It’s possible to get students talking safely about gender violence

Educators and those working with young people are now understanding that we cannot view incidences of gender-based violence as ‘one-off’ situations which exist in isolation to, or solely at the extremities of, our communities. The sheer rate of these incidents leads us to believe they are firmly rooted in our culture. 

Any preventative efforts must focus on exposing, understanding and challenging the root of this violence in our communities. Everything from socially ingrained gendered attitudes like misogyny, slut-shaming and victim-blaming, to the messages young people are receiving every day from social media and pop culture, must be addressed. 

But how do we intentionally create spaces for critical conversation about a culture of gender-based violence that leads to behaviour change?

At Bold Voices we have specialised in curating these very spaces within over 200 educational settings across the UK, and engaged with over 100,000 young people, staff and parents.

Here are some key lessons we have learned. 

Being intentional about space:

When we deliver classroom workshops, we want to change the dynamics that often dictate engagement such as social hierarchies, relationship with the teacher, worries about being judged for your experiences and losing social face. So we change the layout to reflect the type of atmosphere we want to create. 

Pupils sit around tables in small groups all facing one another, so they can see and hear everyone on the table, creating a more intimate and inclusive environment.

We ensure space between tables so young people don’t feel like they are being listened to outside of that group, which encourages authenticity because body language is easier to see and read when there is space around each person. 

We allow young people to sit in small groups of their choosing, allowing for their natural micro-cultures to arise. Any learning is then far more likely to be sustainable. Critical reflection and conversations are more likely to continue if started in groups that spend time together, and commitment to change is more likely to be taken more seriously. 

Being intentional about time:

We usually find the best time to hold educational conversations is not in response to a specific incident within the group of students. This education should not be a reactive measure, it is preventative.

It is best to avoid times where young people are feeling particularly defensive or angry about a situation as critical thinking and self-reflection are much less likely to occur if these are the immediate emotional responses.

Instead, find a way to have these conversations regularly, and use stimuli and case studies to help create distance from specific incidents. 

Being intentional about framing:

Why are we talking about this topic? To cultivate a shared awareness of and responsibility for this culture. Gender inequality and gender-based violence negatively impacts all of us.

We also all play a part in reinforcing it, even when this isn’t intentional, and so we must all play a part in challenging it. 

This is not about shunning young men and identifying them as ‘the problem’ – this is about understanding the culture leading to a repeated pattern where males are more likely to harm themselves and others. It is a culture that we all play a part in reinforcing. 

Are we setting up a debate?

We encourage conversations rather than debates. We all have a different experience with this culture so instead of trying to decide who is right/wrong or worse/better off, it can be more beneficial to understand how our experiences and frustrations are connected.

Practise this using the “yes… and” model of conversation participation, where contributing to the conversation is about adding your own detail (even if contradictory) to the bigger picture, rather than disputing the experience of others. 

The ‘call in’ approach to challenging:

A core facilitation principle, the ‘call in’, can be described as using instances of potentially harmful language or attitudes as opportunities to kindly but critically reflect and learn. It is led by open questions which make no assumption about the intention of the individual and do not attempt to ‘prove them wrong’. Instead, these questions are about genuinely learning what they were trying to communicate and why.

It is an approach that changes the stakes of self-reflection and makes being challenged less a question of character, but more a chance to question the ‘culture’.

For resources to use in the classroom, see Bold Voices

Three exam papers for resits…the maths doesn’t add up for FE

Across the country, FE colleges have once again become vast examination halls. Here at Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (NSCG), the scale of this operation is stark.

In one morning across our two campuses, over 1,300 learners sat their GCSE maths exam, a crucial hurdle for so many on their journey to further study or employment.

To facilitate this single exam, we had to ring-fence a staggering 144 rooms, including our sports halls, dance studios and auditorium spaces, employ 175 invigilators, and mobilise a team of support staff to aid operations. The ripple effect extends further, with regular lessons suspended to accommodate logistical obstacles.

The post-16 resit landscape is challenging. While the goal of ensuring functional numeracy is crucial, the current structure of GCSE maths, with its three separate exam papers, places a significant burden on FE colleges. This is particularly concerning given that demographic trends suggest the number of students needing to resit is only likely to increase in coming years.

Let’s be clear: it’s not the principle of resits that’s the issue. It is the sheer scale and complexity of administering multiple papers for each student each time an exam series comes around.

The current format, requiring colleges to organise and manage three distinct exam sittings, creates an immense logistical challenge. This diverts college resources away from other essential activities.

Consider the practical implications. The cessation of timetabled lessons disrupts the learning of all students, not just those sitting the exam.

The deployment of a large number of staff as invigilators pulls them away from teaching, support and pastoral duties.

The administrative burden of organising these large-scale exams – from timetabling and room allocation to the meticulous management of papers – is considerable.

For us, the cost of entering learners to their summer GCSE maths exam alone totals £69,000 in associated fees and the cost of employing external invigilators is significant.

These are resources that could be better invested in enhancing the quality of teaching, expanding enrichment opportunities, and providing more personalised support to students across the board.

Furthermore, the emotional and psychological impact on students facing repeated resits across three papers cannot be ignored. While the opportunity to retake is important, the constant cycle of preparation and exams can breed anxiety and frustration, potentially hindering rather than helping their long-term engagement with mathematics.

I believe it is time to consider a fundamental shift in the design of the GCSE maths assessment, and I urge policymakers in the Department for Education, Ofqual and within the examination boards to consider reducing the number of exam papers from the current three to two within each exam series.

A streamlined structure would allow colleges to allocate resources more efficiently, minimising the disruption to regular teaching and freeing up staff to focus on core delivery.  Students and staff could concentrate their efforts on two key exam dates, allowing for more intensive and targeted preparation for each exam. 

Additionally, a reduction in the number of examination papers would inevitably lead to savings in administrative costs and the fees associated with the operation.

This is not about lowering standards or diminishing the importance of GCSE maths. It’s about finding a more sustainable and effective way to assess students whilst minimising the strain on an already pressurised FE sector. By reducing the number of exam papers in each series, we can ensure colleges can focus on what they do best: educating and empowering students.

The current system, with its three-paper format, places undue pressure and financial strain on colleges. We need a more balanced approach that serves the needs of both students and institutions. Reducing the number of exam papers is a practical step towards achieving that goal.

Finally, I want to thank all of the staff who work tirelessly to support learners in their preparation for these exams, and to those working diligently behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the summer exam series. I wish all learners the very best of luck in their exams.

We’re tackling nurse burnout by training them to be resilient

The nursing profession is facing a stark reality. One in five nursing students are dropping out before finishing their studies mainly due to financial pressures, inconsistent clinical placement experiences, and academic challenges, a recent report by The Royal College of Nursing reveals.

With an overstretched NHS and a workforce crisis, these figures are troubling. But they’re not insurmountable.

Here in Torbay and across the Southwest, we believe further education has a vital role to play in turning this around. At University Centre South Devon, we are proud to be setting a national benchmark in nursing education – one that is local, innovative and focused on long-term retention as much as recruitment.

We are the first and only FE college in the UK with Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approval to deliver the nursing associate programme under our own foundation degree awarding powers. This matters because it means we can shape a nursing education model that works for our learners as well as our local healthcare system.

The nursing associate role is a key part of that model. It provides a pathway for people, often mature students and career changers, to join the profession in a way that’s structured and practical.  These professionals bridge the gap between healthcare assistants and registered nurses, offering vital support across a wide range of care settings.

After completing the two-year programme, many of our students go on to top up their qualifications or take the nursing apprenticeship route to become registered nurses.

But recruitment is only half the story. According to the same RCN report, the number of UK-trained nursing staff leaving the NMC register within 10 years has risen by 43 per cent and those leaving within just five years is up by 67 per cent. These are sobering statistics, demanding a serious response from educators.

It’s not enough to teach technical skills. We must prepare students for the realities of modern healthcare including the emotional toll.

That’s why we’ve embedded a module focused specifically on retention, resilience and wellbeing into our nursing associate programme. Students explore case studies on burnout prevention, long-term coping strategies and tools for navigating complex healthcare systems. The emphasis is not only on surviving, but thriving.

 Wellbeing support runs through everything we do. Students have access to confidential counselling, regular mental health check-ins and peer support groups designed specifically for those in nursing education. We’ve also integrated stress management workshops into the curriculum to foster self-awareness and healthy coping habits.

Simulation-based learning is another key area of our approach. Our students gain hands-on experience in a risk-free setting where they can develop clinical decision-making and problem-solving skills. What sets this apart is our focus on psychological safety. 

As a local university centre, our students benefit from small group sizes and get to develop a strong relationship with fellow students and lecturers. After each session, students take part in structured debriefs not just to reflect on clinical skills, but to process the emotional side of care. It’s a space where students feel supported, heard, and confident to grow.

We also know how important continuity is. That’s why our clinical lecturers are embedded into practice environments offering face-to-face support during placements. This helps students feel anchored, especially during the transition from the classroom to the ward.

Our student cohort reflects our community. Many are the first in their families to pursue higher education. Most are local to Torbay and the wider Southwest. A large number are mature students, bringing lived experience and deep commitment to healthcare.

This matters. These students come with real-world insight and a genuine connection to the communities they serve. They are not just training for a career; they are answering a calling. That sense of purpose is one of the greatest assets any health service can ask for.

So, while the national picture is worrying, we believe change is possible. It starts by backing education providers who know their students, understand their region, and are committed to building a workforce that’s resilient and ready.

GCSE resits need ‘wax on, wax off’… not more exam tinkering

A teenager enters a karate dojo for the first time and is instructed to fight an older, experienced student.

“I haven’t had any training yet,” he says to the unsympathetic sensei. Within minutes, he quits.

This scene from ‘Cobra Kai’, the ‘Karate Kid’ spin-off show, is a great analogy for some bad education practices, from initial college assessments to premature introduction of nineteenth-century texts in GCSE English resit courses.

It’s in clever contrast with Mr Miyagi’s “wax on, wax off” approach from the 1984 movie, which laid the foundations for success in the high-stakes competition finale. Teaching the fundamentals properly can look very different to how something is terminally assessed.

Awarding body OCR’s chief executive, Jill Duffy, recently told the education select committee that cutting the number of GCSE exam papers “could have a positive impact”. I completely agree. Reducing the number of English and maths GCSE  papers would make resits more deliverable and is a pragmatic way to prevent a prejudicial two-tier system.

However, Duffy has also been advocating an unnecessary increase in prescribed content in GCSE English Language, in tension with reducing assessment. She’s never actually been a teacher, so it’s odd for her to get so involved in subject-level detail.

When she asked in a recent social media post how GCSE English should be made “more relevant, engaging, and joyful for students and teachers,” I initially assumed she was talking about classroom practice. But no. She wants to tinker with the qualification, as though engagement and joy are found in the pages of an exam specification.

It’s about as credible as me monologuing about how “we” should improve our standing in international karate and concluding that the problem is the colour of the mats.

Days before telling MPs there should be reduced assessment, Duffy publicly described the English Language GCSE as “too narrow”, bemoaning the lack of opportunity to analyse “modern forms of writing, pieces of multimedia or famous speeches.”

With no set texts and a wide emphasis on writing skills in the current GCSE, it is already necessary to engage learners with those things to teach English well. Great resit teachers artfully synthesize gritty teen fiction, song lyrics or movie clips with development of the skills the GCSE will ultimately test. The best lessons I’ve seen were almost always built around source material I would never imagine showing up in the exam. After all, Daniel LaRusso didn’t have to wax a car in the All-Valley Karate Tournament.

Embarrassingly for Duffy though, writing a speech absolutely can come up in the GCSE exam (page 7 of her own organisation’s specification) and the obvious way to teach any form of writing is to begin by analysing and internalising exemplars. God knows how Duffy imagines it’s done. Presumably, “Today’s lesson is writing speeches. Off you go.”

“I haven’t had any training yet,” might be the response.

Behind all this is the belief that things don’t get taught if they’re not in the exam. And that’s somewhat true, especially in GCSE resits where it’s hard to take a “wax on, wax off” approach if you’re not given enough classroom time, and when everybody wilfully ignores that the performance measure is about progress over three years, not attainment in the first possible exam sitting.

Changing the qualification isn’t going to improve curriculum design, or teaching, or shake off the obsession with short-term attainment over progress. Still, if you’re the Eagle Fang dojo of awarding organisations, lagging behind Cobra Kai’s and Miyagi-Do’s greater market share, then hitting ‘reset’ might just give you a chance to increase your revenue.

We need to curtail well-resourced but inexpert vested interests being given excessive air time. Most of the awarding bodies have been throwing money (public funding diverted from classrooms to their inflation-busting exam fees) at chasing daft headlines [Like AQA looking at ‘duolingo style test for GCSE resitters], even dafter headlines [about AQA using AI cameras to invigilate GCSEs], and convening roundtables for the sake of alliteration over principle. What students, teachers, and parents would much prefer them to focus on is hiring credible examiners, marking accurately and delivering results on time.

Excessive talk of assessment draws energy away from the craft of teaching, which is what truly brings engagement and joy to a classroom. In the words of Mr Miyagi, “if karate used to defend plastic metal trophy, karate no mean nothing.”

DfE perm sec cannot explain 6.5k teacher recruitment pledge

The Department for Education’s top civil servant has said the government’s 6,500-teacher recruitment target is “underway” but could not provide “fine detail” about how the pledge will be delivered in colleges.

Susan Acland-Hood, permanent secretary in the DfE since 2020, appeared in front of MPs on the public accounts committee yesterday to discuss teacher shortages in colleges and schools.

Acland-Hood, joined by director general for skills Julia Kinniburgh and Juliet Chua, director general for schools, were subject to questioning on the findings of a recent National Audit Office report into teacher recruitment.

The report, published last month, found that the Labour government could not explain where the 6,500 target came from or provide a breakdown of how it was being delivered. It also revealed the target will still lead to an FE teacher shortfall as DfE has estimated between 8,400 and 12,400 FE teachers are needed by 2028/29.

Here are the main highlights from yesterday’s hearing…

College teacher targets?

Acland-Hood was asked directly how the government’s 6,500 target for new teachers in schools and colleges came about, how it will be delivered and how new teachers will be distributed across schools, secondary schools and further education colleges. 

She explained the target was based on “a range of different factors that represented some of the pressures on teacher numbers across schools and colleges,” which include vacancy rates and staffing demands. 

But when pressed on how many would be allocated to colleges, Acland-Hood was unable to answer as that was “fine detail that we will have to hold on announcing until after the spending review” which is due next month. 

The pledge was one of Labour’s flagship education policies in its general election manifesto last year.

She added that delivery to meet the target was “underway” and the government was seeing “positive signs” of its existing teacher recruitment policies paying off. 

“We can see both action that we’ve taken and outcomes starting to happen that relate directly to that 6,500 target,” she said.

Examples given included a 2,000 increase in secondary school teachers starting training this year compared to last year, an additional 1,000 applying to start training next year, and forecasts for 2,500 school teachers to remain in the profession following last year’s 5.5 per cent pay rise. 

Acland-Hood said “we’ve also seen those numbers coming through and the action happening in FE as well” but didn’t provide examples.

But when asked by the chair of the education select committee Helen Hayes what the baseline was to calculate an increased 6,500 target, Acland-Hood said the DfE hadn’t set a specific year as a baseline, but it has to “relate to this parliament”.

“In other words, it’s got to be 6,500 more than it was before you started. Otherwise, it doesn’t mean anything, does it?” she added.

Hayes replied: “It sounds like it’s underway but you don’t know what it is.”

Acland-Hood then said: “We know that we need to provide more teachers in the thousands, and we know that we’re seeing more teachers coming through in the thousands.”

‘We are concerned about the position in FE’

Acland-Hood said the department was “concerned” about the FE vacancy rate being “significantly” higher than in schools.

The NAO report found FE was the “worst affected” type of education provider by long-term recruitment pressures with 5.1 of every 100 teaching roles vacant in general FE colleges, amounting to 2,500 vacancies in colleges as opposed to 1,500 school teacher vacancies.

The permanent secretary said there was a “circularity” in the challenges seen in FE, meaning the vacancies were in disciplines where there are shortages in the wider labour market from which colleges recruit, particularly in construction.

“People who are experts in those disciplines tend to be able to command very high salaries. Then it gets harder for FE colleges to recruit those people to teach the next generation,” she said.

She added that the government has extended the list of subjects to provide the £6,000 targeted retention incentive payments to identify those shortage areas in FE.

Recent data of the initiative shows nearly 6,000 FE teachers have been paid the chunky government bonus so far – worth a combined £34.1 million. Of those, 29 per cent went to building and construction teachers.

Kinniburgh revealed the retention payments would be evaluated next year. 

FE feels ‘somewhat patronised’

Leaders in further education feel “somewhat patronised” when they’re told by ministers how important the sector is “in a way that simply isn’t reflected in the funding that it gets, according to Hayes.

Hayes was questioning the senior officials on DfE’s relationship with colleges over staff pay and described its teacher recruitment efforts as “welcome” but “not being delivered at scale”.

Kinniburgh responded that £400 million has recently been added to FE budgets, and pointed to “bursaries, Taking Teaching Further, and the targeted retention initiative” as steps taken. She insisted: “We’re really, really clear that we have higher vacancy rates in further education… and we are pushing new things all the time.”

“So it’s not to disagree with your analysis of where the funding is but we have done a lot, I think, in recent months,” Kinniburgh concluded.

Filling teacher gap with dual professionalism

One example was bringing in more people from industry to teach in FE colleges.

“There’s various projects going on at the moment,” she said. “One is a project being led by the Gatsby Foundation, who are working with Edge Hill University, where they’re setting up a training curriculum to bring people from industry to come and work in colleges so that they can do that, they can be what’s often called a dual professional.”

Kinniburgh added that she recently visited a college where she met a teacher who was a designer 2.5 days a week and a lecturer the rest of the working week.

“Various colleges have tried this and to good success. So for example, the City of Liverpool College, they say 80 per cent of their workforce are dual professionals, and they’ve worked really hard to create those links to their local employers to bring people in.”

She added that DfE was looking at how to extend and “expand” that shared practice.

It comes after scheme developers for lecturer reservist trial for the motor industry recently said they were struggling to get DfE to financially back their pilot.

Acland-Hood and Kinniburgh said they’re working on a “single front door” for recruitment across schools and colleges and trialling cross-sector “job show” events to allow applicants to explore all teaching routes.

FE workforce data collection ‘less mature’

Elsewhere, Kinniburgh acknowledged that DfE had been slow to roll out data collection for the FE workforce, but it was now working to make sure it had higher response rates.

“Our workforce model in FE is less mature than in school,” she said, adding that just two years of data has been recorded.

The NAO report found issues with DfE’s data collection of the FE workforce, primarily that it did not use the model to set targets for how many teachers it needs. 

But Kinniburgh said it was focusing on encouraging more people to complete the data collection.

Currently, she said they get a 90 per cent completion rate from colleges but a “slightly lower” rate from independent training providers and others. Overall, DfE has recorded an 80 per cent in total.

The next data release is due next week, on May 29.

Colleges and schools ignore wellbeing charter

Only 17 per cent of eligible schools and colleges have signed up to DfE’s education staff wellbeing charter according to the NAO, a figure described as “not good enough” by Kinniburgh. 

The voluntary charter, backed by the Association of Colleges, Ofsted and school teaching unions, could be due for a refresh off the back of low take up. 

Kinniburgh said the DfE was actively trying to understand why so few colleges had signed up.

“We want more,” said Kinniburgh, adding that the DfE is exploring whether “a refresh of the push or the content” is needed.

First list of foundation apprenticeships published

The names of the first seven foundation apprenticeships have been revealed.

A list of the new apprenticeships, which are designed to be an entry route for young people, was published on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s website today.

They all have a typical duration time of eight months and their funding bands range from £3,000 to £4,500.

However, each foundation apprenticeship has a message from IfATE which states that “shorter duration apprenticeships like this one will only be possible once the legislation changes to allow for durations below 12 months”.

Once this happens, Skills England will “formally confirm this apprenticeship is available for use”.

The earliest start date for each foundation apprenticeship is August 1, 2025, according to IfATE’s website.

Starts on the apprenticeship will also only be possible once a suitable end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) has obtained Ofqual recognition. “Once the EPAO has obtained Ofqual recognition, funding for apprentice starts will be permitted and this message will be removed.”

IfATE’s website confirms that foundation apprenticeships are employed positions.

Each foundation apprenticeship “provides a mix of employability skills and behaviours, technical knowledge and skills, and associated English and maths”. Typical progression routes will “likely include employment or progression onto another skills product such as a level 2 or level 3 apprenticeship”.

Employers who take on a foundation apprentice qualify for up to £2,000 per foundation apprentice, subject to retention and progression.

The DfE’s apprenticeship funding rules were published last week and revealed that young foundation apprentices who did not achieve a grade 4 pass at GCSE will be required to continue studying the subjects during their training, but they will not be forced to sit exams.

Lifetime Training replaces David Smith with Charlotte Bosworth as CEO

Investors at Lifetime Training have parted ways with CEO David Smith and replaced him with FE stalwart Charlotte Bosworth.

Staff were told today that Smith, who took on the top job at England’s largest apprenticeship provider in July 2023, has left the company.

Bosworth has led Innovate Awarding – part of the Lifetime Group – for the past eight years.

She will be Lifetime’s fourth CEO in the past three years.

Group chair Mike Thomas said: “We are delighted to announce the promotion of Charlotte Bosworth to group CEO.  As the apprenticeship sector continues to change and evolve, we are excited to have someone of Charlotte’s ability and deep understanding of the industry at the helm to drive the continued growth of the group.”

Lifetime Training is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and latest accounts show a healthy financial position following a period of instability that involved lender Alcentra taking over the company from previous private equity owner Silverfleet Capital and waiving £100 million worth of debt.

Smith was headhunted for the CEO gig as a turnaround specialist. He previously ran big-name companies from outside the FE sector including the Post Office, Parcelforce, Royal Mail, City Link, Serco and estates management company The Bellrock Group.

Thomas said: “We would like to thank David Smith for all his hard work and dedication in stabilising Lifetime and for his efforts in ensuring Lifetime achieved an Ofsted 2 rating at our recent inspection.”

Bosworth has worked in the education and skills sector for around three decades, including 10 years at exams board OCR. 

She is vice chair at Walsall College having held a position on the board of governors since 2018. Bosworth is also chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies and sits on the board of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.

She previously held board positions at David Nieper Education Trust, Career Colleges and the Learning and Work Institute.

Lifetime Training was founded in 1995 and has become the largest apprenticeship provider when it comes to starts in England, training apprentices for big-name employers including the NHS, McDonalds, Wetherspoons, B&Q and David Lloyd, as well as the civil service.

The company recorded 16,330 starts in 2023-24 and latest stats shows 6,500 starts for the first two quarters of 2024-25. It holds a qualification achievement rate of 40.5 per cent.

Lifetime Training had been led by former CEO Alex Khan for 10 years before he was replaced by Jon Graham in June 2022. Graham held the post for a year before Smith was brought in.

During an interview with FE Week last year, Smith said the company was planning to grow the commercial training side of the business and explore other training routes like skills bootcamps amid the Labour government’s plans to turn the apprenticeship levy into a growth and skills levy which can fund non-apprenticeship training.

DfE’s apprenticeships budget passes £3bn mark

The Department for Education’s apprenticeships budget has risen to more than £3 billion for the first time.

New Treasury documents for 2025-26, known as ‘main supply estimates’, show that ministers have increased England’s apprenticeship budget for this year by 13 per cent, from £2.73 billion to £3.075 billion.

The Department for Education confirmed the £345 million boost to FE Week.

The increase is the largest in cash terms since the apprenticeship levy’s introduction in 2017, and comes as the sector awaits reforms such as the axing of level 7 apprenticeships and pivoting to the ‘growth and skills levy’.

It also suggests a cut to the Treasury’s top slice of the apprenticeship levy – the amount the government keeps after collecting the funds paid by employers and dishing out spending for apprenticeships to the DfE and devolved nations – which hit more than £800 million in 2024-25.

The Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) has estimated that total apprenticeship levy paid by businesses in 2025-26 will be £4.2 billion, which leaves a top slice of around £600 million once the DfE’s new budget is released and devolved nations are paid their share.

Simon Ashworth, deputy chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said: “On the face of it, this is very welcome news against the backdrop of an extremely tight fiscal environment.

“A 13 per cent increase doesn’t just reflect the anticipated growth in levy take by the OBR, but a substantial release of the amount the Treasury has been retaining as a top slice.

“AELP have long called for the gap between what’s raised by the apprenticeship levy and the amount spent on the programme budget to be minimised so this is definitely a step in the right direction.”

However, he added that the DfE’s budget increase “does call into question why the government need to proceed with slashing and burning level 7 apprenticeships if there’s more money coming in the budget”.

Waiting for level 7 crunch

The sector is waiting on a final decision on the axing of level 7 apprenticeships, which accounted for about 9.2 per cent, or £240 million, of 2023-24’s £2.7 billion budget.

A letter from education secretary Bridget Phillipson, seen by FE Week this month, revealed a “concession” is on the cards that would allow young people aged 16 to 21 to continue to access all master’s level apprenticeships following pressure from other cabinet ministers.

But it referred to other “challenging steps needed” ahead of reforming the apprenticeship levy into the growth and skills levy that could include other types of work-based training.

Gradual increases

England’s apprenticeship budget has increased steadily from £2 billion in its first year, 2017-18.

However, during the same period the amount raised through the levy grew from £2.271 billion to £4.1 billion in 2024-25.

The Treasury’s budget documents were published yesterday as part of the government’s annual cycle of seeking Parliament’s formal approval of its spending plans through a vote, usually in July each year.

SEND job scheme extended after recruitment success

A flagship employment programme for SEND learners has won a year’s extension after hitting its recruitment target. 

An extra £1.5 million has been handed to two organisations delivering the Department for Education’s supported internships programme after ministers declared at least 4,500 learners took part in the scheme in the last year.

Though no figures were provided for 2024, publicly available data suggests the scheme enjoyed an impressive comeback after enrolments on supported internships had slumped to 1,526 starts in 2023, following a total of 2,477 starts in 2022.

Supported internships provide 16 to 25 year olds with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) with bespoke learning, a dedicated job coach and work placements of six to 12 months at firms including Asda, Amazon and Goldman Sachs.

DfE pledged £18 million in 2022 for three years. The original support package was to help deliver the government’s target of doubling the number of supported internships to 4,500 across the country per year by March 2025.

Children’s minister Janet Daby said in a recently answered Parliamentary question that the department had reached its target, according to indicative data.

The cash boost went to two existing suppliers – The British Association for Supported Employment (BASE trading as Inclusive Trading CIC) and The National Development Team for Inclusion.

The money will be used to deliver training for job coaches, administering local council grants and signing up employers to offer work placements.

The original delivery organisations also included a charity called DFN Project SEARCH. It is unclear why the organisation is not named in the contract extension.

In November 2023, the Treasury approved nearly £200,000 for additional grants for SEND learners without EHCPs to get into supported internships in 12 local authority areas.

An interim government evaluation of the programme in October found that interns’ biggest challenges were finding the right job placement and losing benefits.

Though the scheme aims to ease SEND learners into paid employment, it has not translated into tangible success. 

A previous FE Week investigation found that just one in four special educational needs students remained in employment a year after their supported internship had ended.

The evaluation report found almost half (47 per cent) of interns had a job six months after completion despite securing employment being a “primary goal” for the scheme.

Nevertheless, the contract award documents claimed recent data was showing a “much higher success rate” but did not specify what the higher rate was.

“We know they work,” documents added.

The DfE, BASE and NDTI declined to comment.

DFN Project Seach was approached for comment.