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A new technical route is supposed to open for young people from the age of 14. They could combine English, maths and science with practical learning, employer projects and work experience shaped around local jobs. It is a bold promise. The awkward bit is that nobody has yet explained who will teach it, what qualifications sit inside it or how colleges will be funded to take part. [GOV.UK] [FE Week] The promise is clear. The delivery isn't The government wants mayors, counc

Stop changing the apprenticeship system until we know whether the last changes worked. That is the blunt message from Parliament's Work and Pensions Committee this week. Its report on youth employment says policy is pulling in different directions while more than one million young people across the UK are not in education, employment or training. [UK Parliament] A system that won't sit still The committee supports the aim of giving young people a bigger share of apprentices

Adult education and training participation in England is down 8.8% this year. That is the blunt figure in the latest DfE release: 948,340 adult learners between August and April, compared with just over one million at the same point last year. Total adult FE and skills participation, including apprenticeships, is also down by 3.3%. [GOV.UK] The drop isn't spread evenly Level 2 participation fell by 7.9%, while level 4 rose by 10.9%. Adult essential skills participation drop

Nine Office for Students registration conditions no longer apply to most registered FE colleges without degree-awarding powers. Those are five initial conditions and four ongoing conditions removed where the Department for Education already covers the same ground [OfS]. It sounds technical. For the college HE team keeping two regulators satisfied, it is the sort of quiet change that may give some time back. Less duplication, with one important catch The OfS change took eff