Senior leaders from FE colleges across the skills sectors gathered at the ICC in Birmingham for the Association of Colleges Annual Conference and Exhibition. With a new government in place, attendees were looking for more detail and clarity on the challenges facing the sector over the coming years.
Building a better future
AoC’s David Hughes opened the conference on a more positive note, reflecting that the new government agenda included much of what the sector had been asking for and that colleges should now be involved with helping to build a better future. He set some key asks, including for a change to the adult funding model to be demand led, and that everyone is supported whatever their starting point.
Cohesive and collaborative
Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith emphasised the government’s commitment to transforming the skills system to drive economic growth and opportunity. She highlighted the importance of colleges in providing opportunities for disadvantaged young people and acknowledged the challenges they face, including the rising numbers of young people not in education, training or work. Smith announced significant investments in further education, including £300m of additional funding, £950m for capital skills investment, and £40m for flexing the Growth and Skills Levy to develop Foundation Apprenticeships. She also confirmed that there will be funding for colleges to support the additional cost of changes to employers’ National Insurance Contributions.
Additionally, Baroness Smith highlighted several key initiatives aimed at addressing the current challenges in the skills system. She mentioned the upcoming Get Britain Working white paper, which will outline the government’s ambition for an 80 percent employment rate and provide a comprehensive strategy to achieve this goal. The launch of a Youth Guarantee will offer tailored support to 18-21-year-olds, ensuring they have access to local education, training, and employment opportunities. A new jobs and careers service will be introduced to help individuals find meaningful work and support them in progressing once employed. Furthermore, the reintroduction of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement from January 2027 will promote a culture of continuous learning, enabling individuals to acquire new skills throughout their lives and adapt to changing job markets. These initiatives are part of a broader effort to create a more inclusive and effective skills system that meets the needs of learners and employers alike.
Smith outlined three key differences in the government’s approach: being mission-led with a focus on long-term goals like fixing the NHS and creating clean energy; adopting a collaborative approach involving businesses, trade unions, providers, and learners; and recognising skills as part of a wider ecosystem linked with industrial strategy and other national priorities. She emphasised the need to move from a fragmented to a cohesive system, addressing the confusing landscape of too many offers, and from a competitive market to a collaborative marketplace. Smith concluded by calling for a national conversation on skills, involving everyone in the development and implementation of the strategy.
Social cohesion
Social cohesion was a key trend in this year’s conference, following the riots of this summer, with delegates hearing from a panel of key stakeholders about what needs to be done by Colleges to support social cohesion within their college and local communities.
Reforms and Reviews need re-aligning
With the qualification reforms at level 3 and below now paused until Christmas (or beyond?), there still seems to be a lack of discussion about the importance of level 2 and below qualifications. This continued uncertainly, colleges as well as awarding organisations are struggling to forward plan without all the pieces of the policy jigsaw. Our workshop seemed to only reinforce the importance of flexible qualifications at level 2 and below supporting NEETS entering the college system onto entry, level 1 and level 2 study programmes
Yet another consultation for stakeholders to respond to is the Curriculum and Assessment Review seeking views on what’s working well and how we could improve the curriculum meeting the needs of children and young people.
There was much talk at the conference about the qualification reforms introduced by the previous government and the Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) initiated by the new government. Many delegates indicated they had responded to the CAR, and there was encouragement from many of the speakers for people to respond.
Concerns were expressed about the apparent lack of alignment between the possible outcomes of the CAR, and the ongoing reforms of qualifications at Level 3 and below. Whilst the current “pause and review” of Level 3 was welcome, it was apparent that there is an impending danger in not addressing the damage that could be done by removing some of the very successful provisions at Level 2 and below, which has seen an increase in demand in colleges.
Nurturing the rising number of NEETs
Our panel of speakers: Maria Bowness, Louise James, Sophie Evans, Paul Saunders, LJ Rawlings MBE, and Tracy Mucci
Nowhere is the concern about reform to lower-level qualifications felt more acutely than in the provision of support for learners at risk of becoming NEET. With the high proportion of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) acknowledged in the Skills Minister’s keynote address, senior leaders packed Gateway Qualifications’ breakout session exploring how to engage this learner group.
After a bleak but necessary scene setting from LJ Rawlings of Youth Employment UK, Harlow College and Milton Keynes College described how they are making a real impact re-engaging learners through their use a personalised and flexible curriculum before progressing them onto mainstream courses.
Read more about the work of Harlow College and Milton Keynes College
Stand success
And finally, it was a good conference in the exhibition hall for the Gateway Qualifications team, enjoying the opportunity to catch up with colleagues from across the sector and share some of our solutions for engaging NEETs, improving digital literacy and introducing our new End-point Assessment service.
Visitors to our stand were also invited to play our funding hoopla game, with Andy Moore from Oaklands College taking home an iPad for being the top scorer and Finn, a student governor from Coleg Cambria, winning a pair of Air Pods in our prize draw.
