The 13 Skills Learners Can Already Show
Skills England has named 13 employability skills, from listening and working with others to numeracy and digital literacy. Its new framework does something useful: it looks for those skills in places where learners actually practise them, including volunteering, caring, sport, projects and part-time work. [GOV.UK]
A skill name needs a real example
Skills England gives organising a club event or fundraiser as an example of developing planning and organising. The label, however, only goes so far. A learner still needs to explain what they arranged, how they handled a change and what someone who worked alongside them noticed. Those details make the skill credible to an employer. [GOV.UK]
That matters for 16 to 19 learners without a formal job, and for adults returning to learning with experience gained through caring or community work. The framework mainly addresses young people entering work. Colleges can test whether its language also helps adults explain their skills.
This is voluntary guidance, designed to align with existing frameworks, not replace them. It creates no new qualification or inspection requirement. Colleges can test a few enrichment activities, tutorials and employer encounters, then ask whether learner reflections or feedback give students a clearer story to tell. A tag alone won't. [GOV.UK]
Pay is a local decision
The Association of Colleges has recommended a 3.5% pay increase for all college staff in 2026/27, where finances and funding allocations allow. It encourages colleges able to afford more to go further. This is a recommendation after national discussions, not a funded award guaranteed to every member of staff. [AoC]
Leaders need to cost any recurring rise and tell staff what their college can decide and when. The government's £485 million recruitment and retention funding was announced in July, not this week.
Check the FE detail in SEND plans
The DfE told FE Week that it had approved more than 90% of local SEND reform plans. Approval is a milestone, but it doesn't show whether an individual plan gives 16 to 25-year-olds a workable route into FE or specialist provision. Colleges should read their local plan and ask where their learners and staff fit. [FE Week]
There is also a nearer deadline. DfE's 2027/28 high needs place-change guidance asks in-scope providers and their local authorities to agree numbers in writing. DfE's digital return service closes at 5 pm on Friday 6 November. Colleges should check the guidance against their own provider type and compare proposed places with expected demand before that conversation becomes a dispute. [GOV.UK]
A pledge still needs local follow-through
DWP says 89 UK councils have signed up to local taskforces for 16 to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training. FE Week counted 83 of 317 English councils. Sign-up commits partners to local work; it doesn't prove a new college offer or better participation. Colleges should find out who is convening partners and how referrals will be followed up. [FE News] [FE Week]
Across these stories, the useful evidence is close to the learner: what they did, what support they can reach, and what happens next.
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