Every year, the United Nations’ International Day of Peace invites us to pause, reflect, and recommit to building a more harmonious world. This year, that invitation feels especially relevant.
We are living in what many call a VUCA world, marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. From global conflicts to economic instability, from the polarisation of politics to the rise of culture wars, young people are growing up in a context that can feel fragmented and divisive. As educators, we cannot shield them from this reality but as we can give them the tools to navigate it with hope, resilience, and purpose.
At Kirklees College, our response has been to place our values at the heart of our work. When I spoke to students and staff across our seven centres to mark World Peace Day, my message was simple: peace begins here, with us. It does not live only in international treaties or speeches at the UN. It lives in the everyday acts of kindness, respect, and understanding that we choose to show one another.
Our three values of kindness, unity, and excellence are a framework for meeting VUCA with courage. Kindness helps us deal with volatility by grounding us in empathy. Unity gives us strength in the face of uncertainty, reminding us that we are stronger together. And excellence enables us to thrive amid complexity and ambiguity, by striving to do and be our best even when the path forward is unclear.
To bring these values to life, our student experience department launched our KC Campaigning for Kindness, a social action challenge.This initiative encourages students and staff to take small but meaningful actions: fundraising, supporting local projects, donating, or simply showing everyday kindness. These acts may be modest, but together they form a counterbalance to the forces of division.
We have also invited students to capture images of what peace means in their classrooms.
These photographs will be displayed across our centres as a visual reminder that even in uncertain times, peace is something we can create and sustain in our daily lives.
Further education is uniquely placed to go beyond preparing students for employment. We can prepare them to be citizens who can withstand uncertainty, embrace diversity, and build bridges where others build walls.
As the late MP Jo Cox so memorably said, “We have far more in common than that which divides us.”
In an age defined by volatility and division, that belief has never been more vital.
Peace, ultimately, is not the absence of conflict but the presence of connection.
Pat McFadden will seek to use his new powers over skills policy to curb “wasted potential” from youth unemployment and cut the government’s growing benefits bill.
Details of the major shift in ministerial control over skills policy were confirmed earlier this week when prime minister Sir Keir Starmer revealed that training, adult further education, careers, apprenticeships and Skills England have all moved to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Writing in this week’s edition of FE Week, the work and pensions secretary said adding skills to his department’s responsibilities would give it a “renewed energy and focus”.
He argued skills and employment are “natural partners” – so DWP-run jobcentres should be able to go beyond “just support or help” with job searches, and also offer skills assessments and “clear routes” to training and employment.
McFadden said his “first priority” would be getting more young people into work or training, to prevent “lost opportunity, unused talent and wasted potential”.
Skills England
Sector leaders have welcomed the skills shift as an example of “more cohesive policymaking” but warned the upheaval risked distracting ministers and officials.
Skills England, a new executive agency set up by education secretary Bridget Phillipson and launched in June, was the latest component to be confirmed as moving departments after FE Week revealed apprenticeships would be shifted last Friday.
Speaking as the Skills England news broke during a business and trade committee inquiry, co-chief executive Sarah Maclean said the move “really makes sense”.
It took the government 11 months to officially launch the body – which was a manifesto pledge – after its general election win last year.
Association of Employment and Learning Providers CEO Ben Rowland said: “Bringing Skills England under DWP creates a real opportunity to join up the support that gets people into work with the skills that help them move up through the labour market.”
Potential complications
The prime minister’s statement earlier this week came with confirmation that higher education and pre-19 further education and careers policy would remain at the Department for Education.
When asked whether the anticipated post-16 education white paper would be delayed by the governmental change, a DfE spokesperson directed FE Week to Jacqui Smith’s interview last week in which she said publication is “forthcoming”.
Other skills policy areas which could present complications for the two departments include careers advice, degree apprenticeships and occupational standards, which are the DWP’s responsibility but inform technical qualifications run by the DfE.
Ben Houchen, Conservative mayor of Tees Valley, said moving the skills brief to the DWP appears logical “in principle” as it should “make it easier to support people into work”.
However, he added: “What ultimately matters is how the DWP approaches this and whether they are prepared to have a more positive mindset towards devolution than the DfE ever has done.”
What’s the plan?
The work and pensions secretary is leading the government’s Get Britain Working strategy to increase employment, reduce the number of people out of work due to poor health or low skills, and lower the number of young people classed as not in education, employment or training (NEET).
The stakes are high, with more than 900,000 young people estimated to be NEET and Universal Credit spending forecast to rise 10 per cent to £99 billion in the next five years, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
In media interviews since his appointment, McFadden has said he would “expand” access to skills training, ask DWP officials “tough questions” about their youth NEET strategy, and be “more ambitious” in helping the young people into jobs – including those with mental health issues.
He believes better links to skills and training will turn jobcentres into a “springboard to better futures” in sustainable jobs – but has yet to confirm how it will be done.
During a visit to Waltham Forest College, McFadden praised its sector-based work academy programme (SWAP), a jobcentre-coordinated scheme running across England that offers unemployed people a short programme of work coaching, DfE-funded training and work experience.
However, questions remain about the success of SWAP programmes, used by around 200,000 jobseekers during the last two financial years.
HMRC data suggests only about 40 per cent of participants begin to earn money after completing a SWAP, and a DWP evaluation found that individual earnings averaged at about £1,400 more per year than if they had remained on Universal Credit.
So far, the government’s Get Britain Working strategy has involved a £240 million programme to launch a series of pilot “trailblazer” initiatives, funded by the DWP and managed by regional mayors, to test new approaches to curb youth NEET rates through a local “youth guarantee” and offering unemployed adults extra health support and training.
Moving skills to the DWP is an opportunity to ensure that adults accessing publicly funded education are those who face the “largest barriers” to employment, experts told FE Week.
The department’s control over apprenticeships is also another opportunity to reverse declining start numbers among young people, in line with Labour’s election pledge to guarantee training, an apprenticeship, or help to find work for all 18 to 21-year-olds.
Naomi Clayton, chief executive of the Institute for Employment Studies, said jobseekers have not historically had access to free training, particularly essential skills which are “so important and valued by employers”.
She added that programmes that combine personalised support and training for specific sectors have been “really effective” at helping both the unemployed and employed people who want to progress.
Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, said bringing skills and employment together under the DWP was a “positive step” towards more cohesive policymaking that could “address skills shortages, tackle economic inactivity and boost UK growth”.
He added: “A more ambitious approach is needed to genuinely expand opportunities and rebalance the system in favour of young people, including an apprenticeship guarantee for all 16 to 24-year-olds.”
The SoS for Skills
Pat McFadden has been at the heart of national Labour politics since the 1990s, starting out as a speechwriter and adviser to party leader John Smith before joining the team shaping Labour’s 1997 general election manifesto alongside the likes of Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson.
He was a Downing Street adviser to Tony Blair before getting elected himself in 2005 as MP for Wolverhampton South East, a seat he’s held continuously since.
He pledged to be a “champion of learning and opportunity” in his maiden speech in the House of Commons.
McFadden quickly rose through the ranks in the final years of the last Labour government. He was made a junior minister in the Cabinet Office in 2006, then promoted to minister of state in the then Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in 2007.
That department became the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in 2009 where McFadden helped to steer the ‘skills for growth’ white paper.
He advocated expanding apprenticeships, measuring skills policy by employment outcomes rather than qualifications, backed skills accounts and credited Train to Gain as helping “more than one million employees get on in work”.
By October 2010 McFadden had returned to the backbenches and served on the parliamentary treasury committee until 2014 when he rejoined the front bench as shadow foreign office minister.
McFadden has been a close ally of Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves, serving as Reeves’ shadow chief secretary between 2021 and 2023 before leading Labour’s preparations for government.
After last year’s election win, Starmer made McFadden his chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster before appointing him to run an expanded DWP this month.
Though Team UK did the country proud in Herning with its haul of six medals, its 15th place in the medal table was its lowest in recent years. Anviksha Patel spoke to WorldSkills UK to find out why the UK went backwards
In the hours after the EuroSkills closing ceremony last weekend, Team UK’s competitors were determined to return to training and “go for gold” at next year’s global competition in Shanghai.
But despite the positive attitudes, there was no hiding from the fact that 15th place ranked Team UK alongside Luxembourg and Slovakia in the table of 33 competing countries.
WorldSkills UK chief executive Ben Blackledge hailed his competitors’ “mature approach” after winning a bronze and five medallions for excellence, but revealed some rival countries selected more experienced competitors in Denmark.
“The amount they’ve learned and the amount of people on the flight saying, ‘we want to go home and train’, it was really positive,” he said.
“But we knew that we were going up against more experienced competition.
“Reflecting on that, it makes me really proud of their performance, but we always want to do better.”
Blackledge explained EuroSkills has grown in size and prestige since its launch in 2008, meaning the quality of competition has risen.
EuroSkills is the first international pressure test for many members of Team UK and forms the first part of WorldSkills UK’s two-year competition cycle, so it is not the pinnacle of competition for the UK, unlike some other European countries.
“We always go in knowing that we’ve got competitors who are relatively new to our programme. And this year, we’ve got some training managers who are also new.
“There is always a tension between performance and learning.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re still close enough to achieving gold, silver and bronze, but also we are the only European country that has a Centre of Excellence.
“We’re the only country that is looking at how to use medals for more than prestige.”
As he looks ahead to WorldSkills Shanghai, the chief executive faces a tough financial outlook.
Funding from the Department for Education has declined year on year and WorldSkills UK now raises more from commercial income than it receives from government grants. Last year the DfE cut its grant by 15 per cent to £5.7 million.
Blackledge said the charity aimed to grow commercial income through “cash and value in kind” via industry-leading specialist training and cutting-edge equipment.
“There is more work for us to do around the collective employer voice, because looking at Germany and Switzerland and Hungary, they have strong chamber engagement and government and industry partnerships are backing their work,” he added.
But Blackledge hailed skills minister Jacqui Smith’s visit to Team UK last week which he said provided a “real boost”.
“There is absolutely value in having public support for the work we’re doing,” he said.
“We want to get Number 10 and Number 11 more involved and say, WorldSkills UK is part of our growth strategy and flying the flag for the UK.”
Blackledge added that whilst there was no prospect of extra money from the government, there was value in being embedded in policy and strategy.
Among the criteria to achieve ‘exceptional’ for participation and development in the new Ofsted inspection toolkit is a reference to “having internal and external competitions”.
Being a member of the WorldSkills UK Centre for Excellence, and having learners take part in WorldSkills UK competitions, was also listed as a selection criteria in the recent bidding round for construction technical excellence colleges.
Meanwhile, skills minister Smith hinted at “support for WorldSkills” in the upcoming post-16 white paper.
Director of Policy and Research, Learning and Work Institute
Start date: July 2025
Previous Job: Deputy Director for Work, Centre for Ageing Better
Interesting fact: In a previous role as an academic historian, Emily appeared on an offshoot of Who Do You Think You are. Somewhere on the internet there is footage of her telling Brookside star Claire Sweeney about her distant ancestor who ended their life in an asylum on the Isle of Man
Professional headshot photography captured with signature lighting and expert expression coaching. Studio-quality portraits delivered on location across the South West.
Claire Green
Post-16 and Skills Specialist, Association of School and College Leaders
Start date: September 2025
Previous Job: Director of Sixth Form, Northampton Schools for Girls
Interesting fact: While serving as director of sixth form, Claire completed an MA in educational leadership and launched her blog, The Sixth Form Slant, a resource for sixth form leaders that has reached readers worldwide
Colleges have until October 10 to put forward staff and students for this year’s Good for Me Good for FE awards, which celebrate outstanding volunteering, fundraising and community impact across the sector.
Now in their third year, the awards shine a spotlight on individuals, teams and projects where efforts have gone above and beyond in support of communities.
The campaign was first launched in 2021 to highlight the breadth of social action in further education and is sponsored by NCFE and FE Associates, with FE Week as media partner.
Eight categories are up for grabs this year: individual fundraiser of the year, team/college fundraiser of the year, student volunteer of the year, staff volunteer of the year, project of the year, volunteering accreditation excellence, inspirational role model of the year, and outstanding long-service in volunteering.
Finalists in each category will be announced on November 19 at the Association of Colleges’ annual conference in Birmingham by AoC chief executive David Hughes and London South East Colleges CEO Sam Parrett. Winners will then be revealed at a House of Lords celebration on December 5.
Burton and South Derbyshire College’s Rob Stevenson, a volunteer first responder and veterans advocate, took home the staff volunteer of the year award last year. The public services lecturer said the award “highlights the connection between my personal pursuits and how the knowledge and experiences I gain enhance my classroom sessions”.
He added: “I absolutely love my job, and seeing the impact my personal journey has on my learners and their growth is the reason I teach.”
The judging panel again features leading sector figures, including FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave, Education and Training Foundation chief executive Katerina Kolyva, and Dame Sally Dicketts, alongside patron Baroness Nicky Morgan.
Morgan said: “Time and again, we see how volunteering and fundraising not only benefit local communities, but also build confidence, skills and opportunities for those taking part.
“These awards rightly celebrate that impact and highlight the sector’s powerful role in driving positive social change.”
Entries are open now and must be submitted via the Good for Me Good for FE website by October 10.
Apprentices have been “left stranded” by bugs in a £1.2 million Department for Education app, FE Week can reveal.
The government’s flagship Your Apprenticeship app has been criticised by MPs and industry bodies for technical issues and a lack of functionality as a probe using freedom of information laws showed only 7 per cent of apprentices had ssigned up.
The app was created in conjunction with scandal-ridden company Fujitsu, whose Horizon system played a key role in the Post Office scandal, and students from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson unveiled the app in February in an attempt to assist learners in tracking their progress, accessing key documents, and preparing for end-point assessments.
However, users have encountered problems, including login failures and unresponsive interfaces. Dozens of apprentices have said the app “remains blocked on the pushed notifications screen”, meaning they aren’t able to use its tools.
The DfE admitted the app cost over £50 per user, with only 23,943 “active users”, in addition to annual running costs of £55,000.
Active users are those who have successfully signed up to the app, not necessarily those regularly using it.
One apprentice said: “The app is poorly designed. It forces users to accept notifications, and even after adjusting settings, it remains stuck on the notification prompt, making it completely unusable. Many users have reported the same issue, so emailing support feels pointless.”
Apple App Store
Another learner told us: “This app just doesn’t work right. It forces you to stay on a blank screen, but even if you change the settings it stays stuck on that screen. I deleted it, reinstalled, and still ran into the same thing. Basically, you can’t use it even if you try, so we are left stranded.”
The DfE has been informing users that the crash on the notifications prompt has now been fixed.
Manuela Perteghella, who sits on the House of Commons education select committee, told FE Week: “These reports are extremely concerning. The government needs to urgently lay out how it will fix the issues with the app and get it working for those apprentices.”
Emily Rock, the CEO of the Association of Apprentices, added: “We understand that apprentices are often time-poor, and anything that helps reduce stress and improve their experience is welcome. While technical issues with the Your Apprenticeship app are clearly frustrating for users, we support the principle behind it.”
When the government released the system it claimed to provide a “world-class experience” to learners by making it a “one-stop shop” that would “revolutionise” training and support.
It is understood the app is an extension of Fujitsu’s £14.25m contract, which ended in April, despite its promise not to bid for government work before the Post Office Horizon Inquiry concluded.
“As part of this, we provided skilled resources to help with the development of the Your Apprenticeship app, but we have no involvement in its ongoing delivery or functionality,” a Fujitsu spokesperson said.
Manchester Metropolitan University, which was involved in early-stage development, said: “While the university is not involved in the app’s deployment or ongoing management, we continue to support the government’s efforts to enhance digital tools.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “We are pleased with the take-up of the Your Apprenticeship app so far, with over 40,000 downloads and just 40 queries regarding access or use of the app. Our Plan for Change is working, with apprenticeship starts, achievement and participation all up compared to the same period last year.
“However, we are aware of a minor bug affecting some Android users which we are working hard to resolve. We continue to work closely with apprentices as we develop this app to ensure it meets their needs.”
College staff should be awarded a 4 per cent pay rise this year, but the Association of Colleges had admitted “many” of its members will be unable to afford it.
Following negotiations with five trade unions representing college workers yesterday, the Association of Colleges (AoC) announced its delayed 4 per cent pay award recommendation for 2025-26, a rise from last year’s 2.5 per cent proposal.
While the pay award matches the School Teachers’ Review Body’s (STRB) 4 per cent pay recommendation for school teachers, the AoC admitted it will “barely” maintain the pay gap between college and school teachers rather than close it.
The college membership body also acknowledged that many of its members will not be able to afford its recommendation this year. While 16-19 education funding has risen this year, funding for adult education has been cut by up to 6 per cent.
The AoC urged unions to join its “united” campaign to the government this autumn for “sustained investment” in adult education funding.
Gerry McDonald, CEO of New City College and chair of AoC’s employment policy committee, said: “We understand that many colleges will find it challenging to meet our recommendation, particularly where they have large numbers of adult learners and apprentices.
“That is why we are also making a recommendation to the government to acknowledge the barriers the sector faces in raising pay. Sustained investment, especially in adult learning, is essential if we are to meet our aspiration for an appropriately rewarded workforce.”
Unlike schools, colleges decide staff pay awards themselves. The AoC’s annual pay proposal is non-binding, so colleges can award pay rises above or below the recommendation.
The University and College Union (UCU) polled its FE members in the summer and found 86 per cent were prepared to take strike action to secure an “above inflation pay rise, binding national bargaining and a national workload agreement”.
“We know many colleges will ignore the AoC recommendation,” Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, said.
“To truly deliver a new deal for FE, the AoC needs to come forward with a package of measures that begins to close the gap with school teachers, addresses the excessive workloads causing staff to burn out and helps create a new national bargaining framework. UCU members demanding fundamental change are prepared to take action to achieve our aims.”
Unison said the 4 per cent offer will “do little to improve the lot of support staff” in colleges.
Head of education Mike Short said: “Colleges must do more to protect their lowest paid staff from the cost of living crisis. Bills continue to rise, but wages simply aren’t keeping pace.
“Until there’s a fully funded sector that can set national pay deals, staff and students will continue to suffer.”
Andy Murray, Unite’s head of education, said: “As the joint claim emphasised we need a new, fully funded, national bargaining framework to reach binding agreements with further education employers and to raise the profile of further education with government to ensure a sustainable level of funding for the sector which enables the sector to recruit and retain valued staff.”
FE will remain severely constrained
Today’s pay award is lower than the 5.4 per cent increase to 16-19 funding rates for 2025-26 and is only very slightly higher than the current rate of inflation, 3.8 per cent.
The funding rate boost was funded by a £190m injection announced by education secretary Bridget Phillipson in May, £160m of which will go to colleges and FE providers with 16-19 cohorts.
Phillipson advised the extra cash should be used for “strategic priorities, including [staff] recruitment and retention”.
Representatives of the AoC and the National Joint Forum, made up of five trade unions representing FE teachers and staff, met in June to negotiate staff pay following the STRB pay recommendation.
But the AoC delayed making its own proposal as it had not fully considered the recent funding announcements, such as an extra £155 million to cover national insurance hikes.
At the time, colleges were estimating the national insurance cash boost would cover between 50 to 85 per cent of costs but were also unsure of in-year student growth in September.
Hughes told FE Week in June that more work needed to be done with colleges who had low 16-19 numbers.
There are a reported 35 colleges with over 20 per cent of income from adult education funding, as well as colleges with large apprenticeship funding.
AoC’s analysis today said even for the colleges that can afford to offer a 4 per cent pay award, it will “barely maintain” the pay gap with schoolteachers rather than close it.
FE lecturers earn, on average, around £10,000 less than school teachers.
The recommendation is also lower than the 10 per cent pay rise (or £3,000 increase) demanded by unions in their annual pay claim made back in April.
The pay claim also called for the AoC to take action to close the pay gap FE and school teachers’ pay within three years.
UCU said it was “nonsensical” make a recommendation that keeps FE pay lower than the school sector amid a teacher recruitment crisis.
“A pay recommendation of just 4 per cent does not deliver for staff, students and the communities that rely on good quality college education,” Grady said.
David Hughes, chief executive of AoC agreed: “The 4 per cent recommendation is the right benchmark for us to set nationally, but we recognise that for many colleges it simply will not be possible.
“It is crystal clear that even with a 4 per cent increase, college pay remains uncompetitive.”
“What we need is a planned and fully-funded approach over the coming years to bring college pay to the level we all know it needs to be, at least in line with schools and much more competitive with industry.
“We are also urging the unions to join us in a united campaign this autumn for better adult education funding. Without it, the sector will remain severely constrained in addressing the unacceptable pay gap with schools and industry.”
When the Prime Minister asked me to take on the role of Secretary of State for Work and Pensions our vision was clear: to build a department of opportunity with skills at its heart.
This means not just supporting people when they’re out of work but giving them the tools they need to benefit from the security of good jobs.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has always had ‘work’ in its title but adding skills to our responsibilities gives us a renewed energy and focus.
It allows us to move beyond providing a safety net and allows us to be a springboard to better futures.
This is critical to building a workforce fit for the future, critical for our economy and critical for our young people who have been written off for too long.
The statistics are stark – one in eight young people are not in education, employment or training, every one of them representing lost opportunity, unused talent and wasted potential.
We cannot afford to give up on this generation. We need to be ambitious which means creating pathways that lead directly from skills development to sustainable employment.
That is why, in my first week in the job, I visited Waltham Forest College, where I witnessed this in action.
The college has a brilliant partnership with the local jobcentre.
Work coaches are on-site with students, creating seamless pathways from learning to earning.
The jobcentre works with employers and the college to deliver tailored training for roles in the local community – including the nurses, builders and rail engineers who power our economy.
On the Rail Engineering programme alone, 97 percent of students progress into employment after completing their training.
This is the innovation I want to see replicated across the country.
Our approach recognises that the challenges of economic inactivity, youth unemployment, and skills gaps are interconnected.
We cannot effectively tackle one without addressing the others.
So, by bringing apprenticeships, adult further education, skills training, careers guidance, and Skills England under DWP’s remit, we’re creating strong pathways to support the millions of people across the country.
When someone walks into a jobcentre, we want to offer them more than just support or help with their job search. We want to assess their skills, identify gaps, and provide clear routes to training that leads to employment.
The timing is crucial as we are already delivering the biggest overhaul of jobcentres in a generation, backed by £240 million investment to boost employment.
This is not just about helping people to find a job, but equipping them with skills for sustainable, well-paid employment in growing sectors.
Skills and work are natural partners. By adding skills to DWP’s job description we are building a department that truly serves opportunity, ambition, and Britain’s future economic success.
Working for the King’s Foundation is no ordinary job. To do it, explains the charity’s media spokesperson Alex Schweitzer-Thompson, you have to “buy into” His Majesty’s lofty mission to “promote harmony with nature, to improve the well-being of people and the planet”, as its financial accounts describe it.
The foundation does this by teaching traditional heritage skills that have been cut from many further education and training budgets elsewhere.
Since being established 35 years ago, the charity has taught more than 115,000 students, mainly at the King’s heritage estates of Highgrove House in Gloucestershire and Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey in Scotland, with courses ranging from lacemaking and millinery to furniture-making and farming.
It’s easy to be cynical about its utopian vision of ‘harmony’, which seems a far cry from the world we live in.
“A lot of people would say that it’s very idealistic,” Schweitzer-Thompson admits. “Until you see it in practice, it’s easy to think it’s pie in the sky – that an educator can’t do that and get the results that industry needs.
“But a lot of what we do is almost disproving other people and showing that there is another way.”
The King’s Foundation’s building craft students working out what to build for their live project
Fanciful creations
We’re sitting in Schweitzer-Thompson’s car, driving across the sprawling 2,000-acre Dumfries House estate in Ayrshire that is the foundation’s headquarters, to meet students on its latest building crafts programme.
The group of eight have been tasked with designing and building an ornamental nature observation tower (“they’re not allowed to call it a bird hide, as the estate already has one”) during the course of their eight-month programme. The design they settle on will need to be approved by King Charles himself.
As they discuss what it could look like, each student suggests ideas based on their skill sets: some have basic experience as stonemasons, one is a thatcher and another a timber framer. The beauty of the collaboration is that they learn from one another’s disciplines, explains their teacher Charles, as “quite often, one skill feeds into another”.
Seeing them in action provides a poignant reminder of what construction training might have looked like before industrialisation. The grounds of Dumfries House and Highgrove are graced with dozens of fanciful follies, dovecotes, temples, belvederes, treehouses and bridges – legacies of past students’ achievements.
A shelter at Dumfries House created by former building craft students
On a group tour I joined that morning of Dumfries House’s grounds (along with American fashion designer Jeff Garner and TV show This Morning’s resident baker Juliet Sear), our guide introduced us to its “star” Tamworth pig called Hilda, who has featured in Vogue and Countryfile and “cooked with Raymond Blanc”. She is housed in a bespoke slate-shingled and thatched-roof structure that more closely resembles a swimming pool cabana than a pigsty.
The current crop of building crafts students have recently returned from placements at some of the country’s most renowned heritage sites.
Stephen, 47, a former special needs teacher who suffered “burnout” two years ago and retrained as a stonemason, was sent to the Tower of London for his. Within a fortnight, he had been offered a job there when he finishes the course, which underlines how in-demand his niche skills are.
“People were investing their time to help me, which was really kind… it makes me feel as though I’m in the right place,” he says.
Their course includes a business skills week in which students meet a solicitor, an accountant and a surveyor to build up their business acumen. Some past students have carved decorative stones to thank the King for providing their fully funded courses (each gets a £1,500-a-month bursary for living expenses too). The stones now form part of a “wall of gifts” in His Majesty’s stumpery.
King’s Foundation’s building crafts student Stephen
A new chapter
Such architectural gems are reaping financial rewards for the foundation by drawing in tourists. In the year to March 2024, its trading income exceeded donations for the first time, boosting overall income 12 per cent to £26.1 million.
A farming and rural skills training centre opened last year at Dumfries House, and the foundation is also expanding overseas. Offshoots of its School of Traditional Arts operate as far afield as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China, while the King’s Foundation Australia is restoring a derelict estate in New South Wales to train locals in heritage crafts, modelled on Dumfries House.
But the charity has not been immune from scandal. In January, the Scottish Charity Regulator found that Michael Fawcett, the former chief executive of what was then the Prince’s Foundation, had made unauthorised payments, and that governance failed to meet standards. Procedures have since been overhauled.
The foundation is determined to turn a new leaf and is becoming more vocal about its core ‘harmony’ mission. In July, indigenous tribesmen and craftspeople from across the world were invited to an inaugural Harmony Summit the King held at Highgrove House. And Amazon is putting the finishing touches on a documentary about his harmony ideals, including how they can be implemented in education.
A beautifully designed bridge at Dumfries House provides inspiration for an artist
Sustainability focus
The emphasis on harmony means learners are made familiar with the entire lifecycle of the materials they work with.
Nick Wright, manager of the foundation’s Snowdon School of Furniture (Lord Snowdon is the foundation’s vice president), explains how before working on timber, his students are first taken for a tour of the arboretum to learn “which trees are good for timber and what diseases they have to contend with,” then to a sawmill to “think about how the wood is cut and how much waste there is”. “Nowhere else really does that, it’s quite a unique programme,” he adds.
Similarly, each year 3,000 schoolchildren go through a “farm to fork” programme developed in partnership with chef Jamie Oliver and farmer Jimmy Doherty. They sow seeds in Dumfries House’s education garden, return to harvest the vegetables and then prepare healthy meals, helping “fill the huge knowledge gap among kids of where their food comes from,” says Schweitzer-Thompson.
The foundation’s adult learners tend to stay in accommodation on the estate where their course is taught, fostering a community of makers who bounce ideas off each other and use the picturesque grounds as inspiration. One Highgrove furniture maker recently made a wooden hat block for a milliner – reviving another endangered craft, as such blocks are now “very hard to come across,” says education director Daniel McAuliffe.
Nick Wright, manager of the foundation’s Snowdon School of Furniture
A model to replicate
In an old sawmill now converted into a textile training centre, a “first of its kind in the UK” course is starting in conjunction with Amazon MGM Studios in movie and TV costume crafts. Fifty-nine applications have been received for six places to work on Amazon’s historic and fantasy productions, including Rings of Power.
Unlike standard costume-making courses, this one will put “a huge emphasis” on reducing the waste “that industry is famous for”, Schweitzer-Thompson explains. On the TV, film and magazine shoots that take place on the King’s estates, “90 per cent” of what is used is “discarded” afterwards.
The training is a good example of how the foundation runs courses as “a model for others to replicate… to show them what really can be done if you road test an idea”.
A gardener in Dumfries House education garden
Endangered crafts
The King’s Foundation has taught some of the niche skills on the Heritage Craft Association’s ‘endangered’ list, meaning that without its support they could die out. One is pargeting, a decorative plastering technique from East Anglia that has only six practitioners left. Another is traditional kilt making, taught by a villager near Dumfries House. Schweitzer-Thompson bemoans that most kilts sold on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh are mass-produced in China.
Alas, some skills like hand-stitched cricket ball making and mouth-blown sheet glass production have already died out. Plans are afoot to create a new heritage crafts centre at Dumfries House to ensure more can survive.
Saving such skills is dear to the King’s heart. At a foundation event he remarked that some “timeless skills, which are always needed really, whatever age we’re in”, were “all rather disappearing. The battle is trying to keep all the special ones”.
Milliner Emily and one of her straw hats
Hat-trick for the King
Millinery used to be big business in the UK, particularly in Luton, where over 70 million hats a year were produced. Now Highgrove is the only place still teaching straw hat-making. The programme started last year is one of two the foundation runs with Chanel, which provides discarded stock for students to revive.
The milliners use rare century-old sewing machines to plait straw into hats. One student, Sophie, who handmakes biodegradable sequins for her hats, is working on costumes for a new Disney+ series. Communications director Izzy Stephenson reveals King Charles “always makes a point of coming to meet the students” on heritage craft programmes; the recent crop of milliners met him four times.
Emily, a recent graduate, spoke to the King about the challenge of sourcing the heritage straw they need. He offered to grow it on spare land at Sandringham. Next year will see the first harvest of Sandringham wheat, to be used for breadmaking, thatching and straw hats, which will then be sold at Highgrove House.
The century-old 17 Guinea sewing machines that King’s Foundation milliners use at Highgrove House
Reviving building crafts
Foundation student Tobias has been busy reviving traditions of a different kind. Before starting his programme at Dumfries House, he travelled across France and Germany for seven months as a wandering journeyman apprentice stonemason. It is a medieval custom still practised in parts of Europe. He ventured from town to town with other journeymen in traditional clothes, taking ad-hoc work and visiting colleges, and believes he benefited greatly.
“You’re learning more of your craft, but you’re also seeing other cultures,” he says.
His teacher, Charles, was taught stonemasonry by masons from Portland in Dorset, a county once famous for stonemasonry, at courses at Weymouth College. It no longer provides them, which Charles believes is a “great shame”. “There was this great heritage there, and that’s gone and won’t come back.”
The foundation also offers a fine art foundation course in London, but McAuliffe says it is “battling against the culture of all the FE courses in fine and applied arts closing down”.
“It’s the thing that the King’s Foundation often does – when other people close things down, we open them up because we see the need,” adds McAuliffe. “The creative industry is huge.”
Buildings craft student Tobias and his teacher, Peter
Lack of assessment
The building crafts course runs alongside an NVQ, depending on specialism, but “it’s not really about the qualification”, says Charles. What matters is what students learn and who they meet. He claims their completion rate is an enviable 99.9 per cent.
The lack of assessment makes the King’s Foundation’s programmes unusual in an era when assessment is so central in FE. McAuliffe believes not getting “bogged down by assessment criteria” makes it a “fascinating place to work if you’re interested in education”.
“No one fails” on its courses, because “it’s just not possible – if they don’t perform, they’re asked to leave”, but that rarely happens. The bursary puts “an expectation on the student”, and also “breaks down barriers” for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, who McAuliffe estimates make up around half of each cohort.
Education director Daniel McAuliffe
The future
Nobody is sure whether Prince William will continue his father’s legacy and take over the King’s Foundation when he becomes monarch, although the charity would be able to stand on its own two feet if he chooses not to.
But what of the wider prospects for the heritage skills it teaches? McAuliffe believes there is a “shift” happening in society that could spell a golden age for heritage crafts, with people “understanding that luxury isn’t a pair of expensive plastic sunglasses with a logo on, but a hand-plated beaded hat that took 54 hours to make”.
Similarly, Schweitzer-Thompson points out that none of the skills taught can ever be replaced by AI, so they will “stand the test of time”.
“Maybe when everyone else has had to adapt their curriculums and totally rethink their education programmes, we might be the last one standing, still doing what we did 10 years previously.”
A flower binding session at Dumfries HouseA group of young people woodcarving at Highgrove House
