Adult Skills Plans Now Have Local Timetables
Adult skills providers in six areas have been asked to start talking to their local strategic authorities. The Department for Education has set out when responsibility for the adult skills fund is expected to move. For colleges, this is the point to map provision and ask questions, not to rewrite contracts that have yet to be issued. [DfE]
Six areas, different dates
Cheshire and Warrington, Cumbria, Hampshire and the Solent, and Sussex and Brighton are preparing for a transfer from the 2027 to 2028 academic year. Norfolk and Suffolk are working to the same assumption, subject to the necessary arrangements.
Greater Essex has a later timetable: current commissioning is expected to continue through 2027 to 2028, with transfer expected from 2028 to 2029. [DfE]
That difference matters if a college teaches adults across more than one area. Its contracts, employer relationships and learner journeys may not line up neatly with authority boundaries. The DfE has asked providers to engage locally, but it hasn't published each authority's future commissioning rules.
A sensible first step is to list delivery sites and adult contracts by area, then ask each authority when it will explain its priorities and process.
A separate conversation about 16 to 19 funding
At Parliament's Education Committee on Wednesday, Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the proposed devolution of 16 to 19 funding would be gradual. Some areas might move earlier; others might initially have more influence over local provision. National expectations and accountability are still being developed, with a devolution White Paper expected later this year. [Parliament]
That's a direction of travel, not a change to the current funding formula. Colleges and sixth-form colleges will need to see how any plan handles learners who cross boundaries, high-needs places and the courses a local area can offer. For now, the questions are worth recording. The rules haven't arrived.
Interest in learning is wider than enrolment
The Learning and Work Institute's new UK-wide survey found that 43% of adults were learning now or had done so in the previous three years. That includes informal learning and leisure interests; it isn't a college enrolment rate. Nearly half of learners reported learning only online.
The Institute estimates that more than three million additional working-age adults would have learned recently if every social grade had participated at the rate of the highest. [Learning and Work Institute]
Local planners should be careful with that national figure. It points to interest and unequal access, but a college still needs its own evidence: who enquires, who starts, who completes, and where cost, timing or confidence gets in the way.
Adult advice and course design can then respond to real demand rather than an attractive headline.
Apprentices need support after the start
Sutton Trust research published this week describes apprentices struggling with line management, the fit between work and training, and living costs. It draws on interviews with more than 300 under-30s, including 100 who left their programme. These are accounts of experience, not a national estimate of how many apprentices face each problem.
The Trust recommends stronger induction and support, alongside possible changes to funding. No apprenticeship rule changed this week. [FE News]
For providers and employers, the immediate check is simpler: make sure a named manager knows the training plan, ask apprentices early about travel costs and time for learning, and spot a poor fit before it becomes a withdrawal.
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