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Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 825: 29th November 2025. How do we create and design V Levels, to be Valued Levels?
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
I have had one of those weeks where two weeks merge into one. I have been in Doha, Qatar over the weekend and loved the WISE 12 conference… then I travelled for 6,680 Km or a 15 hour journey to the FAB annual conference… and I loved it.
How do we Ensure V Levels = Valued Levels?
One thing that I picked up at the FAB conference and I am going to rip the plaster off here… is to ensure that V Levels are valued... as employers value vocational skills, V Levels are not just for those who are not sure what they are doing, or a second tier, V Levels, vocational skills are valued... so how do we work with DfE, and employers to ensure that V Levels are valued, and brilliant?
I think we need to rethink things a bit.. what is the final destination for education, for skills. Now Keir Starmer has his 2:3 higher level qualification target for higher level skills… cool… but what is the reason? Is it to go to university, if so again why? Or is it to be job-ready and be valuable in the world of work? A Levels are the academic route (eg to uni)… T Levels have the work experience in there, but it is a chunky qual (but are still low numbers, eg 25,500 students starting in the 2024-25 academic year), though this is lower than the original ambition of 100,000 by 2025.
Co-Design and Making Sure Vocational is Valued, as it is!
So we have this unique opportunity when designing, creating (co-creating with Government) to make V Levels, Valued, Valued Levels, by employers, by students, by parents… how do we ensure V Levels equal Valued Levels? As employers value vocational skills, value learners that are employer and job ready.
V Levels are a massive opportunity and several times at FAB, officials from DfE, from Skills England, from Ofqual said… they genuinely want to co-design and want help with the qualification reforms… so it is time to be the solution and be united as a sector.
Doha – AI and Humanity and a fresh perspective on NEETs and Youth Employment
Loved my trip to Doha in Qatar for WISE 12, loads of cool insights on the global perspective of AI and also humanity, ethical AI and skills. Loved it. Also loved getting to know more about EAA (the Education Above All) charity, particularly looking at youth employment globally… I mean this is massive, there was the first ladies from Syria, Nigeria and Lebanon… now I am massively passionate about tackling the NEET challenge in the UK and the world, but it is next level tackling the NEET challenge in a country that has been ravished by civil war. It is brilliant to reset your thinking every now and then and I really enjoyed having loads of new thoughts and perspectives from the WISE 12 conference. Loved it!
Budget
Now we couldn’t have a budget announcement, with some pretty major announcements and it not get a mention on Soundbite!
Levy – Use it or lose it… will more Employers be losing it?
Great stuff about under-25 Apprenticeships and SMEs from the budget, I am pretty concerned about the shorter use-it-or-lose-it announcements on the Levy (eg you have a year to use up your Growth and Skills Levy funds in your digital account), rather than 24 months. This is a concern!
Especially, as if a Levy payer’s funds are exhausted (eg their pot is spent and they want to spend more on Apprenticeships), the co-investment arrangements are a lot less generous as a 75:25 model (which appears to be a way to increase the amount of spend on training and skills from employers on skills and training… which in fairness, would they then spend more on Apprenticeships or something else… it would be interesting to see how this shakes out).
I think the use it or lose it on the Levy budget ... after 1 year, is pretty concerning. Will this increase or decrease engagement? I think probably the latter! FE, Skills and Employability is the answer to the £212 Billion welfare cost for Economic Inactivity due to ill health.... this is a huge amount and surely this needs to be the aim for the sector to help reduce this and provide opportunities for all. How do we deliver to reduce the number of NEETs, and also provide the essential skills to also facilitate those who will be affected by the rise of automation and how this will affect specific roles and careers. It is massively important for FE and Skills to step into the gap to support employability and sustainable employability. As the labour market and future skills needed is going through major disruption, if we are seeing that major qualification reform takes 18 months to 2 years, we need to be thinking of this now, not later!
I hope you enjoy Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Ending the Support ‘Cliff Edge’ in the Transition to Adulthood: Time to Deliver Change for Young Autistic People By The Baroness Rock, a current member of the House of Lords
Lifelong Learning in Limbo: What Stalling Participation Means for the Future of Skills By Anja Meierkord (Analyst, OECD), Roland Tusz (Analyst, OECD) and Glenda Quintini (Head of Skills and Future Readiness, OECD)
Essential skills for a changing workforce: What the further education sector needs to know about the NFER’s new landmark report By Josh Hillman, Director of Education, The Nuffield Foundation
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
Assessment Is Being Rewritten: What the Latest Research Means for FE & HE Right Now By Lindsey Poole, Functional Skills lead, academic mentor at the University of Exeter
The Role Of Workforce Intelligence In Smarter Workforce Planning & Forecasting By Cory Steinle, Head of Growth at Beamery
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcements
Budget 2025 for FE & Skills | Sector Reaction By HM Treasury
House of Lords: New Autism Strategy Must Deliver Change For Autistic People By the House of Lords
Chancellor Announces Increase to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage By HM Treasury
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Calls for Renewed Action on Arab Youth Employment at WISE 12 By WISE
Reports
City & Guilds Foundation delivers £23m social return and nearly £6m in grants driving social mobility By City & Guilds
End of ‘Covid boom’ for Early Graduate Employment By Jisc
Voices
ChatGPT Turns Three: Five Lessons on AI in Education By Dr Evelina Galaczi, Director of Research – English, at Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
AI in the classroom – A welcome step, but are UK Teachers ready? By Dr Nisreen Ameen, Director of the Digital Organisation and Society (DOS) Research Centre, Royal Holloway, University of London
In The Know
Join us on Feb 12th in London for our SEND collective intelligence event. Where you'll co-create strategies and policy recommendations alongside sector leaders. This isn't lectures, it's rolling up sleeves and making real change. This isn't just SEND, this is Neuro-inclusion and breaking down the silos to help every learner, not just 16-18, but all life long. This is a massively important Collective, so help shape the report!
We hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week. Stay curious, keep innovating, and let's shake up the world of FE together, and catch you next week!
By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager, FE News and | 