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9 October 2026

Latest news from FE Week

Mayors’ 16-19 budgets won’t cover apprentices

Mayors will not take control of growth and skills levy funding for apprenticeships under the government’s 16-to-19 devolution reforms, skills minister Jacqui Smith has confirmed.

Ministers are preparing to hand mayors control of 16-to-19 education budgets, including funding for classroom-based qualifications in colleges.

But yesterday, Smith told the House of Lords levy-funded apprenticeships for 16-to-18-year-olds would be excluded.

Conservative peer Lord Willetts, a former universities minister, said there was a “tide of opinion in favour of devolving funding”, but added: “This is causing some concern.”

He quoted education secretary Lucy Powell’s statement last week that “for the first time, mayors will have control of the 16-to-19 education budget”.

Willetts asked whether this included “control of the expenditure of the apprenticeship levy for 16-to-18-year-olds” and classroom-based provision.

Smith replied: “Obviously, we are still working on the details of that, but no, it does not extend to the growth and skills levy provision for apprenticeships for 16-to-18-year-olds.

“It will cover the 16-to-19 budget as it applies, for example, to post-16 qualifications, including classroom provision in colleges.”

Prime minister Andy Burnham announced the transfer of 16-to-19 funding in July.

Proposals, legislation and an implementation timetable are due in a white paper alongside the autumn budget on 28 October.

Democratic Unionist Party peer Lord Weir of Ballyholme warned that local authorities had been “quite inconsistent” in supporting young people at risk of becoming NEET who did not qualify for an education, health and care plan.

He asked how ministers would ensure “consistent and full access to pathways” regardless of where young people lived.

Smith admitted this was “one of the big challenges” of devolution. Ministers were discussing with mayors the relationship between national entitlements and local flexibility while ensuring equality of access, she said.

Further levy changes possible

Smith also hinted at further growth and skills levy reforms following Alan Milburn’s review of young people not in education, employment or training.

Her comments came a day after an FE Week investigation examined Milburn’s suggestion that the levy should face a “root and branch” review.

Conservative peer Lord Johnson of Marylebone, another former universities minister, cited a Financial Times report that Milburn was minded to recommend the levy’s abolition, and asked how the government would replace the “£4 billion or so” it raised.

Smith said Johnson knew “as well as any of us that you cannot necessarily believe everything that you read in the newspapers”.

But she added: “There may well be further changes to the growth and skills levy, but we have been clear that we want to pivot it to young people.”

Labour peer Baroness Morris of Yardley, a former education secretary, asked how ministers would deliver mounting work experience expectations for young people aged 14 and over.

She recalled the former business education partnerships, which brokered links between schools and employers.

Smith said mayoral and strategic authorities would need support “to be able to broker those links locally” for T Level placements and other work experience.

She described Morris’s ideas about brokerage support as “very important and something we are reflecting hard on”.

Levy under the lens with Milburn’s NEET review

Alan Milburn’s latest round of national newspaper interviews has put England’s apprenticeship system in the firing line.

The former Labour cabinet minister, who is close to concluding his review into young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), has suggested that his final report could recommend subjecting the £4 billion-a-year levy to a “root and branch” review.

The levy was supposed to expand apprenticeships, particularly among young people, while improving quality. Milburn argues that it has succeeded on the latter but failed on the former.

Young apprentice numbers have fallen sharply over the past decade, while employers have been let loose to increasingly use their levy pot to train existing staff, many of them adults.

The Financial Times said Milburn has suggested going as far as recommending scrapping the levy, after he told the outlet, “it’s just not working” for employers or young people.

Speaking on The Times’ The Business podcast, he outlined how the levy was effectively a tax that government had irresponsibly left employers to do what they like with. He argued that the apprenticeship system needed to be brought “back to its core purpose” of helping young people into jobs.

To be clear, Milburn has not been quoted directly saying he plans to recommend the abolition of the apprenticeship levy.

Such a radical proposal appears unlikely considering it would essentially constitute a large tax cut for big employers and leave the government with a significant financial hole to fill.

But he is clearly preparing to recommend significant changes to the apprenticeship system.

‘A tax, not a levy’

A more likely outcome is Milburn will urge the government to take a much more direct approach to how employers can use apprenticeship funding.

Simon Field, a skills policy expert who previously led the OECD’s work on technical education systems, said the levy was initially conceived like skills levies in other countries where employers’ contributions are collected into a ring-fenced training budget.

But it was implemented as an employment tax, with a separately determined apprenticeship budget.

The system was made to look like a levy by giving large employers notional digital “pots” from which they could pay for apprenticeships. But most non-levy-paying employers contribute little or nothing directly towards apprenticeship funding.

Field said the levy pot arrangement has become an “embarrassingly diminutive fig-leaf disguising the reality of the levy as a tax”.

He called for the government to accept that the levy is a tax and to stop giving employers the expectation that they should determine how the money is spent.

Milburn’s interim NEET report showed how the levy had been disproportionately used to fund higher-level apprenticeships for older, existing employees, with the number of higher-level apprenticeship starts increasing from just over 2,000 in 2010-11 to more than 140,000 in 2024-25.

Apprenticeship starts for under-19s fell from around 130,000 in 2014-15 to around 75,000 in 2024-25, while the share of starts going to those under 25 has fallen from over 57 per cent to just under 49 per cent.

The levy also coincides with a sharp decline in apprenticeship starts at small and medium-sized enterprises.

“The entry-level provision that matters most for young people outside work has been hollowed out,” Milburn’s interim report said.

Experts argue that this is partly a consequence of giving levy-paying employers too much freedom over how apprenticeship funding is spent.

Milburn told The Times: “What employers have done, quite rationally, individually, but irrationally when it adds up collectively, is they’ve used that a lot for adult in-work training.”

Existing older employees are typically put on higher-level apprenticeships which are more expensive to deliver than entry-level courses. This has led to the apprenticeship budget released by the Treasury being fully spent in recent years.

‘Tougher choices’

Milburn told The Times that “part of the problem” with the apprenticeship system is that “there hasn’t been government direction”.

“They’ve imposed a tax, and they’ve said guys, over to you,” he explained. “If you look at other comparable countries, public policy plays quite a big part in saying actually, this is what we want this levy to be used for, and here we’ve absented ourselves from that. I think that has been a huge mistake with massive consequences.”

The current government appears to have recognised this and begun to act.

Since Labour came into power in 2024, ministers have restricted level 7 apprenticeships to people aged 21 and below, and have defunded 16 standards – including popular management courses – that are mostly taken by older workers.

Meanwhile, Labour transformed what was the apprenticeship levy into the growth and skills levy, allowing employers to use funding for short apprenticeship unit courses and foundation apprenticeships aimed at preparing young people for full apprenticeships.

Apprenticeship training for eligible under-25s is now fully funded, and hiring payments worth up to £8,000 are on offer for employers taking on young apprentices.

But could the government realistically move to a more prescriptive apprenticeship system, telling employers more directly what they can spend their levy contributions on?

Stephen Evans, CEO of Learning and Work Institute, said ministers will need to make “tougher choices”.

“Funding apprenticeships via the levy could have meant more skin in the game, and hence greater engagement, from large employers,” he said. “But combined with an expansion of apprenticeships to higher levels and older age groups, it’s meant sharp falls in apprenticeships for young people.”

Employers now see the money as “theirs”, Evans said, making it harder for the government to change the rules controlling its use.

“Real change – to the type of apprentices, the number of apprentices, or employers’ training investment behaviour – will involve some tougher choices,” he added.

Possible levers

It is worth remembering that skills minister Jacqui Smith refused to rule out further restrictions that shift apprenticeship funding towards young people, warning it is “not the end of the road” for reform during the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ conference in June.

AELP chief executive Ben Rowland said the levy had brought “many more employers into the apprenticeship system, including businesses that previously offered few or no apprenticeships”, and created a valuable sense of ownership.

Rather than dismantling the levy, he suggested using funding bands and incentives to create more opportunities for younger apprentices.

Government could co-fund provision for older adults, increase funding bands for standards that attract younger apprentices, or develop apprenticeship units to equip junior managers to support young people who are NEET.

Field believes the government should go further and rule that the apprenticeships budget should only be available to fund apprenticeships for young people and at levels 2 and 3.

Back of the NEET

Milburn has looked overseas for inspiration on how to reduce the UK’s NEET rate, which stands at around one million young people.

He spent last week visiting the Netherlands – which boasts the lowest NEET rate across Europe – with former England football manager Gareth Southgate.

Milburn described the country as “a living example of how work beats welfare”.

“What they’ve done is they’ve got a mentality about work, and they have got institutions that make sure that work is the primary objective,” he said.

But a Resolution Foundation report published in April found that the UK’s high NEET rate was more closely associated with lower education participation than with health or job availability.

In 2024, 43 per cent of UK 18-to-24-year-olds were in education, compared with an OECD average of 53 per cent.

Among 23 OECD countries with lower NEET rates than the UK, all but two achieved this largely through having more young people in education or combining education and work.

The UK also has a weaker vocational education offer. In 2024, 22 per cent of 18 to 21-year-olds were on vocational courses, compared with 35 per cent across the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.

The Resolution Foundation concluded that keeping young people in education for longer is more important for tackling NEET rates than simply creating more work.

It called for better enforcement of the mandatory participation age for 16 and 17-year-olds, improved vocational pathways and at least two-thirds of growth and skills levy funding to be restricted to under-25s.

Field said the key difference between apprenticeships in the UK and other countries is not necessarily that governments exercise greater control over employers, like Milburn suggested.

Instead, youth apprenticeships are built into the design of vocational education systems.

In many continental European countries, off-the-job training for apprentices is a “non-issue” because it is integrated and funded through vocational upper-secondary schools.

“This funding is as automatic and uncontroversial as funding the equivalent of A Levels,” Field said. “None of this is very applicable to older incumbent workers.”

Alison Wolf, a former Number 10 skills policy adviser, also disputed the idea that governments are more involved in successful European apprenticeship systems.

England’s system is already “highly centralised”, she said. The difference is that government involvement elsewhere is often local, or systems are steered by institutions such as chambers of commerce.

Wolf has previously proposed ring-fencing part of the levy for 16 to 21-year-olds, and reducing the proportion of training costs covered by government for apprentices aged 25 and over.

She has also argued for local administration of apprenticeships, with funding distributed to mayoral combined authorities to respond to local skills needs.

Release the top slice

Other suggestions to increase funding for youth apprenticeships include matching the apprenticeship budget to levy receipts and making more employers pay into the system.

Since 2017, employers with a payroll bill of over £3 million pay 0.5 per cent of their total annual salary bill into a digital account. Unspent funding from levy-payers is used to subsidise apprenticeship training costs for small and medium-sized employers.

Employer levy contributions are forecast to generate £4.5 billion in 2026-27. Of this, around £500 million will be allocated to the devolved nations. Combined with England’s £3.3 billion apprenticeship budget, this leaves an estimated £700 million kept by the Treasury.

Levy contributions are expected to rise to £4.7 billion in 2027-28 and then to £4.8 billion in 2028-29. If the DWP’s apprenticeship spending estimates are accurate, the Treasury top-slice will increase to £1 billion and £1.14 billion respectively.

The Fabian Society has called for the Treasury to stop retaining its near-20 per cent share of apprenticeship levy income. It found that £2.3 billion raised through the levy was retained by the Treasury between 2017-18 and 2024-25.

It also proposed lowering the levy threshold from companies with payrolls above £3 million to £1 million, while increasing the contribution rate for large employers from 0.5 to 0.7 per cent.

Hannah Larsen, policy officer at the British Chambers of Commerce, said employers “are clear” that the growth and skills levy isn’t working, but warned that the skills system is “already too complex; adding further conditions and restrictions risks creating more barriers rather than more opportunities”.

She added: “Almost £1 billion a year is contributed by businesses to the levy which is not spent on apprenticeships. If we want to turbocharge our skills system, then the levy’s full value must go on training.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said the government is “already pivoting the apprenticeship system towards the next generation”, and it will respond to Milburn’s full report when it is published later this year.

Tougher one-third success rule for ASF programme

At least one third of learners must secure new or better jobs after rules were toughened up for a new £35 million adult skills programme.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has raised the achievement bar from 20 per cent to 35 per cent for its latest London Talent Pathways programme, which is delivered mostly by independent training providers.

The move is part of a growing drive from government and devolved authorities to ensure publicly funded adult education is worth the investment.

Providers told FE Week the greater focus on employment was welcome, alongside changes that widen the salary range of jobs triggering incentive payments, and the inclusion of zero-hours work for the first time.

Nishan Rajput, head of skills and employment at Big Creative Education, said London Talent Pathways was “much stricter” on job outcomes than its predecessor, Jobs and Skills for Londoners, which ran from 2023 until this year.

But he said the target appeared “achievable” based on his organisation’s past performance and changes to payments.

The GLA has introduced a two-tier system that replaces a single £400 payment for learners securing a job paying at least the London living wage.

Providers will receive £500 if a learner secures ‘good work’ paying at least the London living wage, or £300 for ‘other work’ paying above the national minimum wage.

Rajput said: “The change provides greater flexibility around the types of employment outcomes that can be recognised.”

Qualifying jobs must now last at least 12 consecutive weeks, up from four, while zero-hours contracts will qualify if the learner “explicitly consents”.

‘Sensible and pragmatic’

The £35 million-a-year London Talent Pathways programme, which began last month, will focus on getting learners from groups including ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and older people into jobs in London’s seven priority growth industries.

Funding was competitively awarded to 55 ITPs, local authorities and colleges, with allocations of up to £1.2 million. The programme is worth about 10 per cent of the GLA’s £336 million Adult Skills Fund (ASF) budget this year.

The GLA distributes about £288 million to London’s colleges and local authorities through grants. It judges their performance against delivery plans that measure participation and economic and social outcomes.

London Talent Pathways aims to train 17,690 learners, with a target of 6,210 moving from unemployment into work or securing a new or better-paid role.

The GLA’s previous Jobs and Skills for Londoners programme paid out £1 million of the £2.6 million available for job outcomes in 2024-25, representing about 2,500 learners.

But its Mayor’s Skills Academies programme paid just £142,000 from an available £5.4 million across the four years it was offered.

FE Week previously revealed that providers “baulked” at the paperwork and found the salary threshold was too high.

Richard Goodwin, group chief executive at JGA Group, said the two salary tiers were “a sensible innovation” that reflected the realities of the labour market while incentivising providers to “do their best” for learners.

He added: “So long as the training provider is doing good work and making all reasonable efforts to live up to commitments, then the GLA is content.

“But the provider can’t shirk and can’t be seen to have tried to pull the wool over their [GLA’s] eyes at the tender stage.

“If employment outcomes aren’t achieved, then funding related to those outcomes clearly can’t be drawn down, and longer term this will probably impact the overall allocation.

“Providers do have to take on board that the world has changed – skills and employability have become more integrated and will continue to be so.”

Targets and incentives trend

The system of job outcome payments to training providers has grown since devolution, with at least five authorities with control over adult skills now offering extra incentives for getting learners into work.

FE Week understands some commissioners write key performance indicators into contracts, while others set out expectations during contract management meetings.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) pays £150 when a learner starts work and £400 after 13 weeks through three programmes. One programme also offers a £500 incentive payment to employers.

For its ‘construction gateway’, WMCA has a target of 65 per cent of learners who complete the programme moving into employment for 13 weeks.

Its ‘into-employment programme’ offers payments when a learner secures continuous employment of at least 7.5 hours a week, related directly to skills acquired on the course, for at least four weeks.

Temporary assignments lasting less than four weeks can qualify if there is confirmation that further assignments will follow.

The authority, which has the second largest adult skills budget in England after the GLA, also offers a £400 ‘path 2 apprenticeships’ payment to providers for each ASF learner who progresses to an apprenticeship.

West Yorkshire’s non-ASF Skills Connect programme, where courses were worth between £1,050 and £4,500, linked 30 per cent of funding to “positive career progression”, including a promotion, new job or pay rise.

Liverpool City Region offers £300 for unemployed or economically inactive learners on pre-employment or sector-based work academy programmes at level 2 or below who secure work lasting more than four consecutive weeks. Zero-hours contracts are excluded.

South Yorkshire’s sector-based work academy programme, running since 2021, offers up to £250 for learners who stay in work for 13 weeks after completing training, with no criteria about salary levels or contract types.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has offered £100 when a learner starts work and £250 after 13 weeks since 2024-25, alongside £400 payments for employment resulting from ASF-funded HGV courses.

Computing courses live on despite V Level overlap

Three digital level 3 qualifications due to be defunded next summer because of overlaps with V Levels will continue for another year, the government has announced.

In an update to its post-16 implementation plan, first published in May, the Department for Education also confirmed there would be no restrictions on combinations of qualifications, including between V Levels, A Levels and applied generals.

Meanwhile, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) announced that V Level tariff points, at grades A* to E, would be equal to those of A Levels. Skills minister Jacqui Smith said this means young people can take V Levels “with the confidence that no matter what path they choose after college, their qualification will be just as valuable”.

The first three V Levels, in accounting and finance, digital systems and data, and education, are due to be rolled out next year alongside seven level 2 occupational and foundation certificates. V Levels will have 360 guided learning hours (GLH) each – the same size as an A Level.

Writing in FE Week, Smith said she took the decision to extend the lifespan of overlapping existing level 3 qualifications – equivalent to the size of two A Levels (720 GLHs) – in digital because “only a small number” of V Levels will be introduced in 2027.

The following year, “many more” V Levels will be introduced to give students “a range of study programmes” including A Levels, V Levels or a mix of both, she added.

The qualifications to be retained for another year are: OCR’s Cambridge Technical Diploma in IT, Pearson’s BTEC National Diploma in Information Technology and Pearson’s BTEC National Diploma in Computing.

According to Ofqual statistics, about 1,200 qualifications awarded to students on the three subjects in 2025-26, with most aged 16 to 19.

Departmental U-turn

The extension marks a minor U-turn for the DfE, which had planned to defund 151 level 2 and 3 qualifications at the end of this academic year, with about two thirds covering accounting and finance, business management, child development and wellbeing, and digital technology.

Confirming the change, Smith said: “I hope this provides reassurance that we are determined to work with you to get these reforms right.

“We are committed to V Levels, and funding for overlapping qualifications will still be removed once V Levels are established in a sector.

“That is how we protect the value and credibility of the qualifications students work hard to achieve. But we have listened to concerns about the transition and acted on them.”

The DfE previously said it would consider whether a V Level could be partnered with another V Level in the same subject area, as with maths and further maths in A Levels, in a “very limited number of exceptional cases”.

But none of the subjects due to be rolled out next year, or in 2028, are expected to be permitted to partner following “initial scoping”, officials have now confirmed.

Criteria for allowing partnering in the future include significantly improving students’ ability to progress on to further study, continuing to offer “breadth”, providing a “distinct choice” for students in terms of destination, and offering the same level of demand as two V Levels in different subjects which are not partnered.

DfE also confirmed it does not plan to implement rules of combination on which qualifications can be combined to “form the qualification element of a study programme”.

This will allow providers to combine new V Levels in education, accounting and finance, and digital systems and data with existing funded qualifications, such as A Levels, alternative academic qualifications, applied generals, tech levels, extended project qualifications, and English and maths courses.

Eleven V Level subjects are due to be rolled out in 2028, including construction design, health, and sport and exercise science – although this list will not be confirmed until early 2027.

Implementation ‘rushed’

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said the organisation’s members would be “concerned about the impact” of today’s announcement on young people.

He said: “There is a shared view that V Levels should be available in larger sizes and their implementation is being rushed. However, it is now clear that, despite our best efforts, the government will press ahead with its existing plan to roll out V levels from next year and limit them to one size (equivalent to 1 A level).

“The long-term commitment not to implement rules of combination is welcome, but the limited number of V Levels in some areas will restrict options for students who want to study a subject in greater depth, but cannot access a T Level.

“Colleges will do everything they can to make the new qualification system work for students, and we will do everything we can to support them in that process.”

We’ll listen to FE so V Levels work for everyone

As the new academic year begins, I’d like to thank teachers, leaders and support staff whose professionalism and commitment change young people’s lives every day.

Our transformation of post-16 qualifications, including introducing new V Levels, is pivotal to our ambition for every young person to be able to study a course that works for them and leads to success.

We’re making V Levels equivalent to a single A Level so young people can mix and match, building broad programmes that reflect their own strengths and ambitions. This is about giving young people more choice through qualifications with nationally set content and consistent grading that employers and universities can trust.

And this week’s announcement from UCAS underlines this – V Level grades A*-E will be worth the same UCAS tariff points as they are for A Levels, meaning young people will be able to take V Levels with the confidence that no matter what path they choose after college, their qualification will be just as valuable.

A challenging reform

V Levels will teach crucial skills, leading to crucial careers, and we need more young people to feel confident choosing them. A Levels, T Levels and V Levels will serve different purposes and suit different strengths and ambitions. What matters is that each gives young people high-quality learning and a clear route towards their next step.

But reform on this scale is challenging, and we will continue to listen to you as we roll this out to make sure it is going to work and no learner is left behind.

Colleges and training providers want to make these reforms a success, with 70% of general FE colleges and 85% of sixth form colleges planning to deliver V Levels in the first year they are introduced. However, they have been clear that we need to carefully manage the transition to ensure every young person has a post-16 pathway available to them.

So, for the 2027-28 academic year, we will continue to fund qualifications that are two A Levels in size in subject areas that overlap with V Levels. We took this decision because we are introducing only a small number of V Levels in 2027, but in 2028 we will introduce many more V Levels which will enable students to study a range of study programmes consisting of V Levels, A Levels, or a mix of both.

Flexibility for colleges

I can also confirm that we will not introduce rules of combination as part of our reforms. This means colleges will retain the flexibility to design coherent study programmes around the needs and ambitions of their learners as the new qualifications are introduced. For example, students will be able to take combinations that include two V Levels in the same subject area, like applied science.

It is also vital that we continue to scale up T Levels, which will be the flagship 3-A Level size single technical qualification for students who know which sector they wish to focus on. We have heard the importance of securing industry placements – that’s why we published guidance earlier this year giving more scope for providers to design placements that work for the student and employer whilst supporting delivery at scale.

I hope this provides reassurance that we are determined to work with you to get these reforms right. We are committed to V Levels, and funding for overlapping qualifications will still be removed once V Levels are established in a sector. That is how we protect the value and credibility of the qualifications students work hard to achieve. But we have listened to concerns about the transition and acted on them.

Our vision remains an education system that works for everyone, not just those who choose academic subjects. We will work with you to deliver this in the way that’s best for teachers, employers and – crucially – learners.

Every young person deserves access to high-quality qualifications that reflect their talents and ambitions. And every provider delivering them deserves a system that supports success.

Like a Great British Bake Off on steroids

Anyone who has been a teacher, lecturer or worked in a support role in education knows that moment – the look on a young person’s face when they’re full of pride for what they’ve achieved. It’s the magic dust in education: the moment all those extra hours in intervention sessions, marking books, conducting practicals, or quietly checking in when a young person loses their way comes good. When a learner is able to hold their head up high and feel proud of their achievements, it helps them see that their contributions in the world matter – and who wouldn’t want that?

Next week, I’m anticipating many such moments as I’m lucky enough to be cheering on Team UK at the 48th WorldSkills competition in Shanghai. For the uninitiated, the competition will bring together young people from over 70 countries to compete in over 60 skills categories, all looking to earn their place on the podium and win a medal for their country. Categories range from floristry to aircraft maintenance to stonemasonry – think of it like a Great British Bake Off on steroids, with an international tilt across a whole range of skills.

Competition is fierce, with WorldSkills training camps happening all over the globe, and a likely 250,000 visitors, including young people, educators, government officials, and employers expected to descend on Shanghai from next week.

In England, there has rightly been a focus on creating new technical and vocational routes, initially at post-16 and now at 14-16 too, with prime minister Andy Burnham stating that he wants young people to receive the ‘respect they deserve’ whatever route they take. While there are many ways that could be achieved, what everyone needs to prioritise is increasing all young people’s abilities, so that they feel proud of their achievements in the same way those competitors at WorldSkills will, whether they’ve taken a vocational or academic route, or a blend of both.

At AQA, we’re thinking hard about how we best do that, alongside our vocational experts at TQUK. Our new V Level and Level 2 Certificates combine the quality you’d expect from one of England’s largest and most established education assessment charities, with the innovation and focus on student outcomes that colleges and sixth form leaders tell us they want. Our aim is to create qualifications that are meaningful to employers and that help young people get the respect and outcomes they deserve.

Reforming vocational routes also needs to go hand in hand with increased employment opportunities for young people. IPPR research published this week highlights that young people now face three times the unemployment rate of the rest of the wider workforce – the largest gap since records began.

As you’d imagine, regional inequality reigns, with job availability for those likely to be NEETS much stronger in Southern England than in the North East, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The good news is that there are strong partnerships out there that exist, like the ones between our training provider, Realise, and mayoral strategic authorities. The Routes to Success programme in West Yorkshire, for example, provides free bus driving training to local people, with a guaranteed interview at the end.

And having seen one of the young people arrive after just passing his bus driving test, it was a joy to see him light up with the pride of having achieved something that takes him one step closer to a job.

Next week provides a welcome opportunity to see what’s possible when vocational and technical education takes centre stage. I can’t wait to experience the ‘wow’ factor that I’m told comes with a celebration on that scale, with all the prestige around it – and of course, those moments of pride for the competitors.

And as we have conversations about how to improve outcomes for young people in England, I’m hoping some of the policy solutions provide more opportunities for young people to feel genuine pride in their achievements, whatever route they choose.

Good luck Team UK!

New beginning for Norfolk FE’s local hero

It’s rare for a college chief executive to hail from the community their institution serves.

But Jerry White, who has just left City College Norwich (CCN) after 17 years to become the Association of Colleges’ policy and projects consultant, is a Norfolk ambassador in more ways than one.

Until recently, his office was 500 meters from the hospital where he was born, and roughly the same distance in the other direction from his old high school.

His predecessor, Corrienne Peasgood, was also Norfolk-born and bred.

At college open days, White could talk to the “lads or lasses” from almost any local school and know its catchment, headteacher and surrounding employers.

“I’ve been embedded within the community for so long,” he says.

That matters in a county where geography shapes opportunity. Between its three campuses, CCN educates around one third of Norfolk’s young people. For many, “we’re the only college they could go to”.

One aviation degree student left home at 5.30am and caught three buses during a two-and-a-half-hour commute to Norwich Airport, White tells me.

And he says CCN’s mergers with Paston Sixth Form College and Easton College were attempts to “save other Norfolk institutions”, not acts of empire building.

CCN now describes itself as “three colleges within a group”, recognising their distinct identities.

Jerry White with City College Norwich’s history timeline board behind him

‘Magic FE dust’

White’s connection to the college stretches back beyond his own career.

His nostalgia-driven hobby of collecting old prospectuses led him to one from 1952, where a description of a large printing department revealed that his father must once have studied there at night school.

The eldest of six boys, White’s father left grammar school at 15 to help pay the family’s bills. He later left typesetting and retrained for a job in a stationery office, taught at college by industry workers giving up their evenings to “give something back”. He instilled in White, and his brother, a strong belief in education.

White left Norfolk for university in Canterbury alongside his girlfriend who he later married. In a “bizarre” coincidence, his classmates included future DN Colleges Group chief executive John Rees. And later, when White taught there, one student was future Bradford College boss Chris Webb.

“There was clearly some magic FE dust in the Christ Church ether in that era,” White jokes.

After 12 years and with a second child on the way, White returned home to join Norfolk Council’s adult education service to run sport and health courses, later becoming deputy head of service.

Much of the provision was “leisure learning and yoga classes”. His favourite inherited course was titled ‘swimming (widths for terrified ladies)’, although he wondered why terrified men had been excluded.

Behind the quirky titles was a serious social purpose. Keep-fit sessions for Bangladeshi women had a “real impact” on their health and created a safe space outside their homes.

It remains an issue White feels passionate about, but one where benefits are hard to demonstrate through “straightforward metrics”.

Since he joined CCN as head of planning and funding in 2009, the college group’s adult education budget has fallen by around two-thirds.

“Every year we earn our full allocation plus a few per cent. We can’t start anything new without stopping something,” he says.

The question then becomes: “What do I stop to start this new thing that is also needed by Norfolk? And you can’t respond.”

Jerry White at a CCN graduation day

Local power, local upheaval

Devolution has yet to land across Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. White believes that local political leaders gaining greater influence over adult education spending is both a “risk and a potential opportunity”.

During nine years as deputy principal and four as chief executive, relationships with political leaders became “absolutely critical”. His AoC role will involve helping colleges navigate devolution, SEND and qualification reform – which he describes as a “pretty volatile mix”.

Nowhere is that clearer than SEND. Around 800 of CCN’s 900 students with education, health and care plans had them issued by Norfolk County Council, an authority that could disappear under local government reorganisation.

White wants councils to remember that high-needs capital must service young people up to the age of 25.

“Thinking that this issue is only an issue up to the age of 16 is not going to solve the system that runs from five to 25,” he says. “You built all these new complex-needs schools – where are they going to go at 16?”

Offical Launch of Easton COllege Sports Centre, ribbon cutting with Norwich City Footbal Players, Liam Gibbs & Louie Moulden, along with students, Max Parsley & Yasmin Taylor

Finding Jared’s ‘superpower’

Asked to name his proudest achievement from 32 years in education, White recalls Jared Carpenter.

Jared, who is autistic, arrived at CCN from a complex-needs school with no qualifications. His mother had been told he was unlikely to achieve any.

Staff began by “unpicking what his superpowers were”. Jared “nailed” his functional skills, then took GCSEs and A Levels. His extended project involved complex mathematical theory.

When the college nominated Jared for AoC’s adult student of the year award, another challenge emerged. He did not own a suit or feel confident shopping for one alone, and White says he felt “incredibly proud” when Jared asked if he could take him.

Jared was highly commended by the AoC. White still remembers Jared’s “amazement” that someone had recognised “he was going to be great at something”.

Then, earlier this year, an email arrived. Jared has completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia. Dr Jared Carpenter is now an advocate for autistic people.

White’s Norfolk drawl wavers as he becomes visibly emotional. Jared’s journey, he says, shows “the power of colleges, second chances, inclusion, and just taking your time to get to know a young person and how to unlock their potential”.

“That’s what we’ve got to do, not just for SEND but for NEET young people. That’s the superpower that colleges have.”

Jared Carpenter at the AoC awards

‘What are you good at?’

This belief underpins White’s support for expanding vocational opportunities for 14 to 16-year olds.

When he joined CCN, more than 1,000 pupils from five schools attended vocational courses there each week. Schools said it was the “highlight of their week” for many youngsters who struggled in conventional classrooms.

School accountability changes later wiped out the provision. White believes the consequences remain visible.

He would make a point of manning the front desk at college open days to ask prospective students a simple question: “What are you good at?”

Around one in three, he says, gave him the same answer: “Nothing.”

“How have we ended up with an education system that makes them feel that way?,” he asks.

White believes that loss of confidence and purpose is contributing to the NEET crisis and young people’s mental health problems.

But colleges face an immediate constraint if the policy winds blow towards 14-16 provision: “We’re struggling to meet the demands of our 16-18 bulge, let alone grow 14-16.”

Jerry White at City College Norwich

A market for everything

White’s enthusiasm for vocational education does not mean uncritical support for qualification reform.

CCN is among the largest T Level providers and White believes the courses are gaining traction. V Levels could encourage partnerships in which colleges deliver vocational courses and school sixth forms offer A Levels, but competition makes that difficult.

“There should be a mechanism of coming together and asking not what’s the right thing for that institution, school or university, but what’s right for this place.”

His scepticism about markets extends to awarding organisations. He questions the value of multiple organisations producing competing qualifications while raising fees “above inflation and taking money out of the public purse”.

White contrasts England with Switzerland, where the apprenticeship system “wasn’t a market. It was centrally controlled and prescribed by central and regional government”.

Switzerland has around 200 apprenticeships, he says, while England has more than 700 standards.

“Markets are great for certain things. But they’re going to lead to inefficiencies and competition, not collaboration and coordination.”

Jerry White with skills minister Jacqui Smith

‘The latest custodians’

Peasgood taught White to see college leaders as “just the latest custodians” of their institutions.

When White arrived in 2009, CCN’s Norwich campus was awaiting demolition and rebuilding through a capital programme that then collapsed as austerity arrived.

The senior team worked “incredibly hard” to “keep the show on the road”, which involved stopping buildings “leaking and breaking”. Under White, the group invested £25 million in its estate.

After a career spent worrying about Norfolk’s institutions, young people and what will be left for the next generation, that feels an appropriate measure of success.

“To have done our job as custodians and leave the college better than we found it – I’m proud of that,” he says.