Apprenticeships have long been a valuable pathway into skilled professions but in recent years the model has faced significant strain due to economic pressures, changing workplace dynamics, and the challenge of balancing work with education. It’s become a concern for employers and policymakers alike.
Employers have a role to play in reversing this trend. By listening to apprentices’ concerns, businesses can not only help them thrive but also ensure they stay engaged and motivated, contributing to a skilled and committed workforce.
As an apprenticeship ambassador for the Department for Education, I’ve had the privilege of hearing a wide range of real-life apprentice experiences. From these conversations, I’ve identified key measures employers can take to adapt their apprenticeship offerings and provide support.
Clear progression paths
One of the most effective ways employers can retain apprentices is by offering a clear career progression path. Apprentices often start with enthusiasm and ambition, but without visibility into future opportunities that initial excitement quickly fades.
Employers need to demonstrate the long-term potential for growth and job security within their organisation, showing apprentices that their hard work will pay off.
Clear progression paths not only help apprentices stay motivated but also reassure them that their efforts are investments in their future.
I’ve heard stories from apprentices who became stressed about how they would pay their bills once their apprenticeship ended, simply because their employer was unclear about long-term progression.
In some cases, apprentices were told at the last minute they wouldn’t be moved into a new role. This uncertainty is all too common – 62 per cent of apprentices reported feeling stressed or anxious in the last 12 months according to a Association of Apprentices survey, with 18 per cent particularly concerned about their post-apprenticeship options.
Employers should proactively discuss future opportunities with apprentices, providing mentorship and ongoing feedback to help them achieve their goals.
Flexible working arrangements
Over 42 per cent of apprentices who reported feelings of stress or anxiety in the last 12 months cited work/life balance as a primary source of stress.
As an apprentice myself, I know the pressure of working weekends to complete coursework, leaving very little time for personal life. Employers can help ease this burden by offering flexible working arrangements, such as adjustable hours, remote work options, or dedicated study time during working hours.
Flexible working arrangements aren’t just a benefit for apprentices – they also allow businesses to retain talent by demonstrating an understanding of work-life balance.
Employers should be open to discussing what adjustments would help apprentices manage this balance and implement them where possible.
Financial support for apprentices
The cost of living has skyrocketed in recent years and apprentices, often earning lower wages, feel the pressure. Many struggle with the financial burden of commuting to interviews or covering training-related costs. Employers can alleviate some of this strain by offering targeted financial support.
A bursary to cover travel costs for interviews and exam resits, or even financial wellbeing training, could help make apprenticeships more financially viable, especially for those who live alone, have family commitments, or are struggling with debt.
I’ve heard stories of apprentices paying over £1,000 to resit an exam they’ve failed. This is unfair, particularly given that apprentices often earn less than their colleagues, and it can have a major impact on their mental health and financial wellbeing.
Providing financial support not only helps apprentices succeed but also leads to higher retention rates and a more engaged workforce, benefiting the business.
Apprenticeships are a vital route for building a skilled workforce, but the challenges facing apprentices today are undeniable.
By offering clear career progression, flexible working arrangements and financial assistance, employers can help apprentices thrive and contribute to a more productive, committed and healthier workforce.
Exams body AQA has continued to expand into the skills sector by buying another apprenticeship end-point assessment organisation.
Construction EPA Company was today acquired by the independent non-profit charity, three years after Training Qualifications UK (TQUK) joined its ranks.
Construction EPA was set up in 2020 and gained Ofqual recognition 2022. The company’s website claims it is the “home of the only all-inclusive EPA offer including assessor, materials, venue, technician, end-to-end software as well as all the basics you would expect”.
The firm recorded 1,680 end-point assessment completions in 2023-24, more the double the number it hit in 2022-23 of 795, according to Ofqual data.
AQA said Construction EPA is now the country’s third largest construction EPAO covering 30 standards in areas like bricklaying, carpentry, and plastering, with centres in Chorley, Leeds and Stoke. Ofqual’s stats place Construction EPA as the 19th largest EPA across all sectors currently.
Construction EPA has now become an independent subsidiary under AQA – much like TQUK, which AQA bought in December 2022. TQUK operates in a range of sectors including health and social care, leadership and management, education and hospitality.
The acquisition will further boost the presence of AQA, which is better known for its GCSE and A-level offering, in the vocational education and training market.
AQA CEO Colin Hughes said: “I’m delighted to welcome the Construction EPA Company to our team. It’s grown swiftly in a short period of time in part due to its all-inclusive pricing model, which means that it provides the venue, materials, assessors and equipment to assess apprentices.
“It neatly complements TQUK and is further evidence of our growing presence in this dynamic sector.”
The acquisition is timely given the government’s goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2029, and amid estimates that show the UK needs an additional 250,000 construction workers from now to meet demand.
Construction EPA CEO Samuel Riley, who founded the company five years ago, said: “We are proud that our unique model has driven great growth in the past five years and are excited at the opportunities that joining AQA brings for future growth.
“We believe that, together with AQA, we can strongly support our government to achieve its housebuilding and construction targets by closing the skills gap and supporting people into employment in our growing and rewarding sector.”
AQA said the acquisition was for a non-disclosed amount of money. Construction EPA has 24 full-time employees.
How many of your learners have been involved in the justice system? You may not know the answer.
In 2011, Jacob Dunne threw a single punch that ended another man’s life. His podcast ‘Right from Wrong’ hears from different people involved in his journey of rehabilitation and redemption after leaving prison. This included the parents of the man who died, who engaged in a restorative justice process with Jacob – the topic of a play (‘Punch’) showing in London.
Listening to Jacob’s story brought into focus for me how FE can help someone reach their potential and break cycles of crime.
It also included his FE college tutor Derek. In the podcast, Jacob describes how building a trusted relationship with Derek and studying psychology helped him understand himself and others better. Jacob went on to obtain a first-class honours degree in criminology and is now an educator too, helping people in the justice system form more positive relationships and resolve conflicts through better communication and restorative practices.
Perhaps you have a story of a learner who, through engaging with FE, was able to start a new chapter? Perhaps your college has a connection with a local prison or probation office? If so, we want to hear from you!
The Institute of Education – University College London’s (UCL) Faculty of Education and Society – has teamed up with Justice Futures CIC to explore the role of FE colleges in supporting people leaving prison and on probation to enter careers in the digital, sports and creative sectors, funded by UCL Grand Challenges.
Over the next few months, we will bring people together from across the justice and FE sectors to engage in ‘futures thinking’ to set out a vision and blueprint to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities for people in the justice system through further education.
This is vital because we know the current system is outdated and not fit for purpose. In 2023-24 the education provision at over half the prisons and young offender institutions inspected by Ofsted was judged to be ‘inadequate’. The Education Select Committee in 2022 noted the ‘continual decline of funding.’ The Chief Inspector of Probation in 2024 found 56 per cent of prison leavers reported not having their education, training and employment (ETE) needs met and the potential of unpaid work community sentences to deliver meaningful education, training and employment was ‘not maximised’.
However, progress has been made increasing the proportion of people who secure employment on release from prison. Nearly 20 per cent are employed six weeks after they are released and nearly a third (31 per cent) are employed six months after. There are, however, still significant numbers of people leaving prison each year who could build meaningful careers, with the right training and support, who currently have not been given this opportunity.
Our research will explore the barriers and opportunities for greater collaboration. 20 years ago, a government white paper ‘reducing reoffending through skills and employment’ set out a vision for local partnerships between prisons, probation and FE colleges, with opportunities for those in the justice system to gain the qualifications needed for meaningful careers. But since then, the number of FE colleges involved in prison education provision has gone from 14 to three, resulting in fewer links between FE and the justice system.
Positive work is happening in some areas. Recently East Kent College was awarded the Association of Colleges widening participation award for their vocational training partnership with HMP Standford Hill. In 2023, South Gloucestershire and Stroud College won the same award for their innovative programme ‘In2Sport’, which partners with HMP Bristol to help men gain gym instructor qualifications. Chichester College offers men serving sentences at HMP Ford access to on-site workshops, as well as opportunities to join courses at the college. And Myerscough College supports men doing unpaid work community sentences to gain qualifications.
But our FE and justice systems could do much more to help set people up for success. If you have any examples to share, or are interested in this research, please do get in touch: nina@justice-futures.com.
We look forward to hearing from you and reporting our findings and recommendations later in the year.
This week saw the end of the government’s adult numeracy initiative “Multiply”, part of the landmark UK shared prosperity fund (UKSPF) that replaced European Union funding, and we mustn’t lose its transformative gains.
I’ve been privileged to the £550 million three-year programme, delivering Multiply for the Working Men’s College in Camden, North London over this exciting time.
Maths and ukuleles really is a ‘thing’ in Hawaii
We have reached out to large numbers of learners from all communities and backgrounds, and made a tangible impact on their lives by helping them conquer lifelong fears and anxieties around maths. Hearing a learner say, “I used to hate maths, but now I love it!” is one of the greatest rewards as a teacher.
Maths should be taught so that learners flourish and the mantra on the walls of our classrooms is ‘teaching mathematics should be an act of love, not an exercise of power’.
Necessity is the mother of invention
Because of the government’s rather stuttering rollout in 2022, many Multiply providers were still staring at blank sheets of paper at Christmas of that year, wondering how on earth they would deliver their year one targets. I can remember the bemused faces of colleagues as we ran some of the most imaginative and eclectic courses that will probably never see the light of day again:
Ceramic glazes: mixing and precision measurement
Textile jewellery with maths
Geometry with Japanese Ainu textiles
Maths for ukelele playing
(For the sceptical maths teaching purists out there, maths and ukeleles really is a “thing” in Hawaii!)
Many Multiply courses were centred around food – shopping, offers, portion sizes, diet, healthy eating, leftovers – providers even surfed the air fryer wave of 2023 as household bills went through the roof.
Social Prescribing – transfers from the health to education budgets?
I’m particularly proud of some high impact work we did, and want to continue, helping those with diabetes with their diet and with their maths. The world of someone with diabetes is non-stop mental maths; imagine overlaying this with maths difficulties; and then trying to do some of that mental maths as your blood sugar level is falling dangerously!
The UK’s diabetes problem (12 million adults) is massive, and the country’s adult numeracy problem is even bigger (22 million). Perhaps now’s the time for the Department of Health and Social Care to surprise DfE with a social subscribing budget helping diabetics improve their health through improved maths skills?
After all, diabetes costs the NHS £10.7 billion a year and that’s projected to rise to £18 billion within 10 years.
A drop in the ocean
The country’s adult numeracy problem has a massive impact: £25 billion a year in 2021, according to National Numeracy. That’s £75 billion over Multiply’s lifetime. Its cost represents less than 1 per cent of that.
Adult numeracy is going in the right direction. But cutting adult education spending now risks losing these gains and momentum that Multiply has given.
Maths education and social justice
I’ll end with a serious observation about maths teaching and social justice. There’s a wide consensus that the over-arching mathematical concept that has caused young adults (16-18) to not succeed in maths is proportional reasoning (fractions, ratio, scaling up/down, when to multiply, when to divide).
Three years of working with older adults has given me a different perspective – namely that for these learners the principal difficulty is with place value (just how big is that big number? how small is that small number?).
Our newsfeeds are littered with millions, billions and, increasingly now trillions. Understanding the size of these numbers is critical to people’s ability to have an informed opinion about society’s choices. Critical maths education finds its natural home in adult education, helping learners understand and debate a wide range of issues: environmental change and sustainability; income and wealth distributions and disparities; social exclusion, racial injustice and empowerment; mortality trends and imbalances.
Maths education is a social justice issue. Funding is essential.
An extra £20 million in post-16 capacity funding to help Leeds and Greater Manchester cope with “rising numbers” of 16- to- 19-year-olds in education has been announced today, as the government confirms how it is handing out £302 million to improve college buildings.
The Department for Education (DfE) said the funding will help repair colleges’ “leaky roofs, broken windows and dilapidated buildings” to ensure they can “continue to break down barriers to opportunity”.
It is six months since the funding was first announced at last October’s budget and the first condition allocation in two years, according to the government.
In a statement to Parliament, skills minister Jacqui Smith also announced an extra £10 million each for Leeds City Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority “to support capacity for rising numbers of 16- to 19-year-olds expected in 2025-26”.
She said: “This additional capacity will ensure young people continue in their education and training spreading opportunities across the country.”
The funding
The £301,999,999.98 in further education college condition allocations (FECCA) will be shared out between England’s 179 college groups based on a methodology that takes into account learning hours last academic year, space requirements for each subject, modelled non-teaching space, residential space, local construction costs and total expected space.
While the methodology does include apprenticeship delivery, it excludes learning aims such as distance learning, higher education, T Level occupational specialisms or end-point assessments.
Large college groups such as NCG and Capital City College will receive more than £7 million each, while 48 smaller institutions such as Calderdale College and Capel Manor College will receive less than £1 million each (see full list of allocations below).
According to Smith, the £322 million package confirmed today is part of the DfE’s £6.7 billion capital allocation, confirmed in the autumn budget.
She added: “This is a 19 per cent real-terms increase from 2024 to 25 demonstrating the government’s commitment to protecting education priorities against a tough fiscal context.”
Eligible and ineligible costs
Spend guidance published alongside the FECCA allocations says colleges have the “discretion” to decide how funding should be spent towards “improving the condition and preventing deterioration” of buildings and grounds.
A spending deadline of March 31, 2028, has also been attached to the grant, with colleges encouraged to plan and deliver “as soon as possible”.
However, the grants cannot be used to fund expansion of premises or to purchase land, and should not be spent on assessing potential future projects if this would lead to a “backlog of condition improvement problems”.
While the money can be used for IT infrastructure that is in “poor condition”, including stripping out and replacing cables, it cannot be used for new equipment or software.
Colleges have also been told to prioritise meeting net zero targets, sustainability and energy efficiency.
Smith said: “Further education colleges are at the heart of our mission to grow the economy and train the next generation of skilled workers under our Plan for Change.
“But the college estate we inherited is simply not fit for purpose.
“Today’s funding addresses these issues, allowing colleges to focus on what they do best: breaking down barriers to opportunity and inspiring the workforce of the future.”
Association of colleges deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said: “This £302 million investment is significant and a crucial step towards ensuring that our colleges can maintain and improve their estates, providing a safe and conducive learning environment for students and staff.
“We are particularly pleased to see the government’s commitment to addressing the deterioration of college buildings and grounds.”
Gravatt also welcomed the DfE’s use of a formula to allocate the funding “for the first time in 20 years”.
Mayor boost for some cities
Leeds City Council welcomed the funding as a “major boost” in its efforts to provide enough learning space for students amid what Luminate college group’s principal calls a “capacity crisis” due to a population bulge, a shortage of spaces on courses, and a lack of strategic planning.
The city expects its 16- to- 19-year-old population to continue rising until 2030, to just under 30,000 people.
Councillor Helen Hayden, executive member for children and families, said: “The pressures we face are not unique to Leeds, with all core cities nationally grappling with similar challenges, but we remain committed to finding a solution.
“To that end, we have made great strides so far to address the pressing need for further places, working closely with FE providers, community stakeholders and the Department for Education.
“This £10 million additional funding is a major boost in helping us to provide the physical spaces and learning environments needed to enable more students to continue their education and enjoy the best possible opportunities here in Leeds.”
Colin Booth, chief executive of Luminate Education Group, called the £10 million in funding for Leeds a “positive development” that could go “some way” in tackling rising numbers of young people not in education, employment or training.
He added: “Over recent years, post-16 capacity constraints in Leeds have resulted in growing numbers of young people being unable to access suitable forms of post-16 education.
“Today’s announcement represents forward-thinking investment that could benefit both the local economy and young people right across the city.”
However, he warned that funding should be “targeted” at growing capacity for high demand courses such as level 1 and 2, and some technical courses such as health and care, rather than local sixth forms and A-levels.
He said: “In Leeds, there is an oversupply and competition between, sixth forms for A-level students.
“But in the most disadvantaged postcodes of Leeds, fewer than half of 16-year-olds are able or want to study A-levels.”
Gravatt added: “With 16 to 18 student numbers having risen by 7 per cent this year and forecast to rise by 5 per cent nationally, the government needs a plan for technical education growth.
“The funds for Leeds and Manchester will help but there are pressures in other cities and towns across the country.”
Further Education College Condition Allocations announced today
Provider name
Allocation
NCG
£7,555,502.94
Capital City College
£7,391,320.54
New City College
£5,861,633.26
Chichester College Group
£5,216,864.85
HRUC (Harrow, Richmond & Uxbridge Colleges)
£4,571,725.41
Luminate Education Group
£4,277,801.33
Activate Learning
£4,188,176.34
South Thames Colleges Group
£3,979,320.51
Bedford College
£3,961,219.53
Nottingham College
£3,813,156.90
Exeter College
£3,605,425.46
Newham College of Further Education
£3,378,156.47
LTE Group
£3,159,807.60
EKC Group
£3,119,951.90
Sandwell College
£3,046,994.97
City of Sunderland College
£3,036,150.45
United Colleges Group
£2,989,412.78
TEC Partnership
£2,892,520.30
The Sheffield College
£2,880,549.97
West Nottinghamshire College
£2,863,288.30
West Herts College
£2,851,718.78
Barnet and Southgate College
£2,735,182.61
Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group
£2,619,198.86
East Sussex College Group
£2,559,455.81
South and City College Birmingham
£2,430,673.58
South Essex College of Further and Higher Education
£2,426,969.56
Salford City College
£2,413,150.88
Inspire Education Group
£2,398,063.10
Derby College
£2,374,476.76
Norwich City College of Further and Higher Education
£2,356,653.99
The Trafford and Stockport College Group
£2,354,139.57
DN Colleges Group
£2,352,725.27
City of Portsmouth College
£2,337,544.29
Loughborough College
£2,312,121.34
Middlesbrough College
£2,309,076.55
The City of Liverpool College
£2,305,918.63
Birmingham Metropolitan College
£2,279,243.53
Barnsley College
£2,228,601.42
South Hampshire College Group
£2,207,150.54
Leicester College
£2,205,344.80
Solihull College & University Centre
£2,196,589.99
Cheshire College – South & West
£2,182,061.44
London South East Colleges
£2,171,653.60
Bridgwater and Taunton College
£2,167,449.46
Dudley College of Technology
£2,162,122.72
Blackpool and the Fylde College
£2,143,871.64
Truro and Penwith College
£2,102,964.77
Walsall College
£2,094,754.65
Hartpury College
£2,082,090.16
North Kent College
£2,080,003.50
Windsor Forest Colleges Group
£2,075,288.50
Heart of Yorkshire Education Group
£2,040,194.71
Wigan and Leigh College
£1,992,454.52
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College
£1,991,638.07
Colchester Institute
£1,960,835.08
Bradford College
£1,952,883.40
Northampton College
£1,925,661.59
Havant and South Downs College
£1,896,594.20
Oaklands College
£1,895,551.75
Cornwall College
£1,886,773.70
City of Wolverhampton College
£1,878,646.14
New College Swindon
£1,837,955.81
Halesowen College
£1,823,014.19
West Suffolk College
£1,819,223.23
Warwickshire College Group
£1,815,020.90
Waltham Forest College
£1,802,163.27
Sparsholt College Hampshire
£1,787,223.98
City of Bristol College
£1,774,733.55
Kirklees College
£1,769,919.73
Cambridge Regional College
£1,766,758.13
York College
£1,757,466.76
New College Durham
£1,756,550.45
Lincoln College
£1,749,430.71
MidKent College
£1,738,647.27
Wiltshire College and University Centre
£1,734,133.69
Runshaw College
£1,733,469.00
Gateshead College
£1,716,380.53
Burnley College
£1,690,301.41
Croydon College
£1,665,082.55
RNN Group
£1,659,896.39
City College Plymouth
£1,648,690.96
Weston College
£1,643,226.85
Bolton College
£1,614,858.18
Gloucestershire College
£1,607,086.48
Bury College
£1,606,683.93
Preston College
£1,597,841.04
The Bournemouth and Poole College
£1,592,337.52
South Bank Colleges
£1,562,931.59
Tameside College
£1,527,057.02
Myerscough College
£1,523,694.00
Hopwood Hall College
£1,521,206.50
Nelson and Colne College
£1,511,500.77
Blackburn College
£1,503,291.07
Barking and Dagenham College
£1,498,564.67
Milton Keynes College
£1,470,772.37
East Surrey College
£1,418,411.08
Riverside College Halton
£1,408,301.21
South Devon College
£1,392,127.61
Hull College
£1,390,938.74
Reaseheath College
£1,385,478.00
USP College
£1,369,323.31
Brockenhurst College
£1,362,524.38
Harlow College
£1,355,731.15
Coventry College
£1,352,714.97
Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College
£1,348,071.40
Chesterfield College
£1,342,129.75
The Oldham College
£1,314,421.37
The Education Training Collective
£1,308,869.13
Buckinghamshire College Group
£1,291,856.33
St Helens College
£1,270,594.08
South Staffordshire College
£1,248,099.40
North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College
£1,239,660.71
Bishop Burton College
£1,222,305.19
East Coast College
£1,218,589.15
Suffolk New College
£1,202,352.94
The College of West Anglia
£1,177,945.52
Herefordshire, Ludlow and North Shropshire College
£1,162,670.12
Heart of Worcestershire College
£1,157,331.97
Moulton College
£1,152,975.15
Wirral Metropolitan College
£1,152,649.57
Tyne Coast College
£1,121,357.57
Warrington and Vale Royal College
£1,111,718.07
West Thames College
£1,087,296.88
Abingdon and Witney College
£1,085,927.92
Hertford Regional College
£1,068,211.18
Farnborough College of Technology
£1,062,333.94
Chelmsford College
£1,052,519.18
Hugh Baird College
£1,049,272.36
North East Surrey College of Technology
£1,030,014.85
Bath College
£1,012,757.75
Telford College
£1,004,813.49
Calderdale College
£999,585.98
Stoke-on-Trent College
£990,329.88
The SMB Group
£961,438.13
North Hertfordshire College
£944,745.50
Morley College London
£924,595.30
Boston College
£903,236.01
Askham Bryan College
£891,724.23
Petroc
£867,455.28
Southport Education Group
£858,839.95
Yeovil College
£851,694.19
Plumpton College
£844,731.42
Weymouth and Kingston Maurward College
£842,771.90
Burton and South Derbyshire College
£842,471.05
Darlington College
£834,170.76
City Lit
£820,089.09
Kendal College
£816,829.60
Stanmore College
£810,891.36
Hartlepool College of Further Education
£790,990.87
Leeds College of Building
£786,854.45
East Durham College
£751,754.62
The Isle of Wight College
£745,492.80
Workers’ Educational Association
£715,420.88
Brooklands College
£668,750.79
Basingstoke College of Technology
£663,449.25
Lakes College – West Cumbria
£610,361.86
Macclesfield College
£591,966.58
Craven College
£544,605.58
Derwentside College
£538,377.41
Lancaster and Morecambe College
£529,144.06
Newbury College
£506,958.36
Capel Manor College
£495,734.23
WM College
£493,066.54
Strode College
£478,869.08
Richmond and Hillcroft Adult and Community College (Rhacc)
£471,309.91
Furness College
£470,320.73
Shipley College
£437,287.96
Bishop Auckland College
£361,003.98
Grantham College
£340,183.88
The Northern School of Art
£276,896.22
Writtle College Limited
£273,481.84
Northern College for Residential Adult Education Limited
A new “tick less and talk more” AI tool designed to help FE teachers assess electronics practical work is set to launch this year.
The tool, Elecafa.AI, is a teachers’ “buddy” that has been trained to visually assess soldering work on circuit boards and provide “constructive feedback”.
It promises to “significantly reduce assessment lead times”, freeing up more time for teachers to focus on teaching and “authentic curriculum and assessment design”, according to tender documents.
Elecafa.AI consists of a microscope with a camera and a computer application, students show it circuit boards they have soldered and it provides feedback on the quality of each joint “in under a second”, including reasoning, an overall score, and advice on how to improve.
Assessing students’ soldering work on vocational courses involving electronics – such as BTECs, T Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications – can take a teacher “minutes” for each board, said Jessica Leigh Jones, co-owner of iungo Solutions, which created Elecafa.AI.
Speaking to FE Week, Leigh Jones, who previously sat on the board of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), said: “Learners can use it as a simple self-service tool to gain instant formative feedback and work – and teachers can use it for the same thing.
“Unlike most AI which are computer based or large language models looking at numeracy and literacy, we’re looking at physical and practical types of work. We’ve developed it to look at electronics specifically, that’s why it’s called ‘Elecafa’.
“Essentially, we’re looking at soldering activity, a really essential tool that’s that taught in schools. Often you have quite small classes because they need a lot of support.
“It’s really important to just say, this is in no way intended to replace the teacher. This is about speeding up mundane tasks to really allow the teachers to spend more time with learners in their class, or workshop in this case.”
Elecafa.AI was funded in November with £69,695 from the Department for Education (DfE) through Innovate UK, which ran a procurement competition offering £50,000 to £200,000 from a £1 million fund for tools which use AI to support teachers with assessment and feedback.
Leigh Jones said iungo Solutions has one month left to “refine” the product before making it the app, circuit boards, components and microscope kit available for schools and colleges to buy.
She added: “We’ve done lots of piloting, we’ve had a range of schools soldering with them and trying them out.
“We’ve seen it works, but it’s probably going to take a year or two of data to see what those benefits look like.”
An “attractive” part of the deal for the company was that the government would grant fund early development of the tool, which was built “from scratch”, while iungo Solutions retains intellectual property rights.
The tool also draws its ability to provide pedagogical advice and feedback from the government owned ‘education content store’, which contains a quality-assured library of educational content and code available to train AI models.
The £3 million content store was announced in August last year with the hope of generating accurate, high-quality content, such as lesson plans and workbooks that can reliably be used in schools and colleges.
Leigh Jones, who co-founded iungo Solutions with Tom de Vall, is a former non-executive director of the IfATE and interim chair of Welsh awarding organisation WJEC.
She stepped down from IfATE in 2023 to mitigate a potential conflict of interest after iungo Solutions won a contract to provide skills bootcamps.
She said: “I did GCSE electronics in school, at the time one of only ten percent of schools in Wales that offered it and it set me up on my career path.
“But the number of schools offering it in Wales is getting smaller every year, so this is really positive.”
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Artificial Intelligence presents a truly transformative opportunity to modernise education.
“I’m determined to seize this opportunity with both hands – our children’s education is far too important not to benefit from advances that are already delivering remarkable results across society, from helping police identify criminals to improving cancer screening in our NHS.
“These tools show just how far AI can go in our classrooms – not replacing teachers with robots, but freeing up valuable time for those vital student interactions.
”My ambition is for every teacher in the country to be using AI to deliver a world-class education in the next few years, boosting standards and helping us deliver our Plan for Change.”
WorldSkills UK has listed 86 students and apprentices as candidates for the official team that will participate in WorldSkills Shanghai next year.
Squad UK was selected from regional and national finals across 31 different skills and will now undergo 18-month intensive training programme to prepare them for selection for the ‘skills Olympics’ in 2026.
Melody Cheung, graphic design squad member
The squad announced today, full list below, will be guided through their training by a team of highly skilled trainers, industry experts, former medal winners and performance coaches to help them prepare for the pressure of competing at such a high level.
The best and brightest will be announced as official members of Team UK next spring ahead of the 48th WorldSkills finals in China.
Next year’s competition will finally be held for the first time in Shanghai, China after the 2022 event, which was supposed to be held in the country, was cancelled due to ongoing Covid restrictions.
The event will see 1,500 young people travel to Shanghai from over 80 countries to compete in technical skill disciplines from engineering, manufacturing and technology through to creative, digital and hospitality in front of a quarter of a million expected visitors.
The UK will be competing in over 30 skills at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, including 3D digital game art, robot systems integration and renewable energy.
Ahmed Shakir, joinery squad member
The Squad UK members for competitions for cloud computing, logistics & freight forwarding and software testing have not yet been announced. The contenders will be selected at assessment events held in the coming months as WorldSkills UK does not have national competitions in these skills, yet.
The UK came in 11th place for total medal points at WorldSkills Lyon last year out of the 60 participating countries, and 10th for average point score.
Ben Blackledge, WorldSkills UK chief executive, said: “We are so excited to welcome this fantastic group of young technicians on to our international programme. They will be developing the skills that employers are crying out for which will fuel business growth across our economy.
“WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 will be bigger than ever before with even higher standards, giving us a vital platform to learn from the very best in the world and bring skills excellence to more young people across the UK.”
Finn Gallagher, web design squad member
Meet the squad
Melody Cheung, who is competing in graphic design and attends Bridgend College, was still in shock when interviewed at the WorldSkills UK Bootcamp.
She said: “It’s so exciting to be in squad, it doesn’t feel real yet,” she said. “I know the experience will boost my career opportunities – it’s such a great thing to put on your CV.”
Joinery apprentice Ahmed Shakir, also Bradford College alumni, said he was put forward by his employer, Abrahams & Carlisle.
“They value the training and know it will make me stand out as a joiner,” he said.
“Next month, I’m off to Wales for a training week so we are straight into it, and I can’t wait.”
Meanwhile, mechatronics competitor Emily Bettridge, an apprentice with Toyota Manufacturing UK, told FE Week she was entered into the competition by her manager, Sam Hillier, a former Team UK member at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.
Emily Bettridge, mechatronics squad member
She said: “It is fantastic to be selected for Squad alongside my teammates Liz and Joe who are also apprentices at Toyota. We have been working for this, for the last year so it feels like a great achievement. Toyota has a strong track record in entering WorldSkills UK competitions and when we found out we had been selected they sent the news round the company, which was great.”
Finn Gallagher, who has a BTEC in Software Design and attends Cardiff University will compete in Web Design.
Gallagher said he never thought he would make it this far.
“There is a lot of new things to learn and I’m meeting so many great people. My university advertised the WorldSkills UK Competitions, and I put my name forward as I knew it would help me stand out when looking for jobs. The thought of travelling to China to compete is very exciting and I’m determined to give it my all.”
FE Week is the media partner for WorldSkills UK and Pearson is the sponsor for Team UK.
Ministers have been accused of “devolution through the back door” after quietly launching plans to hand more adult education funding powers to local councils.
Under a pilot scheme starting in September, funding that would normally be procured through the Department for Education’s national adult education budget for non-devolved areas will be handed to 11 local authorities.
However, some councils were surprised to learn they had been named in the DfE’s pilot list, seen by FE Week, and suggested there had been “some confusion.”
One said it was “seeking further clarity” from the government this week.
News of the pilot emerged earlier this month in a DfE update sent to training companies with national adult skills fund contracts, warning that training delivered in the 11 local authority areas would “not be fundable,” as the local councils would be “in receipt of funding directly from [academic year] 2025-26.”
Officials claimed they did not need to announce the plans publicly, despite some local authorities being made aware as early as January, as the extra funding would be distributed through a “business-as-usual allocations process.”
The local authorities listed for the pilot are: Devon County Council, Torbay Council, Lincolnshire County Council, North East Lincolnshire Council, North Lincolnshire Council, Hull City Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Warwickshire County Council, Buckinghamshire Council, Norfolk County Council, and Suffolk County Council.
Devolution through the back door?
The DfE denies the pilot is a form of devolution, but confirmed it is testing the theory that local areas could be better positioned than central government at identifying and addressing local skills needs.
A spokesperson told FE Week it wants to support local areas to prepare for devolution by building experience of a wider adult skills fund offer than councils may currently deliver.
It is a sign that the government is keen to speed up devolution of skills budgets, beyond timelines agreed by the last government and frameworks set out in Labour’s English devolution white paper.
But the move has led to complaints of “devolution through the back door” and warnings that additional complexity in the commissioning landscape “impacts deliverability.”
About 60 per cent of the £1.4 billion adult education budget was devolved to mayoral authorities this academic year.
This was due to increase to about 70 per cent in the next academic year – as East Midlands, Cornwall, and York and North Yorkshire gain control of their skills budgets.
Simon Ashworth, deputy CEO of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, called for “more transparency” about the pilot as “it feels a bit like we’re getting more devolution through the back door.”
He told FE Week: “While a phased transition to devolution isn’t necessarily a bad idea, this latest move only adds more fuel to the argument that the post-16 skills landscape is already too complex.”
“This complexity impacts deliverability, making life harder for providers who are trying to plan and deliver high-quality provision.”
Leaders not aware
While plans appear to have been set in motion in areas such as Lincolnshire and Hull/East Yorkshire, which are both due to elect combined authority mayors in May, others appeared surprised that they were listed in the DfE update.
A spokesperson for Buckinghamshire Council said “there may have been some confusion” as the council did not expect changes to its adult skills funding before 2026-27.
They added: “To stress, no acceleration of the current devolution plans has been actioned.”
A spokesperson for Warwickshire County Council also said its officials were seeking “further clarity” from the DfE and had not made “arrangements” for taking control of funding locally.
Sue Pember, policy director at adult education network Holex, said the pilot was “sensible and pragmatic” given the government’s desire to devolve skills “at pace.”
She added: “The alternative – requiring providers to navigate dual systems – would add unnecessary complexity.”
“Local authorities already hold significant commissioning experience, with many managing skills contracts, careers services and programmes like the DWP’s new Connect to Work initiative.”
“This positions them well to oversee and coordinate local training provision effectively.”
A rail industry skills bootcamps provider suspended from recruiting new learners two months ago has gone bust.
Redstone Training called in administrators earlier this week after Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the West Midlands Combined Authority terminated their railway skills bootcamps contracts worth a combined £3 million.
In January, Network Rail had asked rail regulator the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) to investigate a number of rule-breaching allegations brought against the company.
Managing director of Redstone Training, Matthew Brooks, blamed the NSAR probe and subsequent suspension of skills bootcamps payments for the company collapsing into administration.
He told FE Week the combined authorities were “very happy” with their bootcamps provision last year and claimed they had not provided any evidence of Redstone’s wrongdoing.
Brooks said WMCA did a full audit of its provision in October, which went “extremely well” and offered Redstone £300,000 on top of its £1.65 million contract. Similarly with LCRCA, Brooks said officials came in “as and when” to do in-person audits as the company had a training centre in Liverpool.
“We finished 2024 with a happy combined authority,” he said. “They said they don’t envisage their funding allocation for the next wave of funding to be that different, and therefore to keep going.”
A whistleblower complaint that triggered the NSAR probe, and combined authority suspensions, was the start of the company’s downfall, the boss said.
Brooks claimed he still doesn’t know what the allegations are because Network Rail “are not allowed to share” them.
When asked to respond to claims that the allegations related to ineligible milestones two and three data, which involves job interviews and work-related outcomes for participants, Brooks said: “As we sit here today, two and a half months on, not one combined authority has come back to me and said, ‘you’ve done this wrong’. This isn’t right. We’ve had zero clawback.”
“Our process followed the rules,” he said, adding that the company had “only been paid based on evidence that has been checked, verified and approved”.
“Bootcamps have been built in order to stop rogue training providers who, over the years, draw down large amounts of money and shut the business and bugger off to the Caribbean,” Brooks said.
He told the combined authorities that withholding payments was “cutting our arms off”, and he claimed he had lost thousands of pounds by taking out a personal loan to pay the February payroll.
“That’s the type of guy I am. I’m not one of these cowboys who just treat people like dirt. That’s not me at all, and that’s not the business,” he said.
Redstone continued to deliver bootcamps for learners for another month despite no payments coming in until the company could no longer pay staff or suppliers.
“The problem is we’re a small business, and the minute you turn off our cash flow, there’s only so long we can continue. So we got to the end of February, and I didn’t know what March looked like,” he told FE Week.
He voluntarily appointed administrators from Begbies Traynor Group to help collect funds to pay off what the business owed.
Around 24 staff have reportedly been laid off. One former worker said they hadn’t been paid correctly in January or February.
Redstone Training was incorporated in 2017 and delivered a range of courses for budding rail workers.
The company came into scope for Ofsted inspection when it moved into the skills bootcamps market and was found to be making “significant progress” in two of three areas in an early monitoring report published last July. There were, however, only 24 learners on programmes at the time of the inspection.
LCRCA confirmed Redstone had 183 learners enrolled on wave-five rail bootcamps, “most of whom had completed prior to the NSAR registration withdrawal” and the rest have been transferred. WMCA said it had 115 learners enrolled with Redstone Training.
A LCRCA spokesperson said: “We have now terminated all contracts with Redstone. All financial matters will be dealt with through the administrator and therefore we will not comment further at this time.”
Responding to whether he would set up another rail training company, Brooks said “no”.
“There’s been so much nonsense posted around me and the business over the last few weeks, and it’s all absolute nonsense,” he added.
