Rethinking PD: How colleges can build learning cultures

A skilled and motivated workforce matters in every profession. But in education, professional development (PD) is not just about career progression or boosting organisational performance.

When it is well designed and delivered, PD is one of the most powerful tools we have with which to address a major challenge facing our system: giving every learner the best possible chance to succeed.

At the EEF, our work is all about encouraging evidence-informed approaches to teaching and learning, and tackling the education inequalities that persist across England. We have worked with schools for over a decade and are now strengthening our focus on the 16-19 education sector so that every learner – at every stage of education –  has the opportunity to thrive.

This includes initiatives such as our new Evidence Partnership, which will support colleges to embed evidence use across the sector, and our guidance on effective PD.

For those working in 16-19 education settings, the stakes can feel especially high: teachers are working with students to secure the qualifications that open doors to their futures. High-quality PD is not a “nice to have” – it is essential. 

Building a culture, not just a programme

Delivering PD which makes a difference is about much more than putting on training sessions. It is about building a culture where teachers feel engaged, valued and supported to keep improving.

That means creating space for collaboration, making PD relevant to the day-to-day realities of teaching, and continually adapting based on reflection and feedback.

But, in the busy reality of FE and sixth-form life, balancing timetables, accountability and multiple priorities, PD risks being sidelined. So how do we keep it strategic and impactful?

A case study from Cornwall

Truro and Penwith College is one of the founding members of the EEF’s new Evidence Partnership for the 16-19 sector.

leaders at the college recognised that their traditional, top-down approach to PD was not landing. Among wider challenges around teacher retention and workload, there was a pressing need to rebuild trust and make PD more collaborative and inclusive within the college.

Their response was to create “education exchange” forums: voluntary spaces for reflective discussion, feedback and staff-led input into PD priorities. Decisions about what to focus on are now shaped not only by learner outcomes, lesson observations and research evidence, but also by what teachers themselves identify as most useful.

The college also shifted away from lecture-style training towards smaller, discussion-based sessions that encourage peer learning, while also encouraging clear progression towards their targeted outcomes. Representatives from across the college also now help to translate PD into everyday practice within teams.

Staff reported feeling re-energised and more invested in professional learning. The process is still evolving – effective PD always is – but the culture is shifting. A shared mission to improve teaching and give learners the best chance in life is uniting the community.

Engagement with teachers – and how this informs responses to professional development – will naturally vary across individual settings. Truro and Penwith College provides one example of how this can be achieved but, for other settings, this may be different based on their unique context.

How to improve your setting’s PD offer

For leaders wondering how to strengthen their own PD offer, there is now free tailored guidance to help. We have published a new resource specifically for FE and sixth form colleges, school-based sixth forms and other 16-19 providers.

Our Effective Professional Development in 16-19 settings guide and a range of other helpful resources can be found on our 16-19 education hub: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/16-19

Based on a review of sector practice led by a team from Sheffield Hallam University and hundreds of research studies, the guidance offers clear, practical steps to make PD more effective, whether you are just starting out or refining what is already in place. It is organised around three recommendations:

  • Build a culture of continuous professional development.
  • Use the KEEP framework to plan, design and deliver professional development (Knowledge, Engagement, Execution, Practice).
  • Carefully consider evidence-informed content.

It is designed to be a genuine support in making PD a lever for real change.

Pat’s skills nightmare: The kitchen is on fire

Watching Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares always left me with one clear lesson: simplicity wins. He would rip out the bloated menus, ditch the overpriced ingredients and focus on what mattered – good food, done well.

Then came the other basics: enough customers through the door, the right number of chefs, and front-of-house staff who actually knew what they were doing. He always had a simple checklist.

Even large restaurant chains have failed by expanding too quickly, adding layers of bureaucracy and overcomplicating things. At the same time, online meal kits have flourished by offering simple, affordable, flexible solutions.

In the world of skills, are we living Gordon’s worst kitchen nightmare?

The funding mess

Skills funding has been slashed to the bone. And let us remember that education funding is based on cohort sizes. One chef cooking for the room, not one chef per customer. That is the model we are all funded by.

Funding generally supports delivery for learners who self-select and enrol. But it rarely covers the spiralling costs of targeting small, discrete groups with very specific characteristics.

Instead of a restaurant with vegetarian options and a pensioner discount, we are running a niche café that only serves vegetarian over-65s and wondering why the money does not add up.

The challenge of devolution

I have no quarrel with devolution. But let’s call it what it is: 50 versions of the same system, each with its own bureaucracy, rules and flavour. It is like franchising a chain of restaurants but giving each one permission to ignore the recipe.

Every extra bureaucratic layer is money taken straight out of colleges and providers – and,  ultimately, the learner’s pocket.

Complexity v commonality

I don’t object to the skills system being complex; simplification makes sense up to 16. But beyond that, forget it. The real problem is that, instead of building around a common core, with optional modules to tailor to different needs, every course is unique.  We saw this with the development of apprenticeship standards.

Think about it: 10 types of noodles and rice, paired with 10 different sauces, gives you 100 meal options from 20 core elements. That is far more efficient than designing 100 entirely separate dishes.

Champagne demands, beer money budgets

Here is the kicker: While the funding collapses, expectations skyrocket. More assessments. More guidance. Fully personalised programmes. Oh – and don’t just train learners, get them jobs too.

We are being paid for the main course, while being told to provide the starter, dessert, wine list and liqueurs on the house. That is not sustainable.

So, who is our Gordon Ramsey?

Now McFadden at the Department for Work and Pensions has been handed the ball. And our plea is simple: get the recipe right.

Who is going to kick down the door and scream: “This is a disaster!” McFadden? Jacqui Smith? Maybe Skills England? Skills has been a political football kicked between departments: business, education, employment. Each one wanting their own flavour.

Time to get real

Skills is not one thing. It is a whole banquet – upskilling, reskilling, employed, unemployed, entry-level, higher education. Learning in work. Learning to get into work.

Is it skills training? Is it employability? If it is both, then fund both. Stop pretending that we can throw everything into the pot and expect it to taste good without paying for the ingredients.

The recipe for change

Here is what we need:

  • A common core curriculum with optional units – or better yet, a fully unitised system.
  • Programmes open to all, with incentives for learners or regions that need extra support.
  • Proper funding when programmes go beyond skills and stray into employability or social support.

And above all: stop making everything bespoke. Higher levels of commonality mean resources and staff can be shared, scaled and improved.

In today’s online world, we could have brilliant national resources for learners and teachers available to every provider, with each adding their local flavour on top. That is how you get efficiency and quality.

Because right now? We have got a kitchen full of chefs, no clear menu, no proper funding – and diners walking out hungry.

The skills kitchen is on fire. Someone needs to walk in, rip up the menu and start shouting.

Engineering’s skills crunch can be solved with our plan

Our latest forecasts show that 40,000 additional workers could be needed for major projects in engineering construction by 2030. Our new strategy – Leading Industry Learning – outlines how we will find those people and support growth.

The ECITB is moving from a three-year to a five-year plan with the aim of developing the skills needed for the delivery of critical infrastructure projects, energy security and net zero ambitions over the longer term.

Shaped by insights from employers, training providers, asset owners, the government, trade unions and other industry bodies, our plan reflects the real needs and evolving priorities of the engineering construction industry (ECI).

These major projects span a range of sectors, including nuclear new-build and decommissioning, renewables, oil and gas, water treatment and food and drink. They also include hydrogen and carbon capture projects linked to the decarbonisation of industrial cluster areas at the heart of the country’s net zero plans.

Here are 10 ways our 2026-30 strategy will help industry to meet workforce volume challenges, prepare for a boom in project activity and transform skills provision:

  • Drive new entrants into industry

This includes scaling up ECITB new entrant programmes targeting the most in-need occupations; building on our successful Work Ready and Scholarship programmes with support for entrants from lower socio-economic backgrounds and under-represented groups; supporting the recruitment of more apprentices, including steps to grow mentoring capacity; and strengthening graduate training.

  • Respond to sector skills needs

We will expand delivery of courses for net zero and priority sectors under the industrial strategy including nuclear, carbon capture, hydrogen and wind; and support upskilling and reskilling for workers to move between industries, including through bolt-on training.

  • Grow competence assurance

Working with industry and governments, we will drive forward standardised approaches to competence assurance, while embedding and optimising the role of the Connected Competence testing programme and reforming the Assuring Competence in Engineering (ACE) scheme.

  • Bolster workforce progression and retention

To support workforce progression and retention, we will create ECITB-approved career pathways, with associated training and assessment interventions. We will invest in leadership, management and mentoring training to support employee engagement and retention.

  • Encourage attraction and inclusion

As well as engaging in activities to attract and inspire under-16s into ECI careers and promote the varied, diverse routes into industry, we will help industry to create inclusive workplaces through partnerships, standard setting and training.

  • Develop a strategic skills ecosystem

By harnessing our Regional Skills Hubs model, we can help to build a strategic skills ecosystem underpinned by centres of excellence in key industrial cluster areas. Setting up a strategic innovation fund will accelerate skills investment and tackle systemic workforce challenges. We will also develop innovative interventions to increase trainer and assessor capacity, broaden the talent pool ahead of project need and broker the transition of the at-risk workforce from traditional into green industries.

  • Drive technology adoption

We will future-proof the skills base by gathering and acting on intelligence and industry trends; and develop and roll out training interventions and products that enable industry to harness new technologies, including AI and robotics, at scale.

  • Expand blended learning and modular training

This includes building on bootcamp partnerships to develop and deliver short courses, drawing on external funding; and developing and delivering a suite of modular and just-in-time training.

  • Foster impactful partnerships

The ECITB will partner with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to drive skills for infrastructure, and leverage the skills offers from the UK and devolved governments in Wales and Scotland to maximise impact. We will drive industry to adopt collaborative contracting strategies to enhance strategic skills planning and delivery.

  • Widen commercial offer and scope

Alongside exploring options to grow our product and service offering, we will expand commercial partnerships to enhance skills development.

In summary, moving from a three-year to a five-year strategy cycle reflects our determination to drive long-term outcomes. We will do this through significant interventions that will deliver lasting impact in addressing the systemic and structural challenges facing the engineering construction industry.

We need the same rigour of teaching in colleges as in schools

Britain’s economy is anaemic, teetering on the edge of a ‘debt death spiral’. FE colleges should be the engine room of growth through raising national skill levels, but the system isn’t delivering.

In 2025, fewer than 11,000 students in England passed a T Level – the much-heralded technical alternative to A-Levels. Four times as many students sat A Level Sociology than passed every single T Level combined. Apprenticeship enrolments are high, yet four in ten students drop out.

The contrast with schools is striking. Schools were transformed by Gove and Gibb’s standards revolution, which propelled England up the international league tables. Reform embedded rigour into curriculum and qualifications, spread evidence-informed teaching practices, and built an accountability system capable of identifying and correcting failure. 

Funding plays a role – FE has always been the poorer sibling. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows per-student funding in colleges fell by 14 per cent in real terms between 2009-10 and 2019-20, compared with a 9 per cent fall in schools. Even after recent uplifts, college funding per student in 2025 is still projected to be 11 per cent below 2010 levels.

But it would be wrong to say FE’s challenges are only about money. School reform succeeded in a tight fiscal climate. The deeper issue is that policymakers have ignored the most powerful lever for improving outcomes: highly skilled teachers teaching ambitious curricula.

The frameworks underpinning teacher training illustrate the point. The Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework for schoolteachers is 16 pages of tightly curated knowledge and practice, grounded in cognitive science, that all new teachers are expected to master. The FE initial teacher education framework, by contrast, is a hodge podge of topics like “getting to know your learners” or adopting a “person-centred approach”. 

We’re asking FE teachers to do one of the toughest jobs in education without giving them the support to succeed. 

Given a third of FE students come from the 20 per cent most deprived areas of England, nothing less than a skills standards revolution will do. The bizarre decision to shift half of the skills brief into the Department for Work and Pensions only makes this harder. But it is not too late for the government to pick up the mantle. 

Five-point plan for change

  • End the artificial divide between school and college teachers. These are overlapping workforces with high mobility between them, yet recruitment, retention and training policy is siloed. We need to build a single teaching profession across phases and settings, starting with robust workforce data.
  • Give every college teacher access to a ‘golden thread’ of professional development, rooted firmly in evidence. Much of what works in schoolteacher training is transferable, whether a teacher teaches maths or hairdressing. Let’s stimulate new entrants to the training market – organisations that combine cognitive science, technical expertise and a moral mission to serve the most disadvantaged.
  • Finish the job on qualifications reform. Improve T Levels and protect their Level 3 status, but accept they won’t suit every student. New Alternative Academic Qualifications need to be based on the same employer-based standards, even if they lack the practical elements of T Levels. Develop a better offer for those not ready for Level 3 study – the most underserved students in our system – learning from organisations like Get Further. Prune the niche apprenticeship standards which have created courses that are unviable or overly narrow.
  • Mobilise Oak National Academy to develop exemplar curricula for every T Level, working with top colleges and Institutes of Technology. Curriculum is the foundation of education, and teachers get better when they can see excellence.
  • Let’s pilot our strongest school trusts to run struggling colleges. Our fragmented education system creates weak curriculum coherence and poor transitions between phases. Giving leading trust CEOs responsibility for colleges would raise standards and create a more seamless journey from 4 to 19.

These reforms promise a stronger teaching profession and better outcomes for the young people who need them most. The government should publish a skills standards white paper urgently, and the Prime Minister should commit Baroness Smith to stay in post for the remainder of the Parliament as ‘Minister for Skills Standards’ to deliver it. 

A government serious about economic growth must prioritise FE. The revolution is overdue.

FE to get ‘extra £800m’ next year as Starmer ‘scraps’ 50% uni target

Sir Keir Starmer has “scrapped” Labour’s target of getting 50 per cent of young adults into higher education and set a new goal that includes FE and apprenticeships.

The government will also pump “nearly £800 million” extra into 16 to 19 education next year from the existing spending review settlement, including the creation of 14 new technical excellence colleges.

Officials have also revealed colleges will be held to account by new “regional improvement teams” and gain new awarding powers, with details expected to be fleshed out in the post-16 white paper due this autumn.

‘I don’t think that’s right for our times’

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer told his party conference today he will make it a “defining mission of this Labour government” to no longer ignore further education.

He said the target of getting half of young adults into higher education, symbolically set by Tony Blair in 1999, was not “right for our time”.

Instead, the country should be aiming for two-thirds of young people to get higher-level skills, either through university, further education, or a “gold standard” apprenticeship by age 25.

Starmer said: “While you will never hear me denigrate the aspiration to go to university, I don’t think the way we currently measure success in education – that ambition to get 50 per cent of kids to uni – I don’t think that’s right for our times.

“Because if you are a kid or a parent of a kid who chooses an apprenticeship, what does it say to you? Do we genuinely, as a country, afford them the same respect?

“Today I can announce, we will scrap that target and we will replace it with a new ambition that two-thirds of our children should go either to university or take on a gold standard apprenticeship.”

Downing Street said this target will include “at least 10 per cent of young people pursuing higher technical education or apprenticeships that the economy needs by 2040, a near doubling of today’s figure”.

‘Young people backed. The glass ceiling smashed’

The prime minister also singled out the value of further education, stating it has long been seen as the “Cinderella” sector, before giving a nod to yesterday’s youth guarantee announcement from chancellor Rachel Reeves.

He told conference: “I can also announce, that further education, so long the Cinderella service, ignored because politicians kids don’t do it, we will make it a defining mission of this Labour government, with higher standards in every college, the quality of teaching raised, more apprenticeships, more technical colleges, technical excellence colleges, qualifications linked to jobs rooted in their communities.

“And as Rachel announced yesterday, a new guarantee of training, work support or an apprenticeship for every young person struggling to find work.

“That’s young people backed. The glass ceiling smashed. The grafters finally included in our country’s highest aspiration. That’s a Britain built for all.”

White paper reforms

There will be 14 new technical excellence colleges, focused on “high-growth sectors such as advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and digital”, Downing Street announced after the prime minister’s speech.

This builds on the 10 technical excellence colleges already announced for construction and five for defence.

A spokesperson said that to support these reforms, the government will also invest “nearly £800 million extra into funding for 16- to- 19-year-olds next year (2026-27). 

“Coming from the existing spending review settlement, this funding will support an additional 20,000 students and make our FE system world-class.”

Officials have also given an insight into what will come in the post-16 white paper for FE and HE, including new awarding powers for colleges.

“The reforms pave the way for a joined-up post-18 education system, with a unified regulator and funding model for level 4+ courses,” a government spokesperson said.

“FE colleges will gain new awarding powers, and the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will ensure parity in student finance across higher level study FE and HE – opening up opportunities for more learners, including through modular courses tailored to priority skills.”

The government said it will hold the sector to account through the new Ofsted framework, as well as new “regional improvement teams” in FE to “support college improvement”.

Regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams already exist for schools under direction from the Department for Education.

The advisers are educational experts and identify areas for improvement, typically in situations where a school receives a poor Ofsted report.

Also on the cards in the post-16 white paper is new “structured professional development from initial teacher training through to leadership” for FE teachers.

Supporting the UK’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan Through Skills

Government Targets and Commitments

  • End of petrol and diesel sales: The sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will end in 2030, with all new cars and vans required to be zero emission by 2035.
  • Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs): Non-zero emission HGVs will be phased out by 2040, with lighter HGVs ending earlier in 2035.
  • Investment in active travel: The Government is investing £2 billion over five years to encourage walking and cycling, with a target of 50% of all journeys in towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030.
  • Buses and public transport: More than £3 billion is committed to transforming bus services, with support for simpler fares, new zero emission buses, and better routes.
  • EV rollout: Over 175,000 fully zero-emission vehicles and around 198,000 plug-in hybrids are already on UK roads (2020 figures).

Building the Workforce for Change

Delivering this transformation requires not just investment in vehicles and infrastructure, but also in people. The Government acknowledges the need for a skilled workforce capable of installing, maintaining, and managing this new transport system.

This is where organisations like Green Skills Solutions (GSS) can play a role. GSS’s has developed a City & Guilds assured “Introduction to EV and Charge Points” training programme, which directly supports the Government’s ambitions by equipping learners with essential knowledge and safety skills required to install and manage charge point infrastructure. Additionally, the micro-accreditation “Introduction to Low Carbon Transport” further supports workforce development in this vital sector.

Access to funding through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) helps broaden the reach of these training initiatives, making them more accessible. Sabre Rigs Ltd complements these efforts by providing practical training rigs for low-carbon transport, specifically EV chargers, in partnership with Lucas Nuelle (https://www.lucas-nuelle.us/), who offers a comprehensive suite of practical training resources for modern motor vehicle programmes.

Together, these initiatives create a well-rounded approach to upskilling the workforce to meet the demands of a low-carbon transportation future.

Contact Information

For more details on programme delivery, partnership opportunities, or any additional inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us.  We look forward to hearing from you and exploring potential collaborations.:

Sabre Rigs Website

orders@sabre-rigs.co.uk

Telephone: 07468 759 512

Green Skills Solutions Website

hello@green-skills-solutions.co.uk

Telephone: 07468 759 512

McFadden: Youth guarantee will have ‘more opportunity’ than the YTS

The government’s new “youth guarantee” will have “more opportunity” than the youth training scheme that ran through the 1980s, the work and pensions secretary has said.

Pat McFadden, who was moved to the DWP in prime minister Keir Starmer’s reshuffle three weeks ago with an expanded brief that includes skills, will lead on the new policy and wants to make the offer “more attractive” than what has come before.

He spoke about the promised youth guarantee after it was announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool today.

Aimed to tackle spiralling levels of youth unemployment, Reeves said the initiative will involve every young person being “guaranteed either a place in college for those who want to continue their studies, or an apprenticeship to help them learn a trade vital to our plans to rebuild our country, or one to one support to help them find a job”.

She added: “But more than that, our guarantee means that any young person out of work, education or training for more than 18 months, will be given a paid work placement, real work, practical experience, new skills.”

Ahead of full detail in next month’s budget, the Treasury has revealed this new initiative will “build upon existing employment support and sector-based work academies currently being delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions”.

And it will include a “targeted backstop”, where “every eligible unemployed young person on Universal Credit for 18 months without earning or learning will be provided guaranteed paid work”.

Eligible young people who refuse the job opportunity will have their benefits docked, according to reports.

Sector experts have suggested the youth guarantee is a rebadged version of the youth training scheme (YTS) that was introduced under Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1983.

Backed with around £1 billion, the YTS offered paid work placements and training for hundreds of thousands of 16- to 17-year-olds to tackle youth unemployment. It was abolished in 1989 with critics arguing the placements were little more than a source of cheap labour with limited prospects of progression.

Asked whether the new youth guarantee will be another version of the YTS, McFadden said: “I hope the scheme that we are bringing in, sorry to keep returning to my word of the day, but there’s more opportunity built into it.

“I think we’ve got to make the offers and the options attractive for people. We want good work experience, good training, good skills, but it’s important as part of it to have a paid employment sort of backstop, to use a phrase from another day, as part of the system, and the reason for that is to avoid a situation where a young person just drifts from education into long term on benefits.

“The reality of this is there are families around the country of multi-generational unemployment, and we’re trying to break the pattern of something that can be a hard thing to do.”

He added: “I will say it’s about policy meets life, and again, the easy answer rubs up against sometimes very untidy circumstances. So I hope it’s a match of opportunity and responsibility.”

DWP taking on skills is ‘potentially exciting’

McFadden’s expanded brief at the DWP includes apprenticeships, adult further education, skills, training and careers, and the newly created agency Skills England.

Asked by FE Week for an insight into his plans for skills policy, McFadden said that while it is “early doors”, he mentioned how he wants “shorter courses” to become more available for employers.

He said: “The traditional first visit for a new secretary of state at DWP is to a job centre. They said, do you want to go to a job centre and I said, well, no, we’ve just taken on skills, I should go to an FE college.

“So I went to Waltham Forest FE College, where the job centre were already present. It’s quite interesting. They said to me, we come here because it’s easier to get to the students here at the FE college and asking them to commence […] there’s another debate there about making the job centre offer more flexible. I think this is potentially exciting.

“There’s a lot of debate on the apprenticeship levy and courses, the length of them and so on. You know, I hope we get to a position where we can offer shorter courses that face the employers and help them use the training opportunities in a way that benefits them.”

The government’s industrial strategy, published this summer, revealed that new courses will be funded through the reformed growth and skills levy from early next year. But no detail has since been released about what the courses will be.

Maintenance grants to return under the LLE, Phillipson announces

The government will offer grants to higher education learners from low-income households funded by a new tax on international university students, the education secretary has announced.

Bridget Phillipson said today that means-tested maintenance grants will be available to university and HE college students studying technical qualifications at levels 4 to 6 in priority courses “by the end of this Parliament”.

The grants will be funded by income from the new levy on international students at universities in England, which could raise more than £600 million per year, according to estimates.

Phillipson said the move would target “students who need them most” and ensure learners at college or university aren’t “working every hour God sends” to fund their studies.

However, it is not yet known how much the grants will be worth to eligible students.

Further details of how the grants will work, the funding available, and the amount a levy on international students is expected to raise will be set out at the autumn budget on November 26, Labour has said.

It comes almost ten years after the previous Conservative government scrapped means-tested grants for university students of up to £3,387 each year.

Students will be able to access the grants through the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) loan system, due to launch for HE college and university courses in January 2027.

Phillipson said: “The Tories treated our universities as a political battleground, not a public good. Labour is putting them back in the service of working-class young people.

“Last year, I took the decisive steps we needed on university finances, so opportunity is there tomorrow, for all who want it.

“But I know, you know, that we must do more. So that is why today I’m announcing, that this Labour government will introduce new targeted maintenance grants for students who need them most.”

According to guidance for the LLE, which will cover all post-18 student finance, maintenance loans were planned for learners on face-to-face college or university courses depending on characteristics such as where they live, what they are studying and their household income.

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said: “Treating international students as cash cows to fund maintenance grants amounts to robbing Peter to pay Paul.

“This country is already charging international students through the roof to prop up our crumbling education infrastructure. Instead of attacking foreign students, the Labour Government should be fixing our colleges and universities through huge public investment.”

Alex Stanley, National Union of Students vice president higher education, said it was “immoral, unfeasible and financially impossible” to have given the “poorest” HE students the highest debt through extra maintenance loans.

He added: “Today’s announcement is the first piece of tangible action that any UK government has taken to change course on this broken financial funding system since the introduction of £9,000 fees. 

“This has to be the beginning of wholesale change in our broken education system. Let us be clear: we do not welcome the introduction of a levy on international students, and we will continue to push back on measures that impact our members.”

Labour conference 2025: Pat McFadden’s full speech

As you know, I’ve been around a time or two. A long time ago, back at the start of the 1980s – yes, that far back – as a teenager, I went to the people’s march for jobs rally in Queen’s Park in Glasgow, near where I grew up.

At a time of high unemployment, factories closing everywhere, hope was in short supply. But in the midst of all of that, people organized themselves to march to say that they wanted the pride and purpose that came with having a job. Now, that march and that aim were in line with Labour’s history.

It is a long time ago, but now many years on. The task for me and for this Labour government is to once again put work at the heart of our mission for the country, because Labour’s mission has always been to match the good society with a strong economy, to give people a chance, not a grievance.

And we who steward that mission today stand on the shoulders of those who made change before us. People who built the NHS, created the welfare state, lifted millions out of poverty.

The twin goals of opportunity and security have run through every Labour Government. 100 years ago, the very first Labour government in office for only a matter of months, made the rules fairer for the unemployed.

The evolving Labour welfare state

Attlee’s government created not just the NHS, but the modern welfare state and national insurance, the principle that people pay in when they can and benefit when they need. Wilson’s government comprehensive education and expanded state pensions, a recognition that opportunity must start in the classroom and security must extend into old age.

And in more recent times, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown reformed the welfare state, brought in tax credits and created the new deal to take people from welfare into work. And with the national minimum wage, they created the greatest anti-poverty measure in modern times, something we should always be proud of.

This is our tradition. These are our values, and this is what we believe in. And none of these governments regarded the welfare state as a museum to be preserved exactly as it was on the day that they took office.

Each one of them changed it to meet the demands of the times, as we must, too, and Labour the party that more than any other, built the welfare state did it not to keep people down, but to be a platform upon which they could rise.

We built the NHS not as a charity, but as a right. Auto-enrolment, because we wanted security in retirement for all workers, and now in this Labour government, we will rebuild work as the foundation for dignity, independence and pride. Because let’s face the truth, the Tories left us a welfare state that was broken, battered, shamed.

They talked about welfare reform, but what did they actually do? They promised to make work pay and then trap families in poverty. They spoke of compassion and sent children to school hungry. They talked about responsibility and left millions on benefits.

That’s not responsibility. It’s not a hand up, and it’s not a system that should just be left as it is. And as we saw last week, reforms welfare policy fell apart before it had even been announced, not so much a policy as a missile aimed at the Tories, but within it, a pledge to turn on people who have come here legally, worked here legally, and paid tax legally well conference, let me tell you breaking your promise to people who have contributed to this country, in some cases, for decades, is not the British way.

‘The opportunity welfare state’

So the right can wage war on one another. Our job is different. Our job is to wage war on the hopelessness and the lack of belief that they left behind, because we believe in a system which has work at its heart and support when times are tough, a Britain which gives security in retirement, the triple lock protected worth up to £1,900 a year more by the end of this Parliament because of the actions of this Labour government.

A Britain where no child should go without food, no disabled person should live without dignity, and no worker should labour without decency. And it’s that which drives us to extend free school meals, to provide new pathways to work and to guarantee a decent living wage.

So, here’s our mission: we will turn this Department of Work and Pensions into something new, not a system that counts the cost of failure, but one that invests in success and protects those who need it most.

And we will give this mission a name, not a dependency welfare state, but the opportunity welfare state.

And opportunity starts with work. The jobs market is changing faster than at any time in living memory. Many of the jobs in it today didn’t even exist 20 years ago, and that pace is only going to increase as AI both creates jobs and replaces old ones, and if we just stand back and let that unfold, we will be failing in our duty to give people hope in a changing world, because the task of leadership is to prepare for the world that’s coming, not just the one that we have today. 

And that is why skills is at the heart of our economic plan, and that matters most to those without money or financial means, because this is about equality, too.

Fighting for opportunity ‘is rebellion’

Conference, fighting for opportunity is an act of rebellion against people’s fate being decided by their circumstances.

And I know that some of you quite like about rebellion, so we want apprenticeships that lead to real careers, training, not just once, but throughout life, taking the ambitions that we have as a country to build more homes, strengthen our defenses, ensure clean energy and equip our people to do the jobs, that is how we will make work pay.

That is how we will fire ambition and hope, not only a matter of rights, but of responsibilities and opportunities too. 

And no one needs this more than young people today, almost a million of them not in education, employment or training. It’s wrong in human terms, and it’s costly for the nation too, and we will not stand by while a generation is consigned to benefits almost before their lives have begun. 

We will never accept that children should graduate from school onto a life on benefits, and we will not allow wasted talent to become Britain’s story. 

So, as the chancellor spelled out this morning, Labour will make a new offer: if you are young, you will not be left to drift. You will have a pathway, an apprenticeship, a place in training, or real work experience that leads to a job, a youth guarantee, meaning opportunity is not just for the few, but for all.

And we will bring the help to where young people are, with a doubling of the number of youth hubs throughout the country over the next three years.

A duty to accept help

And with that opportunity comes responsibility. too: to take up the training, the apprenticeship or the work that is offered, and the youth guarantee is how we will offer every young person a chance to get up and get on.

And of course, every person who’s in work who’s no longer on benefits, not only has a better life for themselves, but it’s better for the public purse too. 

Our pledge is to pay for better chances in life, rather than just paying people to survive.

Because when young people succeed, Britain succeeds. When working people thrive, Britain thrives. And when work is fair, secure and properly rewarded, then Britain is stronger, too.

This is our tradition, and our task now is to recast it anew. Because let me tell you conference this battle between opportunity and grievance is with us.

It is the fight of our times and the fight that we will wage in the coming years.

So let us be ambitious. Let’s offer hope to those who feel forgotten or who can’t see a clear path to the future. Renew the bond between work and the welfare state, make work the pathway to dignity, security and pride, and in doing that conference together, let us build that opportunity welfare state.