New-look Jobcentres to swallow up 1,000 careers advisers

Up to 1,000 staff employed by National Careers Service subcontractors are expected to transfer into the civil service next October.

The move is part of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) planned rebranding of Jobcentres into a so-called Jobs and Careers Service under a merger with the National Careers Service (NCS).

Until now, the careers service, which has a budget of around £55 million per year, has been managed by the Department for Education through a network of nine regional prime contractors and more than 50 sub-contractors.

On October 9, civil servants reportedly told the prime contractors they would be “in-sourcing” delivery of careers advice to adults from October 1 next year. Around 1,000 careers advisers estimated to be employed through NCS contracts will join the 17,000 Jobcentre workforce.

A DWP spokesperson told FE Week it would work with contractors to identify which employees were in scope to be transferred.

A frequently-asked-questions document sent to employees and seen by FE Week says the move will provide “maximum flexibility in designing and developing an integrated, adaptable service that quickly identifies improved operational practices and consistently meets customer needs”.

The department said it wanted to build a “Jobs and Careers Service culture” immediately from next October and was committed to expanding community-based support through Jobcentre offices as well as outreach such as “vans and co-locating with other organisations”.

“This will facilitate the merging of employment support and careers advice as outlined in the white paper, through the new Jobs and Careers Service (JCS) and will support the building of the JCS culture immediately,” the announcement said.

The Shaw Trust, which has two NCS prime contracts worth up to £12 million per year, said: “While this decision is disappointing, we’re committed to providing high-quality careers advice for the remainder of the contract.”

Big contracts lost

The in-sourcing of staff is likely to be a significant financial blow to contractors, which received a combined total of more than £110 million between April 2022 and March this year.

Figures obtained by FE Week via a freedom of information request show the NCS engaged with 240,000 to 370,000 “customers” each year between 2018 and 2023. In 2023-24, about 59 per cent of the 328,998 customers achieved a “job or learning outcome”.

One NCS subcontractor business owner, who asked not to be named, said the news was a “shock” and “concern” to his staff.

And Elizabeth Taylor, CEO of the Employment Related Services Association, said some smaller sub-contractors may now become “non-viable”.

She added: “This could lead to a reduction in capability and capacity in the employment support sector, particularly affecting organisations that are crucial for delivering initiatives to Get Britain Working.”

An ‘absence of information’

Katharine Horler, chief executive of trade association Careers England, said the merger had the potential to make a “great impact”, but that questions remained about whether the government could manage it “properly”.

She added: “My concern when you look at how some other government policy has been implemented is whether they’ve got the money to do it properly, and whether they’ve internally got the expertise to do it properly.

“How are we going to make sure that careers doesn’t get lost within the great big machine that is DWP? How are DWP going to manage careers operationally, these contracts at a strategic level when they have no strategic careers expertise in the department?”

Other unanswered questions about the move include whether Jobcentres have the “infrastructure” and space to manage the careers advice offer, and whether the service will be “open access”.

Meanwhile, there remains uncertainty about what the “overhauled” Jobcentres will look like and how careers advice will be integrated into the wider service.

In July last year, the DWP promised a “groundbreaking new approach” to the services Jobcentres provide, by offering improved links with employers and expanding support to people in work who want to progress their career or retrain.

But last month MPs on the work and pensions committee criticised an “absence of information” about the merger, warning it risked being “little more than a rebranding exercise” if the DWP failed to resolve issues such as contract changes for NCS staff, accountability structures and devolution arrangements.

Of the £55 million set aside to develop and test the new Jobs and Careers Service, £15 million will be spent on a “series of tests and trials” including in Wakefield, £5 million to test “alternative delivery solutions” and £20 million to “progress digital activity which will underpin the Jobs and Careers Service”.

White paper to confirm V Levels and GCSE resit ‘stepping stones’

Rollout of new V Level qualifications, which will replace “hundreds” of courses that sit alongside A Levels and T Levels, is expected to begin from 2027.

The government will confirm V Levels, alongside new “stepping stone” qualifications for GCSE English and maths resit students and two new level 2 “pathways” in a long-awaited white paper on post-16 education and skills tomorrow.

It comes ahead of the full report of the independent curriculum and assessment review, led by Becky Francis, which is expected in the coming weeks. 

The white paper will introduce V Levels, first revealed by FE Week, as “rigorous” qualifications linked to “real-world job standards”. Unlike T Levels, students will be able to enrol on multiple V Levels, or combine them with A Levels, to study different subjects and sectors.

Other level 3 qualifications, like BTECs and other applied general qualifications, are expected to continue to be phased out. FE Week has been told a timetable to transition to V Levels will be proposed “imminently”, but the Department for Education (DfE) expects the first V Levels to be introduced in academic year 2027-28. 

V Levels will “streamline the confusing landscape of approximately 900 equivalent vocational qualifications at level 3 currently available to 16 to 19-year-olds which mean learners and employers are unclear about the purpose and value of some qualifications,” the DfE said this evening.

There will be a consultation on the proposals.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Technical and vocational education is the backbone of this country’s economy and central to breaking the link between background and success, helping hundreds of thousands of young people get the skills they need to get good jobs.  

 “But for too long it has been an afterthought. Young people have been left to navigate an overcomplicated landscape and repeatedly labelled as ‘failures’ by a system that has held them back from all-important English and maths grades.

“Our reforms are building a post-16 education system that truly matches young people’s aspirations and abilities, delivering the opportunity and growth our economy needs.”

English and maths stepping stones

School leavers who do not achieve grade 4 passes in GCSEs English and maths will have access to new “stepping stone” qualifications. They will be “targeted at students with lower attainment” and designed to “better prepare them to resit these GCSEs”.

A condition of funding rule, which requires 16 to 19-year-olds to continue to study English and maths until they achieve the grade 4 GCSE exam pass, will remain in place. 

DfE emphasised a push on English and maths attainment for white working class young people as part of this announcement: “More than six in ten white British pupils eligible for free school meals do not achieve a grade 4 or above in English and maths by the end of key stage 4, meaning they are more than twice as likely to need to resit these exams post-16 than their more affluent peers.”

Francis’ interim report earlier this year called for the government to “reconsider the available pathways so that all learners have the best opportunity to reach level 2 in maths and English by the end of their 16 to 19 study”.

Ministers will also launch two “pathways” for level 2 students; one designed for young people who progress straight into the workplace, and another for those wishing to progress to level 3 courses.

Commenting on the white paper announcements, Francis said she was “delighted that the government has recognised and accepted our recommendations to promote excellence and improve young people’s life chances by ensuring a choice of strong, well-regarded qualifications: A Level, T Level or V Level.” 

She added: “The direction supporting improved level 2 progress, including study of maths and English, will also help secure successful futures.

White paper

The white paper, expected to be published tomorrow afternoon, will set out the government’s strategy for further education, higher education and apprenticeships. 

It follows prime minister Keir Starmer’s party conference speech last month, in which he committed to two-thirds of young people gaining a higher-level qualification by the age of 25, either through university, technical education or apprenticeships. 

Other FE-related policies due to be confirmed in the white paper include 14 more technical excellence colleges in high-growth sectors, on top of the 10 construction and 5 defence colleges already announced, reforms to awarding and funding of higher-level technical courses at levels 4 to 6, and new regional teams to improve standards in colleges.

DfE to tackle ‘contested and outdated theories’ in FE teacher training

A new government task force will aim to eradicate “contested or outdated theories” being taught to trainee FE lecturers, according to a call for evidence today.

It follows government steps to address “unacceptably poor quality” training in FE initial teacher education (ITE), including by restricting access to the student finance system for private providers.

An Ofsted thematic review of initial teacher education (ITE), published last month, said some outdated or debunked theories are still being taught “without critique”.

Inspections of FE ITE providers in recent years have also highlighted concerns about teaching theories that are “not supported by recent, pertinent research”, although they avoid citing specific examples.

The DfE said it has placed a “renewed focus” on the quality of FE teacher training and wants to establish a “more secure evidence base” for professional development at all career stages.

Officials have today issued a call for evidence of “relevant, high-quality theory and knowledge” underpinning early career training for FE teachers, which will be considered by an “expert advisory group” that will go on to recommend new statutory guidance for FE teaching programmes.

It said: “Evidence from Ofsted inspections of FE ITE provision shows significant variability in the content of ITE programmes, particularly with respect to pedagogical content, where there can be an uncritical acceptance of a range of contested or outdated theories.

“Through this call for evidence, we want to establish a baseline of appropriate, evidence-based pedagogical content that can underpin ITE programmes and effective early career professional development for FE teachers.

“We expect responses to be wide ranging, reflecting different approaches to preparing teachers effectively in different parts of the sector, and we encourage responses from a range of practitioners in different roles and provider types, not just those responsible for delivering ITE programmes in colleges.”

Individuals and organisations being invited to contribute includes those delivering ITE programmes, professional development programmes, ITE qualifications, quality assurance professionals or academic researchers.

Officials are “particularly keen” to hear from professionals involved in teacher training for construction and health and social care.

A ‘renewed focus’

The government recently announced that it will support FE teachers with “new structured professional development” from initial teacher training up to leadership, with further details expected in the post-16 white paper next week.

But Ofsted has long raised concerns about FE teacher training providers continuing to promote theory which is “no-longer considered effective practice”.

In a 2022 blog, the inspectorate said of the 14 inspections of ITE programmes it carried out over two years, almost two thirds were graded ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’.

The following year the DfE announced plans to axe private providers from the FE teacher training market, cutting 12 independent training providers off from an estimated £27 million in fee income, affecting nearly 4,500 students.

Only HE providers with degree awarding powers or providers they are working in partnership with now have access to the loans system.

The department also plans to force FE teacher training organisations to be accredited by the DfE to establish a “clearly defined quality bar” that providers must meet before accessing public funding.

Last year, in its response to Ofsted’s Big Listen public consultation, the inspectorate said trainees are “not being prepared” for their teaching careers, with providers “wasting” their time, “draining public money” and failing to build a pipeline of FE and skills teachers.

It added: “Evidence we have gathered has contributed to reforms that make it more difficult for these providers to continue.”

In April this year, HE regulator the Office for Students published an investigation report that found trainee FE teachers did work placements at cafes, clothes shops and with dissolved companies – before their private training company closed itself down while under investigation.

Jobs plans put onus on employers to hire within UK

Employers who recruit skilled workers from abroad will be asked to prove their sector invests enough in training for domestic workers, it has emerged.

Last week, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), an arm’s-length public body, published a draft “temporary shortage list” of mid-skilled level 3 to 5 jobs that are likely to be eligible for overseas recruitment from July next year.

And it revealed the government will call on employers to prove they will invest in training workers in the UK if they want to continue recruiting workers through the skilled worker visa route after that date.

The temporary shortage list is part of the government’s move to cut net migration by slashing the number of jobs that can be offered to people via the skilled worker visa route.

Under plans set out in the “restoring control over the immigration system” white paper, published in June, “expert” civil servants will be asked to produce “jobs plans” for every sector affected by the draft temporary shortage list.

Jobs on the list include roles in manufacturing, construction and creative industries, which are viewed as “potentially crucial” to the government’s industrial strategy and critical infrastructure plans.

It comes as the government takes an increasingly tough stance on immigration, including by removing skilled worker visa eligibility for around 180 occupations and axing the social care worker visa route in July this year.

Former home secretary Yvette Cooper said at the time: “As part of the plan for change, we can build an immigration system that serves the needs of the British economy and people – one that values skills, tackles exploitation, and ensures those who come to the UK make a genuine contribution.”

‘Make your plans ambitious’

Ahead of publication of a final temporary shortage list in July next year, various government-sponsored bodies including MAC, the Labour Market Evidence Group and “skills bodies” will assess how well jobs plans are “underpinned by a skills strategy”, show commitment to working with the Department for Work and Pensions on a “domestic labour strategy” and whether they are “sufficiently ambitious”.

The government is yet to confirm what evidence it will seek or what skills and training investment it expects employers to fund.

The MAC temporary shortage list report said: “Sector experts in government, in collaboration with industry, will lead the development of these documents, henceforth referred to as jobs plans, that outline plans for maximising the use of the domestic workforce and investment in training and skills.

“Occupations that proceed to stage two will need to be included in jobs plans if they wish to be considered for the [temporary shortage list], with the plans demonstrating the action that is being taken to support that occupation and reduce the need for migrant labour.”

The Labour government’s strategy of “linking immigration with skills” was first promised in its 2024 election manifesto.

Since then, political pressure to reduce net migration has increased.

But rollout of the policy appears to have been complicated by what MAC calls “competing policy priorities” in government between reducing migration and bolstering the country’s “economic security and resilience”.

Experts from the construction industry approve of the government’s “gradual” pace, arguing that while long-term plans to develop more home-grown talent are welcome, the sector needs the short-term “flexibility” of overseas recruitment to avoid missing the government’s manifesto pledge to build 1.5 million new homes in England by 2029.

Eddie Tuttle, director of policy, public affairs and research at the Chartered Institute of Building, criticised the “overly complex” apprenticeship system and called recent government construction skills initiatives, such as skills bootcamps and technical excellence colleges, “piecemeal and short-term”.

He added that only 7 per cent of construction employers have signed up as skilled worker visa sponsors as many view the administrative burden and cost as “prohibitive”, which is contributing to the continued shortfall in critical trades such as bricklaying and plastering.

Are the plans really needed?

Skilled worker visas were introduced in 2021 and, in the year to September, about 93,000 of the visas were issued to employees and their dependents who had been sponsored by an approved UK employer.

Sectors with the highest levels of recruitment via skilled worker visas in the year to April 2024 included accommodation and food service activities, motor vehicle retail and repair, professional, scientific activities, construction and manufacturing.

The government believes industries with high levels of overseas recruitment have failed to address the “underlying drivers of shortages” due to a “lack of comprehensive workforce plan”.

But Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute, warned the government already had “lots of plans”, including sector-focused plans accompanying the industrial strategy, local growth plans, local Get Britain Working plans, and local skills improvement plans.

He said: “Lasting change is best delivered by asking employers to lead on how their sectors will invest more in training, reversing the 36 per cent decline since 2005, and how they will work with public services on joined-up recruitment and training approaches.

So I hope that’s the approach the government takes.”

Clawback reveals T Level underspend bigger than feared 

Officials have recouped £86 million from colleges and sixth forms since the rollout of T Levels due to overambitious allocations, data errors and “bumpy” policymaking.

The Department for Education clawback, revealed to FE Week through a Freedom of Information request, accounts for more than 16 per cent of the total £523 million revenue funding dished out up to 2024-25.

It means total underspend on the government’s T Levels budget is even higher than what was reported in this year’s National Audit Office report that exposed the extent of flawed forecasting.

Colleges and sector leaders have pointed to a mix of overallocation errors, policy uncertainty, and unmet student recruitment assumptions as the key reasons behind the clawback.

Allocations out of step with predictions

The DfE bases T Level student allocations on estimates submitted by colleges for new starter numbers, plus the number of carry-over learners they have from the previous academic year.

Officials have issued repeated warnings that some T Level providers have “recorded students incorrectly” which means they are placed in the wrong funding bands.

Government funding guidance now includes a message that states: “Making errors in recording your T Level data could have a significant financial impact. It could lead to a larger than expected recovery of funding.”

The DfE told FE Week this was, however, not the main cause for funding recoveries, though it failed to reveal what the main cause was.

Anne Murdoch, senior adviser in college leadership at the Association of School and College Leaders, said she also doubted the “high level of funding clawback is being caused by providers submitting data on student numbers which is incorrect”, adding that schools and colleges have “specialist staff who carry out these processes pretty meticulously”.

Murdoch said the “most likely cause” is providers are “simply not recruiting the number of T Level students that they’re aiming for because of the well-documented problems with attracting young people onto these courses”.

This is “sometimes exacerbated by the government then inflating that target – presumably because there is so much pressure to boost T Level uptake,” she added.

Simon Cook, principal of MidKent College, told FE Week his college received a DfE allocation for 389 T Level students this year, which was “way, way over” their submitted estimate of 282 learners.

The college ended up enrolling 260 learners, meaning it will be hit with a clawback of around £150,000. 

Cook, who is yet to receive an explanation for the larger-than-requested allocation from the DfE, said he had heard of similar cases at other colleges.

Policymakers’ meddling

Hartlepool College of Further Education principal Darren Hankey said the government’s wider level 3 reforms, which involve defunding most applied general qualifications (AGQs) like BTECs where they overlap with T Levels, will have also caused overallocation issues.

“When colleges were planning for 2024-25 – sometimes well over a year in advance – it was perfectly clear that A-levels, T Levels and apprenticeships were the only show in town,” Hankey told FE Week.

“Then Labour was elected in July 2024 and froze this qualification change. As a result, lots of colleges continued with their existing level 3 AGQ offer and didn’t progress with shifting students to T Levels. This situation is unsurprising and largely down to policymakers’ meddling.”

It is unclear how widespread overallocation errors are.

Other colleges that spoke to FE Week said their allocations were in line with estimates.

Marianne Flack, deputy principal of Suffolk New College, said: “This has not been our experience, our funding has been accurate and based upon our targets. The DfE also supports us with 16-to-18 in-year growth funding, and as a college with a positive growth trajectory, the in-year growth funding outweighs any clawback for T Levels, so we retain a surplus position.”

An Exeter College spokesperson added: “We have recruited in line with expectations at headline level, but T Level numbers have varied significantly by pathway and have not always aligned with our predictions. We have, therefore, experienced modest levels of clawback.”

Lagged funding to the rescue

The DfE’s decision to move to the lagged funding model, common in other 16-to-19 funding streams, from 2027-28 aims to iron out mismatches between forecasts and allocations.

Cath Sezen, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said admin errors happen, and forecasting enrolments in an unpredictable and “bumpy” policy environment had been “quite difficult”.

She added: “I’m not saying colleges are excited about lagged funding, but I think that’s an easier system than trying to predict, and reduces extra administrative burdens.”

True scale of underspend

The DfE had an original budget of £1.94 billion to spend on T Levels to the end of 2024-25 – half for revenue spending and half for capital. In a report published in March, the government’s spending watchdog the NAO said the department only spent £1.25 billion overall – meaning an underspend of £688 million.

But if clawback is taken into consideration, which is £86 million from the revenue pot and £18 million from capital spending, it means the true underspend figure is around £792 million.

Original DfE estimates were for 207,000 young people to start a T Level between 2020 and 2024-25. Actual starts figures were 72 per cent lower at 58,327.

Government data also shows around a third of T Level students drop out each year.

Hankey said T Levels still “struggle to gain traction” due to the demanding nine-week industry placement, “adverse publicity,” and the “rigour” of the qualification being “a stretch for some students”.

The DfE was approached for comment.

A new Dawn for driving T Level take-up

With ministers pushing for higher T Level student numbers, Dawn Helsby, the new Midlands chair of the T Level ambassador network, tells FE Week senior reporter Anviksha Patel why creative, well-planned placements – and not targets – will determine the qualification’s future

It’s no secret that the take-up of T Levels since their 2020 launch has disappointed ministers. So one of the people appointed to fly the flag for the qualifications is examining how 1,000 volunteer ambassadors can raise their game.

Dawn Helsby, chosen this week as chair of the Midlands T Level ambassador network, told FE Week her first priority was to “really understand” what’s holding the 200 ambassadors in her patch back.

Getting enough employers to offer mandatory 45-day industry placements is a core responsibility for a T Level ambassador. But as enrolments have grown, so have fears there won’t be enough placements to go around.

Helsby’s strategy is to help employers be “creative” with their workforce planning so T Level placements fit seamlessly as vacancies or gaps arise.

But it’s not only about quantity.

“It isn’t just about numbers, it’s about the quality of placement,” she told FE Week. “Even though we might have industry gaps in the region, you’re going to have different gaps within organisations.”

The Department for Education launched the ambassador scheme in 2021 to promote the “recognition and adoption” of T Levels. Four years on, the volunteer force has topped 1,000.

Helsby, an early careers development officer at Schneider Electric by day, now leads one of three new regional divisions alongside NHS workforce manager Simon Bone (South) and university T Level placement manager Jo Hartley-Metcalfe (North).

New T Level ambassador regional chairs (left to right): Jo Hartley-Metcalfe, Simon Bone, Dawn Helsby

From ‘reactive to proactive’

Helsby’s got history with T Levels. She was a student employability manager at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College in 2018 when T Levels were being consulted on, and she helped create the ambassador network.

Her experience dealing with employers shows as she described her focus on turning awareness-raising about T Levels into tangible opportunities for students.

She wants her network to be “proactive, rather than reactive” in securing the 45-day industry placements that remain one of the T Level programme’s stumbling blocks.

FE Week revealed earlier this year that the ambassador network nationally missed its goal for employers to make up 65 per cent of its members by 2024 – only one third were employers.

The DfE has also underspent its budget for the network, despite being called out by parliament’s public accounts committee for not doing enough to raise awareness of the qualifications among students, parents and employers.

Helsby wouldn’t be drawn on the numbers, saying only that officials “support us fully”.

But rather than chasing recruitment targets, she plans to concentrate on better mobilising the employers she already has access to.

“We’re looking at certain employers in the network with low numbers of T Level students on placement,” she said. “It’s about getting them to think creatively about where they can use students now to fill future skills gaps.”

She gives the example of a company whose placements were limited to logistics but has looming retirements in finance. “Let’s use a T Level student,” she urged.

Helsby hopes her employer ambassadors will cascade that thinking through their own supply chains, and work with the Gatsby Foundation to expand reach. “That is how more employers will come on board,” she said.

Her own employer appears convinced: Schneider Electric hosted five T Level students last year and expects to quadruple that to 20 this year. “Through the power of the network and all these different supportive arms, I’ve had customers reach out to me just from us doing T Levels,” she said.

Getting the message right

Five years into their rollout, poor awareness and high, but reducing, dropout rates still dog the T Level brand. The public accounts committee warned the government must enter “campaign mode” or risk T Levels becoming a “minority pursuit”.

The National Audit Office recently reported that the number of student starts was running 75 per cent below the government’s original target. Helsby prefers to accentuate the positives.

“I think nearly 60,000 students since 2020 is a phenomenal amount,” she said. “Five years isn’t actually a long time to really grow, nurture and turn things around. If you look at 10 years, then you’re really going to see a massive flourish.

“Whether that might not be necessarily what was forecasted for, I can’t comment on that.”

The network, Helsby added, is turning its attention to “improving the messaging more towards young people”.

DfE data shows T Level awareness among pupils in years 9 to 11 climbed from 8 per cent in 2019 to 50 per cent in 2023.

Helsby recently joined a webinar with thousands of year 10s and 11s and wants more of that: “Twenty-minute sessions explaining ‘this is what a T Level is’. These sorts of things are starting to happen now.”

Parental awareness remains lower still; a new EngineeringUK survey found 42 per cent of parents had never heard of T Levels, or were unsure if they had.

Helsby argues that colleges and employers must do more at parents’ evenings and open days. “This is where colleges are starting to flip how they create that message for parental awareness,” she said.

With the DfE poised to publish its long-awaited post-16 white paper that could recast technical education once again, Helsby’s focus on practical, proactive employer engagement is a reminder that real progress for students will depend on what happens far from Whitehall.

Civil service misses own apprenticeships goal

A target for boosting apprenticeship numbers in the civil service has been missed by more than half, figures reveal.

Data obtained by FE Week shows just 2.4 per cent of the UK civil service workforce were apprentices by 2025 – way below the original 5 per cent commitment.

Conservative ministers, who set the target in 2022, pledged that one in 20 civil servants would be apprentices by 2025 in a bid to “diversify the pipeline of talent into government”.

But only around 13,000 apprentices were employed across the civil service’s 550,000-strong workforce by January – far short of the 27,750 required to meet the goal.

The figures, revealed through a freedom of information request (FOI), also show a benchmark requiring nearly four in 10 apprentices come from lower socio-economic backgrounds was missed.

Experts suggest that hiring freezes, a lack of career development structures and problems with releasing apprentices for off-the-job training have impeded civil service apprenticeship take-up.

Numbers fall year on year

The Cabinet Office provided an annual breakdown of apprentices per government department from the 2022 financial year to the end of 2024, when it stopped collecting data.

Apprentices accounted for 3.3 per cent of the civil service in 2022, totalling around 16,900.

The proportion remained flat in 2023 – with headcount of apprentices rising only slightly to 17,211 – but dropped to 2.7 per cent with 14,651 apprentices in 2024.

By the end of 2024, just 2.4 per cent (12,943) of civil servants were on an apprenticeship programme.

The drop could have been caused by a civil service numbers cap announced by then chancellor Jeremy Hunt in October 2023, which sought to save £1 billion by March 2025.

Hays UK & Ireland, a civil service recruiter, said it was “understandable” that targets were missed.

“Budget constraints, hiring freezes and operational demands often make it difficult to commit to structured training or release apprentices for learning time,” Matthew Lewis, the firm’s public services director, told FE Week.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “These figures are largely from the previous administration, and this government remains committed to apprenticeships as a vital pathway for developing the skilled workforce the civil service needs to deliver national renewal.”

‘Elitist Britain’

The government was also unsuccessful in meeting the Social Mobility Commission’s national benchmark for having 39 per cent of the workforce from a lower socio-economic background.

Representation of working-class civil servant apprentices remained largely unchanged over the last four years. They made up 36 per cent of the apprentice workforce for all four years of data provided, aside from 2024 when representation dipped one percentage point.

Popular government graduate schemes such as the “fast stream” have attempted to improve socio-economic representation through blind recruitment measures, but privately educated people are twice as likely to be accepted onto schemes, according to the Sutton Trust’s recent Elitist Britain report.

In August, applications opened for a new level 3 civil service career launch apprenticeship for people who “haven’t followed traditional academic routes”.

The scheme will enrol apprentices on the business administrator standard and will place them in government departments around the country.

But union representatives said improving social mobility in the civil service was not enough – apprentices need “support once they get here”.

Deri Bevan, head of organising and learning at FDA union, which represents 24,000 civil servants, said: “Many apprentices struggle to find opportunities or resources to progress their careers within the civil service, often finding the career development structures and frameworks too difficult to navigate.”

The FOI data shows the civil service apprenticeship decline was driven by falls in level 2 and 3 apprentices over the last four years. At its peak in 2023, there were over 10,000 level 3 apprentices in the civil service, which almost halved to 5,527 by 2025.

Lewis agreed government employers should “embed” apprenticeships more strategically, not just as entry-level roles.

The figures suggest the government aimed to upskill civil servants through higher-level apprenticeships as the number on level 5 and 6 programmes grew by more than 50 per cent between 2022 and 2025. Meanwhile, the number of level 7 civil service apprentices more than doubled from 805 in 2022 to 1,640.

The government will remove level 7 apprenticeships from public funding for people aged 22 and older from January.

Treasury tops apprenticeship league

The Cabinet Office also provided a departmental breakdown of apprentices, showing HM Treasury was the biggest recruiter with 8.2 per cent of its 2,720-workforce in January being apprentices. At the Department for Education, 5.4 per cent of its 8,185 staff were apprentices.

Ofgem and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) had the lowest proportion, both achieving under 1 per cent. The FSA had 12 apprentices across levels 4 to 7 and recently advertised for two level 3 roles, taking its proportion to 0.9 per cent.

It recruits and trains between 20 to 30 meat inspectors annually and said it looked at apprenticeship pathways for the role, but no suitable option exists in the national apprenticeship framework.

Ofgem had 17 apprentices on programmes in digital, data engineering and economics, 0.8 per cent of its staff cohort, but is working to offer a programme in project management.

The Cabinet Office’s spokesperson said: “Since the collection of this data, we have launched a new cross-government apprenticeship programme to create more opportunities for young people across the country to access quality employment, particularly those who haven’t followed traditional academic routes.

“More broadly, we are committed to giving young people the skills they need to thrive in tomorrow’s job market, including through apprenticeships, which is why we will ensure that at least 10 per cent of young people pursue higher technical education or apprenticeships by age 25 by 2040, a near doubling of today’s figure.”

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 511

Lucy Jeynes

Chair. South and City College Birmingham

Start date: October 2025

Previous Job: Vice Chair, South and City College Birmingham

Interesting fact: Lucy is a poet and is currently putting the finishing touches to her first collection. When not at work, she spends as much time as possible in France, which now feels like a second home.

Mandy Crawford-Lee

Governor, The Bedford College Group

Start date: September 2025

Concurrent Job: Chief Executive, UVAC

Interesting fact: Mandy is an art collector and has pieces gifted by Ed Sheeran’s parents having worked with them in 1993, and has been a magistrate and youth court magistrate for over 20 years.

Paul Eaton

Commercial Director, Training Qualifications UK

Start date: October 2025

Previous Job: National Sales Manager, Sky

Interesting fact: Paul has seen 29 of the 32 NFL teams play live, and is itching to tick off those final three.

Closing the digital divide: Beyond devices to true inclusion

When Covid hit, FE colleges scrambled to move online. For many, the priority was simple: get learners a laptop, get lessons onto Teams and keep things ticking over. In that sense, the sector achieved miracles. But now, several years on, it’s clear that digital inclusion must mean more than distributing devices or uploading PowerPoints.

Why this matters now

Almost every employer now demands digital competence. From spreadsheets to hybrid meetings, these skills are as essential as literacy and numeracy. Yet too many learners still leave FE without the confidence or ability to engage with digital tools in the workplace.

At the same time, digital overload is creating new barriers:

  • Learners with autism, ADHD or anxiety often report that online spaces can be overwhelming.
  • Disadvantaged learners still face patchy Wi-Fi, lack of private study space or insufficient digital skills at home.

If FE is serious about employability and inclusion, it cannot ignore this divide.

What we’ve learned at Apex

At Apex College Leicester, our core digital platform has always been Moodle which we use to structure learning, deliver resources, and manage assessment. To strengthen interaction around that, we introduced Microsoft Teams as a complementary space for workshops, discussion and formative feedback.

The combination worked well:

  • Learners reported feeling more supported because communication with tutors became quicker and clearer, with feedback arriving in real time.
  • Staff found it easier to track learner progress as there was clear reporting mechanisms such as assignment logs, and live analytics, allowing them to provide more targeted formative feedback.

At the same time, we faced some challenges:

  • Digital fatigue – some students found it difficult to stay on the call for the full duration.
  • Screen anxiety – some learners were reluctant to turn on their cameras or contribute in the sessions.
  • Connectivity inequalities – not all learners had the connectivity to access the online workshops. These were extra optional sessions for learners on top of the compulsory face to face sessions learners had. 

These experiences show us that digital inclusion does not mean learners have digital access. A device alone does not guarantee opportunity. Without digital resilience, equity, and wellbeing, the gap only grows.

A new model for digital inclusion

What FE now needs is a model that goes beyond devices and embraces inclusion in its fullest sense. Four pillars stand out:

  1. Beyond devices – Current training for both staff and learners, not just how these tools are used but in how to integrate them effectively into pedagogy, project work and teamwork.
  2. Digital wellbeing – Teaching learners how to balance screen time, manage online relationships and build resilience against cyberbullying and misinformation.
  3. Equity by design – Ensuring all neurodiverse learners and SEND learners have the accessibility to the platforms, including captioning, dictation and adapted learning spaces.
  4. Employer-aligned skills – Embedding real-world digital tasks into assessments and projects, so this allows learners to be confident on how to use digital technology.

From theory to practice

We’ve seen the benefits of this blended model – Moodle providing the structured learning environment, and Teams adding a layer of collaboration and feedback – play out in practice:

  • Business HND group projects were organised through Moodle for resources and assessment, but run collaboratively in Teams. Students worked in shared online spaces, assigned tasks, and tracked progress using project-management tools. One student reflected: “I didn’t just learn business — I learned how to manage a team online, the same way companies do.”
  • HND learners also strengthened their digital presentation skills, developing the confidence to plan, rehearse and deliver professional-standard presentations in virtual workshops.
  • Tutor collaboration was transformed. While Moodle held the core curriculum materials, Teams gave staff a space to peer-review lesson plans, share best practice, and provide mutual support – reducing isolation and raising teaching standards.

We showed that digital inclusion is not about the tool itself, but about how we embed skills, confidence, and equity into the way those tools are used.

A call to the sector

If digital inclusion is limited to just handing out devices, we are failing are learners and this will affect employers. Preparing learners to thrive using digital technology requires:

  • Investing in staff training, not just infrastructure.
  • Curriculum redesign to integrate digital skills in each subject, not just as an add-on.
  • Sector-wide collaboration to ensure platforms and practices are easily accessible for all learners.

If FE is looking to ensure to prepare learners for life and work, then ensuring digital inclusion must be at its core. This means shifting from access to empowerment.