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Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week:

💷 Principals react angrily to this week’s 16-19 funding snubs
✌️ Full roundup of V Levels, T Levels and BTEC defunding announcements
✍️ Jacqui Smith makes the quals case for the government, with reaction from @sixthformcolleges.bsky.social

“Four week ago today, I was at college. A plumber, learning how to plaster. Today, I’m in parliament as an MP … I truly believe anyone doing a job like mine should get a seat on these benches’l

👏👏👏

youtu.be/ETW5MUKuEj0?...

DfE agrees to BTECs defunding delay Funding for the level 3 courses will now continue into 2026-27 as ministers amend ‘aggressive’ approach

Overnight news:

Level 3 quals defunding pushed back to 2027 as V Levels are rolled out

feweek.co.uk/dfe-agrees-t...

Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week:

📰Our #ATC2026 news roundup: from funding rule debates to an AI confession
🏫The children’s commissioner weighs in on colleges mopping up system failures elsewhere
🚕MP’s attack ‘unconcerned’ DfE on post-16 SEND transport

Proud editor moment seeing @jessjanehill.bsky.social’s byline and her @feweek.bsky.social investigation mentioned on today’s iconic Sunday Times front page

Joe Docherty: Labour peer quit college role over ‘inappropriate conduct’ The former education executive has been suspended by the party weeks after being sent to the House of Lords by Sir Keir Starmer

🚨 Breaking: Former NCG CEO Joe Docherty, now Lord Docherty, has been suspended as a Labour peer after it emerged he resigned from his college role after conducting sexual liaisons during working hours

feweek.co.uk/joe-docherty...

👀 Happy to have a piece featured in this week’s @feweek.bsky.social summarising our response @ascl-uk.bsky.social to the NEET crisis:

feweek.co.uk/we-need-a-14...

Coming up in @feweek.bsky.social:

📢 Major SEND reforms - full report and reaction
⏱️As NEETs rise, a potentially very popular apprenticeship is still on ice
👩‍🏫 DfE are clamping down on FE teacher training
3️⃣ Ahead of more announcements, we get underneath DfE's '900 confusing qualifications' claims

A 🧵with some charts - showing you cannot understand youth labour markets without understanding the role of education participation in the lives of 16-24 year olds. There are nearly as many 22–24-year-olds who are NEET (375,000) as 18–21-year-olds (399,000), with 16–17-year-olds just 63,000.

‘Fundamentally wrong’: Greater Lincs approves ESOL cuts Plans to cut funding for English language lessons to avoid alleged “segregation” have been approved in Greater Lincolnshire, amid concerns harm to integration

Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkyns has become the first English mayor to defund English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses.

Ignoring the public consultation which opposed the move, plans were approved today and will kick in from 2027.

feweek.co.uk/fundamentall...

DfE to fund maternity pay improvements in colleges Funding to match a pledge to double school staff maternity pay to come in 2027

Colleges are set to receive additional funding to improve maternity pay for their staff, the Department for Education has announced

feweek.co.uk/dfe-to-fund-maternity-pa...

Is this a taste of Reform UK education policies?

Should the taxpayer pay for non-English speakers to learn the language of the country they live in?

Greater Lincolnshire to cut ESOL from 2027, mayor confirms Greater Lincolnshire’s mayor will press ahead with plans to scrap publicly funded ESOL courses, despite consultation responses opposing the move.

"Responding to the consultation, GLCCA noted that around half of consultation responses were from people “directly involved” in the sector, or experts and specialists, who are “more motivated” to raise concerns"

feweek.co.uk/greater-linc...

Try telling someone in Germany that in England we’ve decided one year is far too long for lots of apprenticeships. They’ll probably assume they’ve misheard you. As Charlotte I think argues part of the answer is to stop calling everything an apprenticeship, other training has value too.

Rare to get an actual vox pop with a pothole

a man in a tuxedo is sitting in an auditorium ALT: a man in a tuxedo is sitting in an auditorium

The good news is employers can still invest in these apprenticeships outside the levy - levy is a minimum not a maximum. Or there may be shorter courses that do the job that become eligible. Management & leadership is important. Doesn’t mean apprenticeships funded thru levy are answer.

Management apprenticeships on the chopping block, minister confirms Government gears up to tell employers which apprenticeships 'aren't appropriate for public funding'

Employers, dust off your CPD budgets ...

feweek.co.uk/management-a...

Coming up in this week’s @feweek.bsky.social

❌Leadership & management apprenticeships are being targeted in drive to pivot towards young people
🤔April launch will only see ‘tight group’ of short courses
📖AoC urges sector to improve DfE gender guidance for college-age young people

This is what Pat McFadden wants to talk about on the Sunday shows in the morning ahead of National Apprenticeship Week.

Unfortunately, as Peter Mandelson's deputy when he was business secretary, I suspect Keunssberg et al will have other ideas.

My @financialtimes.com debut - 15 years ago

(They all missed)

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Winter Olympics opening ceremony

“I’ve been cast at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony”

“What are you?”

“A stovetop espresso maker.”

Full front page

McFadden overstated employer interest in jobs guarantee Work and pensions secretary backtracks on claim 60+ employers already 'committed' jobs for NEET young people

Story

feweek.co.uk/mcfadden-ove...

Loving the @patmcfaddenmp.bsky.social headlines this week

@playbookdc.bsky.social @feweek.bsky.social

Good evening! Coming up in this week’s FE Week:

🔍In the wake of rising school absences, more under-16s are studying at colleges. We look at what makes this provision a success
🧾Why have London’s adult ed providers shunned extra cash?
📢College union boss faces allegations of election rule breaches

Watchdog to hear claims Jo Grady broke UCU election rules The general secretary narrowly won the 2024 ballot by 182 votes

Rough week for UCU's Jo Grady next week:

Tuesday: Defending accusations of election rule breaches: feweek.co.uk/watchdog-to-...

Thursday: Her own staff go on strike (again): feweek.co.uk/ucu-staff-to...

McFadden over-stated employer interest in jobs guarantee Work and pensions secretary backtracks on claim 60+ employers already 'committed' jobs for NEET young people

Oh dear. Last week DWP secretary of state McFadden claimed 60+ employers had "committed" to providing jobs for NEET young people through the flagship jobs guarantee scheme

Today we learned there was no "commitment" ... just an "interest"

feweek.co.uk/mcfadden-ove...