Welcome to Bridgehead Education's latest monthly news roundup of 2024, that explores and analyses trends in the coverage of "further education" and "apprenticeship(s)" in the UK media landscape throughout July.
In July, there were 1,765 mentions of either "further education" or "apprenticeship(s)" in the UK media, an eight per cent decrease on recorded mentions in June.
The figures for this July nonetheless represent a 28 per cent increase on those of the same month in 2023.
The chart below plots the mentions of "further education" and "apprenticeship(s)" in the media over the last twelve months.
Time for Change?
July was a big month for the United Kingdom. It’s all change in government, and with Labour’s inauguration comes renewed hope for major change the FE, skills and apprenticeships sector.
In the King’s Speech, the new government confirmed their intention to establish Skills England, and committed to reforming the apprenticeship levy. On July 22nd the government formally announced the launch of the former, chaired on an interim basis by the former Co-op Chief Exec Richard Pennycook CBE.
The new body will, the government say, “bring together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions, providing strategic oversight of the post-16 skills system aligned to the government’s Industrial Strategy.”
A third pledge delivered - to some extent - since taking office was Labour’s commitment to enact a “pause and review” of the Conservative’s controversial defunding of hundreds of BTEC courses deemed to be overlapping with T Levels.
It was this issue which attracted the most media attention through the month, drawing firm words from either side of the debate - those that believe the defunding of BTECs and level 3 AGQs should be accelerated to make room for T-Levels, and those that suggest halting these decisions while T-Levels remain in a fledgling phase and call for a maintaining of the three main pathways of post-16 education into the future.
A decision on the policy was expected soon after a Labour government entered office. The Protect Student Choice campaign, co-ordinated by the Sixth Form Colleges Association and backed by 28 organisations, had successfully lobbied for a commitment to pause and review the plans.
A report released in the middle of the month, however, written by WPI Strategy with the support of Lord Sainsbury - the ‘architect of T Levels’ - and featuring a foreword from Gordon Brown, fanned the flames of disagreement.
In it, the former PM called on the government to “ignore” the “calamitous and costly” sector calls to pause and review the defunding of BTEC programmes, which he argued would “set the economy back” during a period of heightened need for skills.
Sector reaction to the report and its recommendations, which broadly advocated for an accelerated T Level rollout and continued defunding of BTECs, attracted harsh criticism.
Bill Watkin CBE, Chief Executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, criticised the report for “recycling many of the tropes used by the last Conservative government to describe BTEC qualifications while overstating the performance and potential uptake of T levels”. Similarly, Lord David Blunkett called for the use of “common sense”, avoiding a “scorched earth” policy while T-Levels remained in their “infancy”.
Alice Barnard, CEO of the Edge Foundation, revealed that their focus groups with T Level students had found that many feel “apprehensive” about future prospects. “T-Levels have potential”, Barnard argued, “but potential is where they currently stand.” It would be “remiss” to toy with credible alternatives to T-Levels in the meantime, she continued.
Hopes of a decisive announcement that would ‘protect student choice’ were dashed somewhat by the new education secretary’s announcement that the DfE would conduct a “focused review of the post-16 qualification reforms at level 3 and below” - but only those that had been scheduled for defunding from August 1st, 2024. The review would, the Department said, be completed by the end of this calendar year.
The Protect Student Choice campaign were “surprised and deeply concerned” following the announcement, urging Phillipson to “reconsider” its plan and confirm that students will be able AGQ’s up to and including the 2026/7 academic year, and commit also to ensuring that a three-pronged post-16 system exists well into the future.
The SFCA’s Deputy Chief Executive, James Kewin, was especially critical of the decision in an FE Week article, suggesting that it was “hard to avoid the conclusion that this wildly unrealistic timescale is designed… to encourage institutions to drop AGQs and pick up T Levels.” Bill Watkin labelled the decision a "betrayal of the commitment made in opposition", and a "betrayal of the young people that rely on applied general qualifications to progress to higher education or skilled employment."
The decision making process over the next few months will be fascinating to follow, particularly as broader reforms that tend to attract more media attention, like Skills England and levy reform, trudge onward.
Top Stories
Below are our top five stories of the month.
FE News - Bridget Phillipson announces pause and review of Level 3’s – Sector Reaction
"Today (24th July 2024), Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson said: “I am pleased to announce that the department will undertake a short pause and review of post 16 qualification reform at level 3 and below, concluding before the end of the year. This means that the defunding scheduled for next week will be paused.”
WPI Strategy - Delivering a ‘Skills, skills, skills’ agenda for Growth
"As the former Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, makes clear in his foreword to our new report, Delivering Skills for Growth, “..if the challenge 25 years ago was summed up as ‘education, education, education’, today it is ‘skills, skills, skills’."
FE Week - There is still time for Labour to protect student choice
"“It’s not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It’s the hope I can’t stand”.
These words from John Cleese (playing the role of headteacher Brian Stimson in the 1986 film, Clockwise) could very easily be applied to the ongoing saga of qualification reform.
Education Policy Institute - Closing the Forgotten Gap: Implementing a 16-19 Student Premium
"Our new report, supported by Unbound Philanthropy, calls for a 16-19 student premium to tackle the sizeable attainment gap facing disadvantaged 16–19-year-olds.
Building on recent research by EPI which has shown disadvantaged students are 3.2 grades behind their peers by the time they finished 16-19 education, the report makes recommendations to the new government about how a new student premium might work, who would be eligible and the likely costs."
FE Week - Labour snubs colleges in public sector pay awards
"The recommendation to uplift school teacher pay by 5.5 per cent, accepted by the government today, will not apply to colleges. Chancellor Rachel Reeves today announced that the government has accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s (STRB) recommendation of a 5.5 per cent pay rise for teachers."