Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 806: 19th July 2025 | Mixed Signals: Rising Unemployment, Falling Inactivity, and Questionable Data. How Can Local Skills Improvement Plans Be Structured to Align Skills Supply with Employer Needs? More on the highest unemployment rate for 4 years and rising NEETs.. but economic inactivity is down... and why Ofqual withdrew a decade of exam access arrangement statistics over data errors!

This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal by FE News: ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here's a snapshot of the latest announcements and epic thought leadership articles from sector influencers and thought leaders across FE and Skills this week on FE News.

Gavin’s Reflective Perspective

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Local Skills Improvement Plans

Gatsby released a really interesting report on Local Skills Improvement Plans and we had a cool exclusive article from James Farr, Director of Think unpacking the research: Creating a Blueprint for Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs)

UK Unemployment Hits 4-Year High of 4.7%, But Economic Inactivity Falls

The latest ONS Labour Market figures were released this week.  This is looking at the employment data from March to May 2025. So UK unemployment hits a 4 year high at 4.7%... but economic inactivity falls to pre-pandemic rates. In terms of people, this is a reduction of 375,000 people who are not ‘economically inactive’ compared to last year.  Showing how Government policy adjustments can also make adjustments on the Labour Market.

... BUT... ONS has flagged, that due to increased volatility of LFS estimates, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes, estimates of change should be treated with additional caution. eg, the Office for National Statistics is once again a bit unsure about its data accuracy? Which is alarming!

More Economically Inactive NEETs now.. compare to the Pandemic!

Alarmingly, Youth Foundation highlighted that an estimated 820,000 16-24-year-olds (or 20.1%) are not in full-time education are neither in work nor actively seeking it. Back in 2021 (when the UK emerged from the pandemic), the rate was 15.7%... meaning around 250,000 more young people are now inactive. ALARMING! After the pandemic we had employment schemes like KickStart to address youth unemployment and NEETs... do we need similar again?

Ofqual Withdraws Decade of Exam Access Arrangement Statistics Over Data Errors

Ofqual is withdrawing its official statistics on access arrangements for GCSE, AS and A levels from 2014 to 2024 after identifying issues with the data. Which is pretty alarming!

Seeing as massive bodies like Skills England are focusing on being 'data-led'... Ofqual and also ONS are admitting data errors (ONS, seeing as they are the Office for National Statistics)... which is all about data and numbers... is pretty alarming!

So I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.

Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles

Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week

Firstly, Beyond the Numbers: Rethinking Apprenticeship Success By Cheryl Swales, Head of Strategic Projects, AELP

Secondly, Creating a Blueprint for Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) By James Farr, Director of Think

Finally, The Real AI Challenge Isn’t the Tech. It’s the Talent By Ash Gawthorp, Chief Technology Officer at Ten10.

This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!

Building a Skills-First Future: Reflections on the Skills England Live Event By James Kimble, Apprentice ambassador, South East Apprenticeship Ambassador Network

A Deep Dive into Workplace Needs Assessments: What’s Happening Day to Day? By Nathan Whitbread, The Neurodivergent Coach

What’s New in the World of FE?

Announcements

Ofsted Sets Out Measures For November Roll-out Of Inspections Under The Renewed Inspection Framework By Ofsted

New £1m EdTech Impact Testbed Pilot to Transform Teaching and Learning By Department for Education (DfE)

ONS Labour Market: UK Unemployment Hits 4-Year High of 4.7%, But Economic Inactivity Falls By Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Ofqual Withdraws Decade of Exam Access Arrangement Statistics Over Data Errors By Ofqual

Reports

Creating A Blueprint For LSIPs To Align Skills Supply and Demand By Gatsby Charitable Foundation

New Policy Report Calls for Regional Education Partnerships to Drive Skills Development By Lifelong Education Institute

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Are you going to join us on the 30th October in Manchester, for the Green Skills, Green Mindset Collective. This is in partnership with our friends at Education and Training Foundation. We've announced the chairs, Toby Perkins MP is coming to speak, he's Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee, and as some of you can remember, he used to be Shadow Skills Minister. We also have a cool venue. Check it out and join us on the 30th to help shape the Green Mindset in the sector and contribute to creating the report.

We hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week. Stay curious, keep innovating, and let's shake up the world of FE together – catch you next week!

By Danny O’Meara, Digital Project Manager, FE News

By Gavin O’Meara, CEO and Founder, FE News and FE Careers