Latest news from FE Week

Dame Mary Beard crowned lifelong learning champion

Celebrity historian Mary Beard has been honoured as a champion of lifelong learning at this year’s Get the Nation Learning awards.

The bestselling author, broadcaster and classicist joins the British Army and Walsall Football Club among 12 winners of this year’s celebrations, which also recognised colleges, adult education providers and inspirational learners.

Beard received the lifelong learning ambassador award for making classical history accessible through her books and television programmes. She is also a fellow of City Lit and an advocate for women in academia.

She follows former politician Ed Balls, who won the award last year.

The awards, organised by Learning and Work Institute (L&W), were presented at the Royal Society in London on Wednesday as part of Get the Nation Learning week.

The British Army was named employer of the year for its commitment to essential skills, social mobility and preparing service personnel for civilian careers.

Walsall FC won the talent is everywhere award for a training programme developed with Pilot IMS, which helps local residents gain qualifications and paid matchday work in spectator safety, security and event operations.

Among the FE winners, Newham College received the net zero hero award for its green skills provision in construction, engineering and retrofit. Its offer includes 22 short courses in sustainability and low-carbon construction.

Westminster Adult Education Service was named learning provider of the year for programmes spanning English, maths, ESOL, digital skills and apprenticeships, particularly for adults facing barriers to education.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority took the regional growth award for using devolved adult education powers to align training with local jobs and employers.

Academy Transformation Trust Further Education (ATTFE) won the stronger communities award for its Stop the Bleed initiative, teaching thousands of people first responder skills for serious incidents.

Two individual learners were also recognised.

Stacy McKeown, from Salford, received the patron’s award from the Princess Royal after progressing from unemployment and personal hardship into an adult social care apprenticeship and higher education.

Aiden Tsen won the new directions award after spending five years out of education, employment and training amid health challenges. He entered the NHS through a King’s Trust programme, completed three FE qualifications and is now studying for an access to higher education diploma.

Elsewhere, Adult Literacy Trust won the essential skills award for its volunteer reading coaches, while Barts Health NHS Trust took the learning with technology award for developing staff digital, data and AI skills, including through apprenticeships.

Adult Learning North Yorkshire received the healthier futures award for supporting residents who may be experiencing isolation, poor mental health or long-term inactivity through community learning and one-to-one conversations.

Stephen Evans, L&W’s chief executive, said the winners demonstrated the benefits of learning for “individuals, communities and our society as a whole”.

The learning age never ended. The funding just dried up

It’s almost 30 years since a Labour government relatively new to office was thinking about how to respond to a new IT revolution and spread opportunity to all. Part of its response was the learning age green paper, published by David Blunkett as education secretary, arguing that lifelong learning could hail a “renaissance for a new Britain”.

The argument was that new technology created new opportunities, but lifelong learning would be crucial to take advantage of them, particularly given an aging population.

Thirty years later, lots has changed, but lots is still the same. Today, a Labour government wonders about the impacts of AI (among other things). But how has that ‘learning age’ gone? Around two in five (43 per cent) adults told Learning and Work Institute’s Adult Participation in Learning Survey that they have taken part in learning in the last three years, little changed from 40 per cent in 1996 when the survey first started.

So was the learning age a damp squib? No, because adult learning has been transformed and adults’ interest in learning remains remarkably resilient. What has changed is how people learn and the opportunities available to them.

The lifelong learning revolution

Accelerated by the pandemic, Britain has experienced something close to a technological revolution in lifelong learning. Online learning has become mainstream, with almost half of learners now studying entirely online.

Learning for leisure and personal interest has expanded dramatically and now accounts for almost half of all learning activity. Self-directed learning, enabled by apps, online platforms and digital resources, has moved from the margins towards the mainstream. Far from abandoning learning, adults have found new ways to pursue it.

But sadly opportunities to convert that learning into recognised skills, qualifications and career progression have become more limited.

Adult skills funding in England remains around £1 billion lower than in 2010, while employer investment in training has fallen one third in the last twenty years. Adults may be finding new ways to learn, but too often without access to the structured opportunities that help turn learning into economic mobility and workforce development.

The inequalities that blighted access to education for adults in the 1990s remain. We estimate that class-based inequalities mean three million lost learners, and that people are 3 per cent less likely to learn with each year older they get. Feeling “too old” has become one of the most commonly reported barriers to learning.

This matters because the case for lifelong learning is becoming stronger, not weaker. Net zero, AI, and longer working lives each require people to update their skills and retrain more often. In previous generations, economic change could often be absorbed as older workers left declining industries and younger people entered growing sectors. That model no longer works. Four in five people who will make up Britain’s workforce in 2035 have already left full-time education. Future prosperity will depend increasingly on their ability to keep learning throughout their careers.

And learning delivers benefits beyond learning too. More than nine in ten learners report positive outcomes, including improved confidence, greater enjoyment of learning, stronger social connections and better wellbeing. Older learners are especially likely to report health and wellbeing benefits, highlighting the contribution learning can make to tackling loneliness and supporting healthy ageing.

Things can only get better?

The central lesson from thirty years of evidence is therefore not that lifelong learning has failed. Rather, adults’ enthusiasm for learning remains undimmed, but opportunities to take that learning further have not kept pace. Technology has opened up new possibilities. People have embraced them. Governments and employers have too often failed to match that energy with investment.

The challenge for the next decade is not simply to raise participation. It is to ensure that the lifelong learning revolution becomes genuinely universal, giving people of every age and background the chance to develop new skills, improve their lives and adapt to a rapidly changing world. Until then, Britain will continue to have a learning revolution whose benefits remain unevenly shared.

Learning Curve subsidiary hit with ‘urgent improvement’ blow

Poor attendance and low achievement on access to higher education courses have resulted in two ‘urgent improvement’ judgments for a subsidiary of major training provider network Learning Curve Group (LCG).

Profound Services Limited, based in Durham and part of LCG since 2018, was handed Ofsted’s lowest rating for achievement and participation and development in adult learning programmes, in a report published today.

It also received three ‘needs attention’ judgments, including for leadership and governance and inclusion, alongside three ‘expected standard’ ratings for apprenticeships delivery.

Profound is led by Tracey Fletcher-Ray, who became LCG’s chief executive in May following the departure of the group’s high-profile leader Brenda McLeish.

At the time of Profound’s last Ofsted inspection in 2022, the provider was judged to be ‘good’ overall, while adult learning programmes were considered ‘outstanding’.

Ofsted’s report noted that many leaders at the provider are “very new to the organisation or recently promoted”. Alongside a newly appointed governance board, they “generally understand the quality of their provision, particularly regarding apprenticeships”.

However, inspectors criticised leaders for failing to “accurately identify several weaknesses” in access to higher education programmes, such as low attendance, low participation in learning and poor assessment of learners’ gaps in knowledge.

Profound had 112 adult learners studying for access to higher education diplomas at the time of its inspection in September. It holds a £328,119 advanced learner loans facility with the Department for Education.

The provider recorded an overall adult learning achievement rate of 57 per cent in 2024-25, compared to the national average of 87 per cent.

Ofsted’s report said achievement on higher education diploma courses had remained “consistently very low and shows no sign of improvement”.

Achievement rates for learners with a declared learning need were also “significantly lower than those without”, inspectors said.

Learners who complete the diploma gain the grades needed to attend university. But despite this, a “significant proportion” of these learners do not progress to university.

Many adult learners at Profound are returning to education after long periods of time. But inspectors found that leaders do not consistently identify or address barriers to learning, including for learners who speak English as an additional language, lack level 2 qualifications in English or maths, or have demanding personal circumstances such as caring responsibilities.

The few learners who need to gain formal qualifications in English and maths alongside their higher education diplomas are not supported “well enough to achieve these”. Inspectors said this “too often” prevents them from securing university places.

Low attendance drives poor achievement

Leaders and teachers were criticised for not requiring learners to attend their classes.

Adult learners are “not prepared well” for attending university or entering employment in sectors such as health or teaching because they miss taught sessions, do not catch up with their work, and miss out on opportunities to share experiences and develop additional knowledge and skills alongside their peers.

Profound’s main area of delivery is apprenticeships. The provider currently trains 464 apprentices across a range of standards within the care, housing, logistics and digital sectors.

Although Profound’s overall apprenticeship achievement rate was 44 per cent for 2024-25, compared with a national average of 65 per cent, Ofsted praised the quality of this delivery and said the proportion of apprentices who stay and complete their apprenticeships on time is increasing.

A spokesperson for Learning Curve Group said: “We take Ofsted’s findings extremely seriously, and an improvement plan is already in place to address this specific area of our wider provision.

“We also welcome Ofsted’s positive assessment of Profound’s apprenticeship provision and confirmation that safeguarding standards are met.”

FE Week has asked the DfE whether it plans to take any action against Profound following Ofsted’s judgment.

The department typically terminates a provider’s contract following ‘urgent improvement’ ratings for apprenticeship delivery.

Third of FE staff plan to leave sector

More than a third of further education staff are actively planning to leave the sector – with workload, pay and stress among the biggest reasons for wanting to quit, a new Department for Education survey has revealed.

The survey of 4,440 leaders, managers and teachers found that 37 per cent intend to exit FE. A further 17 per cent were unsure about their future.

Just 42 per cent said they had no plans to leave.

The findings come as FE faces a deepening recruitment and retention crisis, with colleges and providers struggling to fill vacancies as growing numbers of school leavers enter the sector.

The survey was carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research between November 2025 and January 2026 across general FE colleges, sixth-form colleges, independent training providers and adult community learning providers.

Among those planning to leave within the next five years, 63 per cent said workload and working hours were a factor, while 57 per cent cited pay.

A lack of career progression was cited by 30 per cent, while 29 per cent said a lack of recognition or appreciation had influenced their decision.

College staff more likely to consider leaving

Colleges face the biggest retention challenge. Just 36 per cent of staff at general FE and sixth-form colleges said they had no plans to leave the sector, compared with 55 per cent at independent training providers and adult community learning providers.

The survey found that 44 per cent of general FE college staff and 43 per cent of sixth-form college staff were planning to leave in the next five or more years. The equivalent figure for independent training providers and adult community learning providers was 23 per cent.

Managers with teaching responsibilities were most likely to leave followed by teachers, while leaders and managers with no teaching responsibilities were most likely to stay in the sector.

The technical report’s statistical modelling also reported that part-time staff were more likely to report an intention to leave than full-time staff.

Just 33 per cent of part-time staff who combined FE work with another profession, known as dual professionals, said they had no plans to leave the role.

Workload and stress

Almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of respondents said they experienced work-related stress.

The proportion was higher among staff with teaching responsibilities, reaching 82 per cent among managers who teach and 72 per cent among teachers.

This compared to 67 per cent of leaders and 64 per cent of managers without teaching responsibilities.

The research also reported that 40 per cent of FE staff believe their workload was unacceptable, compared with 45 per cent who agreed it was acceptable.

Full-time teachers reported working an average of 43.4 hours during their most recent full working week, while full-time managers with teaching responsibilities reported the longest hours, at 47.2.

More than four in ten respondents (44 per cent) agreed that unfilled vacancies had increased their workload.

The technical report’s statistical modelling found that staff who experienced work-related stress were more likely to report an intention to leave, while those who considered their workload acceptable were less likely to do so.

Don’t pay, we’ll walk away

Pay has continued to be a major concern, with 57 per cent of respondents saying they were dissatisfied with their current salary.

More than half (58 per cent) disagreed that FE offered a good salary compared with alternative careers they could pursue, while 54 per cent were dissatisfied with their longer-term salary prospects.

Teachers were particularly negative about their pay.

Just 19 per cent of teachers in general FE colleges said they were satisfied with their salary, compared with 27 per cent in sixth-form colleges and 36 per cent in independent training providers and adult community learning.

The majority of leaders reported being satisfied with the salary they currently receive.

The report’s modelling stated that higher pay satisfaction was associated with a lower intention-to-leave score.

Recruitment pressures

The survey also reported that engineering and manufacturing was the most common area in which it was difficult to recruit skilled teachers, identified by 30 per cent of leaders.

Construction was cited by 29 per cent and digital and IT by 26 per cent.

The findings chime with an Association of College survey published in November 2025 which found teacher shortages and lack of space had forced most colleges to close enrolments on construction courses – with over half setting up waiting lists to train tradespeople.

Maths was the most difficult academic subject to recruit to, identified by 31 per cent of leaders, followed by English at 20 per cent, the DfE’s research added.

Leaders and managers most often identified salaries compared with industry and schools as barriers to recruitment.

This is “particularly important in subjects where staff have strong external labour market opportunities, such as engineering, construction and digital, and in areas where FE competes directly with schools for qualified teachers, such as for teachers of mathematics and English,” researchers said.

The pay gap between school and FE teachers is currently around £10,500.

A collective nationwide ballot of college staff is expected to be staged in the coming weeks by the University and College Union.

But FE staff do value their work

Despite the concerns, the survey found that staff continued to value the purpose of working in FE.

Three-quarters (74 per cent) said that making a difference to learners’ lives was one of the best or most rewarding aspects of their job.

More than half (54 per cent) cited building positive relationships, while 36 per cent said teaching their vocational or subject specialism was rewarding.

Around two-thirds of respondents were satisfied with working in FE overall.

However, the researchers concluded that “intrinsic motivation is unlikely to be sufficient to sustain the workforce if staff continue to experience concerns about pay, workload, wellbeing and progression”.

Awarding body competition could cut T Level fees, Ofqual suggests

Scrapping the contentious single-licence awarding body model for T Levels “may positively influence” the fees that colleges pay per student, Ofqual has said.

From 2028, the government will replace exclusive contracts for the technical qualifications with an “open market model”, similar to the system used for A Levels and most other qualifications.

The move means that for the first time, awarding organisations (AOs) will be responsible for certifying every element of a T Level, including industry placements, aggregating overall results and issuing final certificates.

Ofqual, which opened a consultation on changing its regulatory framework to align with these new duties today, said the “competitive pressures” of opening up the market could have a “positive influence” on the fees, availability and quality of the qualifications.

Currently, the government contracts four awarding organisations to deliver the 20 T Level qualifications available to students.

The average weighted T Level qualification fee reached £283.75 in 2026, compared with £76.44 for vocational and technical qualifications and £132.97 for A Levels, according to Ofqual statistics.

Fees rose by 3 per cent between the start of 2025 and 2026.

Ofqual did not estimate how much fees could reduce by.

‘Minor to moderate’ costs for AOs

Ofqual’s qualification level conditions consultation also warned that transferring responsibility for industry placements, results aggregation and issuing certificates could bring “minor to moderate” implementation and ongoing costs for awarding organisations.

Until now, the Department for Education has overseen the completion of industry placements, collated parts of the T Level to determine overall results, and issued final certificates.

Under Ofqual’s proposals, awarding bodies would be responsible for collecting, checking and retaining records of industry placement declarations.

They would also have to ensure declarations are supported by evidence, aggregate results and comply with the DfE’s published subject content.

The rules are set to come in from September 2028 for new T Levels such as sports and social care, and from whenever the other T Levels’ single licence models come to an end.

The single awarding organisation per T Level model was introduced with the first set of technical qualifications in 2020, in contrast to most other qualifications including A Levels and GCSEs, which have a multi-awarding organisation market.

DfE officials previously called the single supplier model “incredibly challenging”.

Pearson, NCFE and City & Guilds have been the dominant holders of T Level contracts since their launch, but the latter two have gradually reduced their share of the market amid concerns the contract values did not meet delivery demands.

Following a recent relicensing round, Pearson will award 16 out of the 20 available T Levels by September 2027.

Placement oversight ‘significant’ change

The Federation of Awarding Bodies said moving to a regulated market is an “important step in the development of T Levels”.

A spokesperson said: “While changes to the regulation of the qualification element of T Levels appear relatively modest, the changes to the requirements around industry placements for awarding organisations are more significant.

“And while Ofqual’s proposal place additional responsibility on awarding organisations to receive assurance that placements have been completed, it will be important for the success of the programme that government continues to provide support around the availability of placements.”

The consultation is open for six weeks from today. Ofqual expects to publish its response and final decisions in early 2027.

Little for FE in the budget, but the hard choices are coming

John Healey’s first budget as chancellor was broadly the budget many people were expecting. It included a relatively small cost of living package, a handful of tax rises, and plenty of small measures.

But many of the big decisions, on areas such as the welfare system, public spending and the path to spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence, have largely been pushed into next year. Those decisions will not be easy: the plan to bring down government borrowing, which will be higher across the rest of the decade, relies on public service spending plans that look extremely tight.

For further education, there was little news. The government reaffirmed funding for the youth employment package announced in the spring and expanded local apprenticeship services, but there was nothing new on further education funding.

One wider measure that could affect the sector indirectly is the minimum wage. For 18- to 20-year-olds, it will rise by 3.9 per cent from April, in line with the adult rate, postponing plans for the young person’s rate to converge with the higher adult minimum wage.

So the budget had little to say directly about FE. That’s a reasonable decision for a government that has already made quite a few announcements on FE outside of fiscal events, including technical pathways from age 14 and plans to hand mayors control of 16-19 funding.

And more decisions are likely on the way. The chancellor confirmed that the government will respond to Alan Milburn’s review of young people and work before the end of the year, with a white paper to follow in early 2027.

Reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training will require action on several fronts: young people need the skills to work and the incentive to do so, and employers need to be willing to take them on.

The budget’s measures mostly work through employers. The wider questions, including what will be expected of FE providers, are likely to remain unanswered until the government responds to Milburn.

On devolution, the budget included a new framework to give mayors and local areas control of some of the revenues raised in their area. Yet there is still little detail on the prime minister’s plan to hand them control of 16-19 funding.

That leaves some basic questions open. What exactly will be devolved: all 16-19 funding or mainly technical routes? Will funding still follow students at a national rate, or will mayors set their own rates and rules? And will students’ post-16 choices materially change depending on where they live?

Looking ahead, the biggest decisions for FE are likely to come at next year’s spending review, which will set departmental budgets.

It is likely to be a difficult one. The chancellor left overall departmental spending broadly unchanged in cash terms, so higher inflation has cut its real value. Combined with existing plans to slow spending growth sharply, this implies real-terms cuts for some public services.

New decisions on defence add to the pressure. The chancellor confirmed a target of spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030, but without setting out how it will be funded. To the extent it is met by reallocating spending, it will mean less for other areas, which could include FE and adult skills.

Overall, yesterday’s budget was not hugely consequential for the FE sector. But that doesn’t mean the sector has been forgotten: we have seen quite a few consequential decisions already, and we’re expecting more to come. The government will need to make sure these decisions fit together, both in their design and, importantly, in the resources available to deliver them.

Apprenticeship provider faces closure after achievement rates judgment

An apprenticeship provider handed Ofsted’s lowest grade for poor achievement rates is facing closure after the Department for Education ended its contract.

Hundreds of apprentices at Cherith Simmons Learning and Development LLP now have a month to find alternative providers to complete their training.

The termination followed an Ofsted inspection that resulted in an ‘urgent improvement’ judgment for the provider’s apprenticeship achievement, following years of below-par rates in which barely a quarter of apprentices completed their programmes.

Cherith Simmons is at least the second apprenticeship provider to have its contract terminated after a red rating for the achievement evaluation area under Ofsted’s new report card system.

‘We didn’t really understand QAR’

The DfE’s published qualification achievement rate (QAR) data shows Cherith Simmons’ overall apprenticeship achievement rate was 29.2 per cent in 2023-24, against a national rate of 60.5 per cent. The provider’s rate was 25 per cent the year before.

No QAR data was published for the provider in 2024-25, but its leader has suggested the rate was below 10 per cent.

Achievement was the only area graded ‘urgent improvement’ for Cherith Simmons. It received ‘needs attention’ judgments for inclusion, leadership and governance, and curriculum and teaching, while participation and development was rated ‘expected standard’.

The government served notice to Cherith Simmons at the end of August and rejected the provider’s challenges to the decision.

Karan Kumar, a senior partner at Cherith Simmons, claimed the firm’s apprenticeship accountability framework showed significantly improved achievement rates of more than 60 per cent by September, but the DfE would not consider this “new evidence”.

Kumar co-bought the provider in May 2025 when it was rated ‘good’ across the board by Ofsted. But he appeared to be unaware of the seriousness of poor QARs.

He told FE Week: “We bought a business that Ofsted rated ‘good’. Honestly, at the time we didn’t really understand QAR. On the figure we inherited, achievement stood at 9.7 per cent. That was the hole we had to climb out of. On reflection, we should have dug deeper. But DfE was notified of the change of ownership and didn’t raise any concerns that the provider was failing.”

He added that the DfE imposed restrictions on the number of new apprentices the provider could recruit shortly after the takeover.

Ofsted’s latest report, published in May, said new leaders had “sensibly used their vocational and technical expertise to improve the curriculums and ensure that apprentices develop relevant knowledge and skills”.

However, “despite some progress in supporting apprentices to work towards final assessments, their actions have not been swift enough to have a positive, demonstrable impact on the proportion of apprentices who complete their programme and achieve”, it added.

‘What message does this send?’

In an email to apprentices and employers this week, Kumar said: “Unfortunately, I am writing to share some very sad and disappointing news. The DfE has decided to terminate our contract to deliver apprenticeships.”

He added that employers and apprentices would need to transfer to a new training provider from 26 November to continue their programmes.

The provider specialised in training apprentices in health and social care, digital technology, business management, water treatment and catering. Most apprentices study at level 5 or level 7.

It had almost 200 apprentices at the time of Ofsted’s inspection.

The provider “recognises this is an unsettling situation”, the email said, and would “continue to work closely with apprentices, employers and any new provider throughout the handover period”.

Kumar said his team was “extremely disappointed” by the DfE’s decision, adding that they have worked “incredibly hard” to support apprentices since acquisition of the firm. He reiterated his claim that since Ofsted’s inspection began in January, the provider’s achievement rate has risen to more than 60 per cent.

He said: “We went from 9.7 per cent to 62.8 per cent. Our accountability framework is all green. If that isn’t enough, what message does it send to every provider that inherits a problem and works to fix it? It tells them not to bother.”

The provider, which mostly employs freelance tutors and a handful of full-time staff, now faces potential closure as apprenticeships was its only operation.

Can Kaynat Ahmad give FE students their voice back?

Kaynat Ahmad had every intention of becoming a doctor.

Three years ago, she was attending a private school in Lahore, Pakistan, where teachers were strict and examination papers, she recalls, “sometimes got leaked”.

She had completed her pre-medical studies and was preparing for a career in medicine when her mother, a hotel manager, married an entrepreneur and the family moved to the West Midlands.

Ahmad found herself navigating a very different education system in a new country. Continuing on a path to medicine would have meant paying to study the A Levels she needed. Instead, she enrolled at Dudley College of Technology, initially on a free level 1 course in digital programming and coding, progressing to level 2.

It was not quite the future she had imagined.

Nor did she immediately embrace college life. Ahmad remembers being “so shy” that the only person she spoke to was her teacher.

Then her brother and one of his friends dared her to stand in the students’ union elections.

Friendships developed, her confidence grew and she discovered a sense of purpose in representing other learners.

“I came out from my zone,” she says.

After a year as students’ union president, in July Ahmad became vice president for further education at the National Union of Students (NUS). She had gone from an anxious newcomer to the English education system to one of its most prominent representatives.

But the union now faces daunting challenges.

Colleges and universities are contending with financial pressure, blurring boundaries between the two sectors, students’ cost-of-living pressures and the disruption AI is causing to assessment.

Despite a greater need for student representation, the NUS is struggling to maintain its relevance as university students’ unions vote to leave, while the student representation that once flourished in FE colleges has diminished.

Ahmad has pledged to rebuild it. But has she inherited a national movement capable of doing so?

The missing student movement

At many universities, students’ unions employ professional staff, run substantial budgets, organise political campaigns and support elected sabbatical officers. In FE, student representation is often much less visible.

Many colleges have student councils, course representatives or learner voice groups. But these are not the same as an independent students’ union with its own democratic structures, budget and elected leadership.

Without properly supported unions, students can struggle to “have a say or get involved”, leaving them “feeling disconnected, unheard, and unsure if anyone is fighting for their needs”.

Her own college is unusual. Dudley employs a full-time students’ union president, and its 2026-27 budget included £180,668 for the union, covering staffing, campaigns, trips, clubs and societies.

Most other college unions operate on a fraction of that amount.

Ahmad says some receive as little as £10,000, which she considers “not enough”. She estimates that only 10 to 15 colleges still pay their students’ union presidents, with most relying on volunteers.

The Association of Colleges (AoC) acknowledges the problem.

Eddie Playfair, its senior policy manager, believes most colleges have some form of student council or students’ union, supported by the association’s student engagement charter.

But, he says, “very few colleges have the benefit of sabbatical officers and it may be time to reconsider how college students’ unions are supported”.

There are exceptions. Student representation is flourishing at Leeds City College, where 2,595 learners voted in this year’s students’ union elections, representing 12 per cent of its student population.

Elsewhere, the infrastructure is being dismantled.

In April, SGS College’s deputy principal told governors that its students’ union arrangements were “ineffective due to low levels of student engagement”, describing the problem as common across FE.

Governors subsequently voted to withdraw recognition of the union, rescind its constitution and close its bank account.

For Ahmad, such developments raise a fundamental question: who speaks independently for students when the structures designed to represent them disappear?

Former NUS vice-president for FE, Qasim Hussain

A promise still waiting to be delivered

Greater FE representation is not a new ambition for the NUS.

When Ahmad’s predecessor, Qasim Hussain, took office in 2024, he wanted every FE provider to have an independent, funded students’ union, with dedicated staff and paid student leaders.

He also proposed a stronger national system for representing FE learners.

At the NUS national conference that April, proposals were approved that included a commitment to encourage and support a vibrant national voice for college and vocational learners.

Two years later, FE Week can see no evidence of a substantial expansion in independent college unions, or of the specific FE engagement plan promised through the reforms.

Ahmad has inherited the same problem.

As a student, she observed a “clear gap” between NUS and FE, with college learners missing information about national campaigns, events and opportunities.

“Too often, NUS has felt disconnected and inaccessible to FE members, and we need to change that,” she says.

She is now contacting college unions with limited resources, offering help with campaigning and representation, and planning visits to colleges including Calderdale and Leeds City College.

“The issue with most student leaders is they don’t know how to lead a campaign, and that’s where we can collaborate with them.”

Her ambition is to rebuild regional and national relationships, so that college students see NUS as more than a distant organisation dominated by universities.

But rebuilding trust will take more than an enthusiastic vice president.

An organisation under pressure

NUS has weathered financial crises before. In 2018, a £3 million deficit brought it close to bankruptcy, triggering major restructuring.

Although the immediate crisis passed, financial sustainability remains a concern.

The NUS’s 2024-25 accounts show turnover falling 16 per cent on the previous year and a pension liability of £9.1 million.

Its national operation is also much leaner than in previous decades.

Around 60 staff now work across the organisation, but none is a dedicated FE specialist.

Meanwhile, university students’ unions are questioning whether national membership represents value for money.

At least ten have voted to disaffiliate over the past year, including HE unions at Cambridge, Manchester, University College London and the London School of Economics.

Campaigners have cited membership costs, democratic accountability and disagreements over the union’s response to the war in Gaza. Oxford’s students’ union is also considering its future relationship with the NUS, with its annual membership fee of £17,500 featuring in the debate.

The NUS says over half its members are from the FE sector, making up 216 out of its 377 member institutions in the UK.

But a college’s affiliation does not mean it has an active, independent students’ union or participates meaningfully in national democracy.

Indeed, the NUS cannot provide a definitive figure for how many colleges have genuinely independent unions rather than college-managed student consultation arrangements.

And while FE institutions may make up most of its membership, their voices can be overwhelmed by better-resourced university representatives at national conferences.

The cost of getting to college

Ahmad has chosen a practical issue for her flagship campaign.

This month, she launched an NUS petition calling for free bus travel for students and apprentices. More than 2,000 people have so far signed it.

“We love buses, but when 20 per cent of students and apprentices have missed class because they could not afford the cost of public transport, something has to change,” she says.

It is an issue she knows from Dudley. Many students travelled for more than an hour from Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Halesowen to attend college, with transport costs placing another burden on already stretched households.

Weeks into the job, she was involved in the NUS campaign for the 16-17 Saver railcard to stay valid after holders turn 18, a change the Department for Transport announced in August 2026.

She sees transport as inseparable from the government’s ambitions to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training.

At the end of 2024, the Dudley council area had England’s highest combined proportion of 16- and 17-year-olds recorded as NEET or whose activity was not known.

“If transport is not accessible, how can education be accessible and affordable?” she asks.

Ahmad’s wider NUS manifesto also includes expanded bursaries, travel funds and hardship support, subsidised meals for low-income learners, better access to equipment and learning resources and improved mental health provision.

She wants “free, prompt, and culturally competent mental health support in every college”, alongside trauma-informed safeguarding.

Learning to challenge authority

Ahmad’s experience as a student governor at Dudley helped shape her understanding of college finances, strategy and decision-making.

It also taught her that students could challenge decisions affecting their daily lives. She raised concerns about women’s rights and helped intervene when a student faced expulsion, persuading leaders to give them another chance.

She believes students’ unions can help colleges recruit student governors, positions that can otherwise be difficult to fill.

But she warns against colleges treating their unions simply as an extension of their own enrichment department.

“There should be a separate enrichment team for that purpose, fully led by staff, whereas the union is a democratic body led by students,” she says.

And she encourages governors to be “bold” and highlight issues that might not otherwise appear on a board’s agenda: unreliable timetables, cafeteria prices, staffing quality and the practical barriers facing learners.

She is similarly concerned about the availability and quality of apprenticeships.

At Dudley, she witnessed a sharp decline in opportunities. The college reported that apprenticeship vacancies had fallen from 700 in 2024 to 200 by December 2025.

Ahmad wants apprentices to have guaranteed access to off-the-job training, as well as stronger protections against discrimination, harassment and unsafe working conditions. Apprentices, she argues, must acquire meaningful skills rather than being treated as “cheap labour”.

Dudley College Campus photography 2024 .Picture by Shaun Fellows / Shine Pix Ltd

Democracy without a union?

The government’s plans to lower the voting age to 16 could give colleges a new role in political education, presenting an opportunity for NUS.

Students’ unions can organise debates, hustings and campaigns, introducing young people to democratic participation before they enter the polling booth.

“Students’ unions can be really good places to share views and have those tricky conversations,” Ahmad says.

The NUS is campaigning to simplify voter registration, including through arrangements that would allow colleges and universities to register students automatically.

Ahmad sees an opportunity for colleges to become centres of democratic participation. But political engagement is becoming increasingly contentious.

The NUS has launched a campaign called ‘Fighting far-right hate with love’, providing students with a six-week course of actions to “erode the power of the divisive far-right rhetoric that is currently so loud”.

The organisation has also faced criticism over its own handling of political disputes, particularly allegations of antisemitism in 2022, with former NUS president, now defence secretary, Wes Streeting a prominent critic of the union at the time.

Ahmad is currently involved in a DfE and University of Salford initiative to develop a national community cohesion framework for colleges, universities and students’ unions.

The framework is intended to help institutions strengthen belonging, inclusion, student relationships and civic participation amid concerns about antisemitism and other forms of hatred.

A movement searching for its future

Three days a week, Ahmad stays in a London hotel while working from the NUS’s co-working office in Hoxton.

For the rest of the week, she returns to Dudley’s students’ union, maintaining contact with the learners whose experiences brought her into politics.

In December, the NUS is holding a strategy exchange for students’ union CEOs to consider the next decade of post-16 education and the student movement.

Ahmad hopes to leave office in two years having achieved at least some of her manifesto commitments, and for more people to understand what FE is without her having to explain it.

If she succeeds, the shy teenager who once spoke only to her teacher could help give a generation of college learners a voice.

She feels “very lucky” to be where she is. But luck will not be enough to revive a once-proud movement.

Budget 2026: Apprentice minimum wage to rise to £8.31 an hour

Apprentices will receive a 31p-an-hour minimum wage increase next April – the smallest percentage rise in the rate since 2021, the chancellor announced in today’s budget.

John Healey has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations to raise the apprentice rate by 3.9 per cent, from £8 to £8.31 an hour, from 1 April 2027.

The increase is smaller than the 6 per cent rise introduced this April and the 18 per cent uplift in 2025. The rate was increased by 21 per cent in 2024.

The rate is the minimum that must be paid to all apprentices aged under 19 and to those aged 19 or over during the first year of their apprenticeship. Older apprentices who have completed their first year must be paid at least the minimum wage for their age.

The same £8.31 rate will apply to non-apprentice 16 and 17 year old workers. The minimum wage for 18 to 20 year olds will increase from £10.85 to £11.27, while the national living wage for workers aged 21 and above will rise from £12.71 to £13.21.

All four rates will increase by 3.9 per cent. In recent years, younger workers have seen their minimum wage rates rise faster than adults. The Treasury estimated the increase across the workforce will benefit around 2.3 million workers.

Higher apprentice wages have prompted debate over whether young people are being priced out of apprenticeships, particularly in small businesses.

It also comes ahead of Alan Milburn’s long-awaited final inquiry report on tackling youth unemployment, which is expected in November.

During his budget speech in the House of Commons, Healey said the government will respond to Milburn’s report by the end of the year and introduce a white paper “early in 2027” with legislation to follow.

‘Savings’ to fund extra apprenticeship brokerage pilots

The chancellor also confirmed today the government is providing an extra £100 million across 2027-28 and 2028-29 to expand mayoral apprenticeship brokerage pilots to 14 mayoral strategic authorities across England.

Ministers last year allocated an initial £140 million, to be funded from the Department for Work and Pensions’ annual apprenticeship budget, to fund the pilot in seven areas. This appears to be the first time growth and skills levy funds will be used to fund initiatives beyond training and incentives.

But Healey, who first revealed more cash was on its way to extend the “football scouts for apprenticeships” scheme at Labour’s party conference last month, said today that the additional £100 million would be funded from “savings from welfare fraud and error”.

This suggests that only part of the £240 million total pot for local apprenticeship brokerage services will come from England’s annual apprenticeship budget.

The Treasury press office later confirmed to FE Week that the additional £100 million will not be funded from the apprenticeships budget.

Union Learning Funding returns

The budget also confirmed £15 million a year from financial year 2027-28 to restore the union learning fund, which will provide grants to union-led projects that support workers retrain and develop skills.

FE Week reported in September that Healey intended to revive the scheme, which the Conservatives scrapped in 2021.

Before its abolition, it funded union learning representatives to help workers access education and training, often through existing providers.

The Treasury’s costings put the fund’s fiscal cost at £20 million in both 2027-28 and 2028-29, £5 million a year higher than the programme budget. The document does not explain the difference.

Youth employment schemes

The government’s existing youth employment and skills programmes were costed at £665 million over the next two years, with £290 million allocated in 2027-28 and £375 million in 2028-29.

The previously announced measures include £3,000 grants for employers hiring unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds, £2,000 payments for smaller businesses recruiting young apprentices, and an expansion of the jobs guarantee to 22 to 24-year-olds.

Separate Treasury policy costings reveal ministers expect the jobs guarantee expansion to save £60 million in universal credit payments over two years, including £25 million in 2027-28 and £35 million in 2028-29.

The savings are based on lower benefit payments to young people entering subsidised employment. The Treasury’s calculations also assume some participants will leave their jobs before completing the full six months.

The national jobs guarantee rollout is due to begin in November, offering eligible 18 to 24-year-olds who have spent 18 months on Universal Credit a fully funded six-month job.

Last week the government announced 12 organisations, including Leeds College of Building, have been selected to run the scheme across 25 areas.

HE franchise crackdown savings

The Treasury expects to save almost £1 billion over six years through its crackdown on higher education franchising.

Budget costings forecast savings of £200 million in 2028-29, rising to £225 million by 2031-32, with £100 million in savings expected before the new rules take effect.

Providers teaching 300 or more students on behalf of universities will have to register with the Office for Students from September 2028 for their courses to remain eligible for student finance.

The reforms follow concerns about fraud and poor-quality provision amid a rapid expansion of franchised higher education.

FE colleges and sixth-form colleges are exempt from the additional registration requirement.