-term re-engagement projects for adults, and on Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) funded via the DWP.

One such programme, Gateway to Blackburn College, offers guaranteed interviews to join Blackburn College as a member of staff. 

DWP officials who visited were “very impressed” with the centre, says Robinson.

Another recent college programme was aimed at addressing the shortfall in school classroom assistants by training up 16 people on a week-long level one programme, followed by four-week work placements in schools.

Dad says that though four of those trainees were subsequently offered jobs, at least four others are still volunteering at the schools where they were placed, which underlines the financial challenges schools face.

Duty to serve

Dad describes Future Focus’s wraparound support and flexible approach as being of “high quality”. But quality comes at a price.

He tells me I’ve “hit the nail on the head” when I suggest colleges, funded per learner, are financially incentivised to recruit higher-level students rather than those needing more support, who cost more to teach.

Dad acknowledges that Launchpad “has to pay for the bills” but brings in little financial return, though he declines to discuss the figures. As a result, he admits there are “certain other things” he would like to do at the college that are not affordable.

The fact most learners are only entitled to a free college education until they are 19 is also an issue the college is “trying to navigate”. But he argues the centre is reaping rewards through “system change at a local level” that “redefines what inclusion looks like”. “Colleges as anchor institutions must take this responsibility seriously,” he adds.

Dr Fazal Dad at Blackburn College

Other areas innovating

Dad claims Blackburn is the only centre in Lancashire with such provision, and he is “inundated with requests to see it”.

Elsewhere, FE colleges’ off-site town centre provision has tended to cater for adult cohorts rather than young people. Bedford College Group operates adult entry-level to level 2 provision in town centres in Bedford, Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough. 

But in Nottingham, a youth guarantee trailblazer project that launched in October is, like in Blackburn, supporting younger NEETs through partnership work involving the local college.

The Thrive Partnership helps 18-21 year old NEETs from workless families through a collaboration between Nottingham College and East Midlands Combined County Authority, Nottingham City Council, the DWP and community organisations.

Rachel Wadsworth, Nottingham College’s vice principal and the project’s senior lead, says it has involved the college venturing out into community centres in deprived areas of the city to engage young people and their families, in an effort to persuade them to join its employability programmes. 

The project started with tea, coffee and cake mornings to meet families, as a “safe introduction to Nottingham College to build trust”. Careers events were also held to “broaden their horizons”.

The project ends later this month and so far of the 60 young people who initially signed up to the programmes, seven have progressed onto a college course and one is going on to university. Wadsworth considers this “very successful” given how challenging it can be to break intergenerational cycles of unemployment.

Back in Blackburn, the Launchpad provision is growing in size as local partners are “starting to understand the provision better and giving more referrals”, says Tormay.

The college is now seeking to launch a supported internship programme at the centre for those whose next step is employment, where young people are provided with work placements, “with a view to that being somewhere they move onto”.

They are also opening a scaled-down version of the Launchpad model for young people in nearby Darwen town centre next month, also in partnership with the local authority. 

“Historically, people from Darwen struggle to engage with activity in Blackburn”, says Robinson. “So we’re doing what’s right for the community there as well.”

FE’s leadership pipeline is missing a generation

FE plays a major role in delivering skills, widening participation and ensuring that it supports local economies. However, when it comes to leadership demographics, the sector is comparatively static. Available workforce and governance data show that FE leadership is disproportionately older. This raises questions about succession planning and long-term sustainability.

The Department for Education’s data shows the median age of the FE workforce is in the mid-40s and has remained very stable in the recent years. While there is no specific data in relation to principals or senior executive teams, governance data does provide a useful benchmark. In the 2023–24 academic year, 67 per cent of FE college governors were aged 45 or older. This indicates that strategic decision-making within the FE sector is largely concentrated among older cohorts.

Experience is clearly vital in the FE sector. The issue however is not age itself, but the way it can become an informal stand-in for leadership readiness, which can slow progression into leadership roles.

The experience problem in FE leadership

FE regularly highlights that leadership shortages and succession risk, however progressing into senior roles can often depend on long service instead of clearly defined indicators of being ready. Young upcoming leaders are often encouraged to “gain more experience”, without much clarity about what experience is actually missing or how that can be gained without senior responsibility.

This creates an experience problem. Leadership roles need experience, but meaningful leadership experience is only acquired by being trusted to lead by academic institutions. When pathways are informal or not clear, young capable professionals may stall or end up leaving the sector.

Research which took place in succession planning in English FE colleges support this view. A Liverpool John Moores University study found that leadership development has historically been reactive, with limited strategic focus on trying to identify and nurture future leaders. Reliance on informal networks and established norms restricts leadership renewal and results in existing profiles being selected.

Why generational renewal matters now

The case for younger leaders is not about replacing experience with enthusiasm. It is about having balance. FE operates in a context which is rapidly changing and shaped by digital delivery, evolving labour markets, increasing learner complexity and sustained financial pressure. Leaders shaped by more recent reforms often bring perspectives directly relevant to these challenges.

Younger leaders are more inclined to question current practices and see institutional systems as design choices rather than fixed realities. In a sector which require continuous adaption, this is an asset. When leadership culture equates readiness with age or tenure, these perspectives struggle to get into decision making positions.

Workforce pressure and leadership capacity

Leadership renewal cannot be separated from wider workforce pressures. DfE workforce data shows ongoing vacancies across the FE sector, including 3.9 teaching vacancies per 100 teaching positions and 2.3 management and leadership vacancies per 100 such positions by the end of the 2023–24 academic year. This points to persistent capacity pressures as institutional demand is increasing.

Workforce data further highlights representation gaps. Leaders are proportionally less likely to come from ethnic minority backgrounds or to declare a disability than the wider FE workforce. These patterns suggest that leadership pathways can filter out multiple groups, which includes younger professionals, rather than operating as pipelines which are nurturing and developing younger leaders.

Rethinking leadership readiness

Addressing this challenge does not mean sidelining experienced leaders or lowering expectations. It just requires rethinking leadership readiness. Capability, impact, adaptability and the ability to be able to lead through transformation should carry as much weight as length of service.

Structured leadership pathways, clear progression criteria and opportunities such as supported secondments or cross-college leadership roles would allow young emerging leaders to gain senior experience earlier. This would show that FE values potential alongside experience.

If the sector is serious about succession planning, it must move beyond informal, time-served models of leadership development. FE does not lack young capable leaders. It lacks a system that allows them to lead consistently.

If the Cook Islands can commit to lifelong learning, why can’t we?

What do the Cook Islands, Latvia, Bolivia and Malaysia all have in common? They’ve all published a lifelong learning strategy.

These are just some of the more recent ones. In the last 30 years, dozens of countries (including Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) have published a national plan or strategy collected by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.

England is conspicuous by its absence; it has never attempted a full lifelong learning strategy. And the government and opposition parties aren’t likely to provide one any time soon.

In the meantime, adult education is left on “life support”, as the principal of Redbridge Institute of Adult Education recently described it; he said he “feared for the long-term future of our sector”.

So we decided to develop our own in collaboration with learners, partners, stakeholders and allies. A true People’s Strategy for Lifelong Learning.

Each of those countries with a strategy has attempted to place lifelong learning in the context of the wider challenges facing them, connecting it to work, health and the need to build stronger, more cohesive communities.

Most importantly, they have stated that lifelong learning matters, and can be part of every citizen’s life.

So maybe the question is not how we compare to the Cook Islands but rather what we can do to ensure a future for lifelong learning. This is where developing a long-term national strategy comes into its own.

We do it in other contexts. The NHS has a 10-year plan. The government has published its first long-term strategy to tackle homelessness. It even has an over‑arching document, Plan for Change, mapping its most important milestones over the course of parliament without mentioning lifelong learning. If things are to get better, we need a roadmap.

None of the recent policy initiatives; the skills white paper, or recent SEND reforms, add up to a national lifelong learning strategy for learners of all ages, backgrounds and postcodes.

Meanwhile, adult learning participation rates are far lower than 20 years ago, driven by a huge drop in funding levels – with the promise of further cuts to come.

So how can we build a strategy to fix this?

First, by connecting lifelong learning to wider agendas. Learning leads to better health and wellbeing; improved productivity and employability; a better understanding of our neighbours and the wider world; the ability to cope with everyday life in an increasingly complex world, lived in digital spheres as well as in real life.

For our strategy, we’ll be connecting with experts in other fields beyond education including health, community building and place making, employment rights and those tackling hate and misinformation.

A roundtable in Scotland after the May elections will consider whether lifelong learning is thriving and what the key messages for the new government might be.

We’ll be collaborating with the wider adult learning sector, unions, other charities, local authorities and of course our own tutors and colleagues. Anyone trying to do the best for adult learners who is held back by restrictive policies and inadequate funding.

Most importantly, we’ll be amplifying the lived experience of lifelong learners by holding events, publishing stories, undertaking research and providing a platform for them to tell their stories of the difference that access-to-learning has made.

The emerging strategy will have grown organically from a bed of shared experiences, knowledge and connections.

It will feel like an experiment, which is why we’ve called it Lifelong Learning Labs.

Like any experiment we’ll start with an idea – that our communities would thrive if lifelong learning were more central to all our lives. But we want to test the best ways of achieving that by sharing our collective findings and ideas.

By the end of the year we’ll have a core set of recommendations to take forward to the next general election, where we want to see parties adopting the idea of a lifelong learning strategy in their manifestos. We’ll have done some of the hard work for them already.

Please join us in the experiment.

Diving into digital reveals a distinct lack of judgment

Further education has become quicker at adopting new technology than teaching the judgment needed to responsibly use it, and our inspection and funding systems reward that imbalance.

Digital platforms, simulations and artificial intelligence are treated as signs of progress and workforce readiness because they are visible and easily quantifiable. The slower work of helping students develop judgment, empathy and professional responsibility is harder to demonstrate, and harder to defend when time is tight.

As a teacher of health and social care, including the health T Level, I see this tension reappearing in everyday lessons. It brings me back to one question: what has to remain human, no matter how advanced our tools become?

I’m not arguing against technology. The issue is what slips down the priority list when systems start valuing what can be logged and audited over what has to be noticed gradually.

This shift shows up clearly in classroom practice. Students are expected to juggle professional judgment alongside platforms, templates and assessment criteria just to progress.

Technology itself isn’t the problem; the problem emerges when FE culture rewards procedural confidence and digital fluency more clearly than critical thinking or ethical reasoning.

That matters for health and social care students. Safe practice means bringing together knowledge, professional judgment and values. Evidence-based practice relies on interpretation, not uncritical adherence to guidance.

Yet in systems shaped by inspection and audit, it is far easier to meet checklist requirements than to show how students are learning to sit with uncertainty.

During a graded observation or deep-dive, folders often speak louder than longitudinal evidence, because inspections are time-limited and depend on what can be made quickly legible.

When judgment is constrained, it shows up in how students relate to uncertainty. FE staff will recognise moments when phones come out or group work slips into multitasking. These behaviours reflect a wider environment where discomfort can be avoided and attention divided.

I see the longer-term consequences of this gap from both sides. Alongside teaching in further education, I work part time as a critical care nurse.

Looking back at my degree, much of the clinical learning was organised around competencies and tick-box skills. Like many nurses, I didn’t really learn how to be a nurse until I qualified.

There has always been a gap between what students are assessed on and what newly qualified practitioners actually need when they are responsible for real people.

I wonder whether this gap helps explain why a significant proportion of newly qualified health and care practitioners leave the profession within the first few years.

The health T Level does a better job of preparing students for the sector than many qualifications that came before it. Reflective practice is embedded, students must demonstrate practical skills to pass, and placements give them experience in real NHS settings.

Even so, students still spend significant time learning systems and assessment demands alongside developing judgment.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t introduce this imbalance; it accelerates it. Students are already using AI tools, and responsibility for managing the ethical and educational implications has largely been pushed down to individual institutions and lecturers.

AI can assist with decisions, but responsibility must still sit with people because it cannot explain uncertainty to a patient or family. If FE doesn’t explicitly teach students how to question and contextualise AI outputs, some may leave college confident with systems but less prepared when guidance doesn’t quite fit or emotions run high.

The problem is not a lack of evidence about what develops judgment, but that our accountability systems are least able to recognise the forms of learning that take the longest to see.

FE sits between policy ambition and what public services are expected to deliver. If education continues to be judged mainly on speed and visible innovation, the slow work of teaching judgment will keep losing ground.

Are our funding models, inspection frameworks and national guidance brave enough to protect the human capacities that public services ultimately depend on?

Britain’s growth plan will fail without level 4 and 5 skills

Only one in 10 UK adults have the higher technical skills that modern industry desperately needs. Last spring, the government’s industrial strategy laid out a plan to boost eight key growth sectors, including advanced manufacturing.

It rightly recognised that expanding employers’ access to investment in skills training is crucial – yet evidence shows the UK still faces a critical “missing middle” of level 4 and 5 technical skills.

The demand for higher-skilled roles will continue to grow over the next decade and beyond, making it essential that the skills system supports rapid, scalable investment in higher technical skills to maintain competitiveness and unlock growth.

Make UK’s research has found that manufacturers are increasing investment in upskilling and retraining existing staff, with a growing focus on higher-level training.

Around 28 per cent report prioritising skills development at levels 4 and 5, and nearly half anticipated doing so within three to five years. While economic pressures may have tempered overall training spend, the underlying demand for higher technical skills remains strong.

This is reflected in Skills England’s analysis of occupations in demand and sector skills needs for advanced manufacturing, as part of its work on the industrial strategy.

While the overall size of the advanced manufacturing workforce may not change dramatically, its composition will – shaped by an ageing workforce, the push for net zero and increasing digitalisation, all of which heighten the need for higher technical skills and the right upskilling options for workers at all levels.

The report Responding to Higher Technical Skills Needs, published by the Gatsby Foundation and Learning and Work Institute in November, set out the crux of the issue for employers.

There is a higher proportion of skills-shortage vacancies in manufacturing than most other sectors, and the skills system must evolve to enable investment at levels 4 and 5.

Many manufacturers hire young people on level 2 or 3 engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships, or use T Levels to build a pipeline of new entrants into critical roles. They are also hiring more graduates for professional engineering roles, reflecting growing demand in occupations such as electrical and process engineering.

But the sector’s skills challenge cannot be met through youth routes alone: there is rising demand for level 4 and 5 technical skills yet employers frequently report that provision is hard to navigate and not flexible enough – especially for SMEs and their employees.

Current policy change presents an ideal opportunity to address this. The government’s commitment to implementing the lifelong learning entitlement (LLE) from next year, alongside greater flexibility for the growth and skills levy to fund shorter-form training, could support progression into higher technical roles.

However, the Gatsby and L&W report highlights that the LLE may have limited impact on upskilling adults in work unless it is accompanied by sufficient, relevant career guidance.

Make UK’s Industrial Strategy Skills Commission, noted in the Gatsby/L&W report, recommended that a skills covenant is drawn up between government, industry and the education sector to resolve the challenges faced by employers, providers and workers.

Beyond high-level funding and resource questions, there are key areas where a difference could be made.

Initiatives such as sector skills passports – hinted at in the industrial strategy and post-16 education and skills white paper – and existing programmes like local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) could boost employer involvement in the design of new level 4-5 provision ahead of the LLE rollout and levy flexibility.

At a critical time for skills policy, improving employers’ access to higher technical skills should be a priority. Industry stands ready to collaborate with the education sector and government to ensure that employers can invest in the skills they need.

Teachers need work experience too if new pathways are to succeed

Our post-16 education landscape has long needed simplification to ensure meaningful options for all learners, so the government’s aims in introducing new pathways at level 3 and below are welcome.

With routes including V Levels being developed, we have an opportunity to shape qualifications that could make a real difference to learners’ lives and their progression, while also supporting the government’s industrial strategy ambitions.

We know vocational pathways are most effective when they are coherent, credible, rooted in real labour market demand and inclusive of the needs of all learners. So these should be guiding principles during their development and implementation.

However, the success of these pathways will depend not only on their design but on ensuring the FE and skills workforce is equipped to deliver them with confidence and expertise.

Meeting skills needs

The government’s planned V Level subjects reveal an intent to cover a range of study areas that align with priority sectors in its industrial strategy (including manufacturing, digital and finance), while encompassing the creative and service industries that make significant contributions to local economies (such as hospitality, retail and hairdressing).

These subject areas represent sectors where applied technical knowledge, practical skill development and work-based learning are essential for progression into skilled employment, apprenticeships or higher technical study.

As industries rapidly evolve and skills needs change, maintaining the relevancy of content is an ongoing challenge. This means we need systems in place to review and update content.

The Department for Education should future-proof qualifications as far as possible by focusing on key economic drivers such as digitalisation, green skills and automation across subjects.

A coherent, integrated system

It is also important that V Level subjects and new T Level subjects fit coherently within the broader landscape of technical and vocational qualifications to avoid duplication and confusion for learners, parents or carers and employers. 

For learners, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, coherent pre-level 3 pathways and qualifications provide essential scaffolding to build confidence, core skills and occupational identity. Getting these pathways right is central to widening participation and addressing longstanding skills and opportunity gaps.

System coherence is vital for providers and employers too. Evidence from ETF’s delivery of the T Level professional development programme shows that where curriculum intent, qualification design, workforce capability and employer engagement are aligned, providers report greater confidence in delivery and stronger employer partnerships.

Workforce development as a priority

This points to a critical consideration: the successful delivery of V Levels and other pathways will depend on a highly skilled FE and skills workforce.

Leaders need access to strategic support and system-wide networks to facilitate the successful rollout of new pathways and qualifications across the sector.

Meanwhile, teachers and trainers must be strong dual professionals, combining high-quality teaching with current industry expertise.

Regular, structured opportunities, such as relevant industry placements, should be available to teaching staff to update their subject knowledge and industry practice.

Workforce development must also support the accessibility of qualifications, particularly for learners with SEND. We recommend that specialist continuing professional development in inclusive pedagogy, neurodiversity and adaptive vocational teaching should be routinely available for the whole workforce to support this aim.

The development of our post-16 education pathways represents a pivotal moment for our sector and for the diverse learners it serves.

Embedding workforce development, professional standards and CPD planning throughout development and implementation are key to successful integration into a coherent system.

Only by placing workforce development at the heart of qualification reform can we ensure these pathways genuinely meet learner needs and employer expectations.

The blitz on leadership training is daft policy that drains growth

In May last year I described as ‘daft’ the decision by the education secretary to only fund level 7 apprenticeships for apprentices aged 16-21.

The move to defund leadership and management apprenticeships – which should be a cornerstone of England’s vocational education and training offer – represents another short-sighted policy that will undermine both opportunity for young people and the nation’s long-term productivity. The term ‘double daft’ seems appropriate here.

The government’s determination to withdraw public funding from a range of management apprenticeships caused alarm amongst apprenticeship stakeholders, including employers in the run up to the announcement made on Monday.

Skills minister Jacqui Smith had already signalled that apprenticeships which ‘resemble continuing professional development rather than discrete occupations’ may no longer be regarded as appropriate for public funding.

The now-confirmed decision removes programmes that have become vital progression routes into management roles for learners of all ages, including ambitious school and college leavers. 

Her position and the government’s rationale appear to be one of financial reprioritisation – targeting more money at front-door apprenticeships for young people at the lowest levels and reducing investment in higher-level programmes.

This creates a false dichotomy: you cannot meaningfully increase social mobility and opportunities for young learners while stripping away the very programmes that develop them into our future leaders across all sectors and professions.

Consider the wider workforce context. Census data for England and Wales categorises roles by occupation and age, showing a stark under-representation of young people in managerial positions.

For too long, the narrative around management apprenticeships has been dominated by myths that they are executive perks for older employees. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Apprenticeships like the chartered manager degree apprenticeship (CMDA), the most popular at level 6, are engines of inclusion.

Employers and training providers report that around 30 per cent of roles generated through the CMDA pathway go to those aged 24 or under.

They provide a vital bridge into management for young people, many of whom would not otherwise access or be given the opportunity for formal leadership training or qualifications. They act as a recognised bridge to higher-paid careers and a route to the professions that was first mooted by the last Labour government.

Pipeline matters. As funding is removed from these apprenticeship standards, thousands of talented young people will be stopped from progressing into positions as they invariably age and fall out of funding favour.

Management apprenticeships have demonstrable impact. Business-facing apprenticeship starts have been climbing at higher levels as demand grows, highlighting employer appetite for leadership and management development. 

Yet, future successes will be removed amid policy shifts. When senior leadership and management routes are diminished, so too are the pipelines into strategic roles that underpin business growth.

Defunding now compounds a systemic challenge. Youth unemployment and economic inactivity remain, rightly, substantial concerns in our UK labour market. Removing investment in leadership training for those early in their careers will not tackle these issues; it will compound them.

Culturally, we must reframe leadership training as part of the solution to the UK’s social mobility and productivity goals – not as expendable in policy terms.

This is the aim of both the Chartered Management Institute and Institute of Leadership & Management petitions to government.

In a global economy where nations are competing on innovation and productivity, reducing our investment in leadership skills undermines our competitive edge. Countries with strong vocational and leadership development systems see a correlation between management capability and organisational performance. Skills England’s own early research as well as the history of labour market analysis draws the same conclusions!

The Westminster government should be positioning the nation alongside them – not retreating.

In the month in which we’ve showcased and celebrated the very best of apprenticeship and skills training at this year’s apprenticeships and training conference (ATC), let’s hope for a public policy U-turn at some future point.

Until then, I’ll remain less bewitched and more bothered and bewildered.

It pays to be playful when launching new technology

You’re standing in front of a class ready to try an exciting new piece of tech, and it doesn’t work. Blank faces stare back at you.

This is the moment we all dread when experimenting with something new. You were promised time saving and higher engagement, but instead are left with an awkward silence as you move onto the next part of your lesson.

Technological fragility or the fear of breaking the system is a key barrier in digital CPD. With a wealth of tools at our fingertips, and new revolutionary systems being shouted about in every corner of the internet, we have never been so equipped to tackle this new digital revolution.

However, due to the time constraints teaching staff face it’s difficult to provide them with confidence and security as they explore new tools. So new technologies are more often than not seen as more tight ropes to walk and boxes to tick.

I’m sure you’ve been presented with a tool in a digital CPD and told to click here, there and up there to save yourself 10 minutes of admin time, only to not truly understand what the tool is, how it works, or the plethora of features it has to offer. Leaving you scratching your head about how to implement this into an effective workflow.

Maslow’s foundation

During our training we probably all learnt of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the need for a sense of safety to comfortably attain and innovate.

If a teacher feels threatened by a new system, whether from a fear of the unknown or of breaking something and looking silly, they cannot reach the self-actualisation level required for creative teaching and understanding the technology.

When a teacher is in survival mode, they cannot innovate. Their confidence must be established before we can expect curiosity.

Gabor Maté talks about play being a biological necessity for learning and how this must come from a threat-free environment. He defines play as “activity with no consequence”.

The same is true for learning new technologies. We must create an environment where staff can play with a system free from fear, angst or worry.

Digital CPD sessions must facilitate a sandbox environment where teachers feel safe to fail, where they can click all the buttons and find out how a system works.

We don’t need more ‘how to’ guides, we need more ‘what if’ spaces. How can we truly facilitate the space and time for play and how does this change the approach to a digital CPD session?

I propose a no-stakes session, where staff are given a tool and the time to play, understand and make links directly to their curriculums. 

In practice, this means flipping the CPD script. Instead of a ‘click-along’ webinar, we should be creating ‘break-it’ sessions. In these spaces, the goal isn’t to produce a resource by the end of the hour, but to explore the boundaries of the software.

When we give staff permission to explore without a looming deadline or a required ‘output,’ we’re building their digital resilience. They learn how to troubleshoot, adapt, and crucially they learn that the ‘undo’ button is their best friend.

Investing in resilience

It’s clear that the biggest barrier will always be time. But from a management perspective we need to be patient and provide the time, space and confidence for practitioners to be curious.

Transformation will happen one confidence boost at a time. When we provide a structure for play we move from a culture of caution to one of innovation.

Time to play is not lost time but rather an investment in resilience, something we all need more of in this digital era. I challenge you, at your next CPD day, don’t just provide instructions on a million tools. Provide the space, safety and time to cultivate the one thing that actually matters: a confident practitioner.

WCG exits intervention

Warwickshire College Group has exited government intervention after making “tough decisions” to secure its finances.

The midlands college has been subject to government intervention since 2024 and almost entered insolvency last year before a last-minute government bailout.

Warwickshire College Group (WCG) now has government loans totalling £3.9 million and has put its Evesham campus up for sale – the latest in a series of controversial campus sell offs.

After finalising an apprenticeship claim funding audit that left it with a £5.4 million clawback bill from the Department for Education (DfE), the college’s financial notice to improve has now been lifted.

Principal Sara-Jane Watkins, who joined the college in September 2024, said: “Moving out of intervention is a pivotal moment for WCG. It demonstrates the Department for Education’s confidence in our recovery and our strategic direction.

“This progress is the result of an incredible collective effort from our new executive team and staff across all our campuses.

“We have moved at a rapid pace to address inherited financial issues, making tough decisions to ensure we have a sustainable foundation.”

Changes at the college since Watkins joined include introducing a new leadership team and appointing a campus principal to each site to “drive excellence” while maintaining group-wide stability, the college said.

The sale closure and planned sale of its Evesham Campus last year drew criticism from some local politicians and followed the controversial sale of its Malvern Hills campus.

Both campuses were part of South Worcester College, which it merged with in 2016. The proceeds of both sales will contribute to repaying government funding clawbacks.

The college can once again access targeted government funding and development opportunities that were restricted due to its intervention status.

Officials including the FE Commissioner’s team will continue to observe WCG via a post intervention monitoring and support plan.

FE Week also understands that the government is expected to publish a formal investigation outcome report which should detail what funding breaches led to the £5.4 million clawback.

WCG has more than 11,000 students at five campuses across Warwickshire and Worcestershire. 

Gill Clipson, chair of the corporation, said: “I am delighted that the college has moved out of intervention and supervised status.

“This milestone is a testament to the leadership of our new executive team, whose drive and tenacity enabled us to make such rapid progress in very challenging circumstances.

“By swiftly assessing our financial position, rebuilding our finance and data functions, and redesigning our quality cycle, we have ensured the organisation is both effective and efficient.

“We now have a strong board and an even greater opportunity to shape and sustain a thriving, successful college for the region.”

The DfE did not respond to a request for comment.