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Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 834: 14th February 2026. Apprenticeship Starts Are Up in England and Wales. Will a Clearing System Create a More Agile Apprenticeship System?
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
Happy NAW... and if you are reading this on Saturday, happy Valentine's Day!
So this is the 19th National Apprenticeship Week. Some really interesting announcements have come out: from a new clearing system pilot to match ‘near miss’ applicants with similar apprenticeship opportunities in their area set to be rolled out later this year, to any construction firms working on school and college buildings must demonstrate they are taking on apprentices... this could create 13,000 apprenticeship and T Level opportunities!
Clearing and Near Misses
I think the clearing concept for Apprenticeships is interesting. Not sure if UCAS will be involved or how they feel about this if they are not. The agile mindset is evident here, embracing the reality of 'near misses'... I think it's great. We need to tighten targeting and recruitment for Apprenticeships, regionally, industry-wide, and nationally, in priority skills areas. Is there then a way to match the 'clearing' to high-demand roles, priority skills areas, to fill roles quickly, and to be more agile?
What is great is that this also matches to most importantly, how is this aligned to Careers Advice and Guidance... as with all of the announcements, unless people know about opportunities or can be redirected (like clearing)... the progression pathways, earning potential etc... but to be fair the clearing announcement flags that it will 'bring together information on apprenticeships in one place for young people, many of whom are keen to explore the apprenticeship route but don’t know where to start'. So again, this is a focus for young people.
Will the careers, advice, and guidance teams in schools or colleges be interlinked and shown this route? Does this align with the careers service's changes and developments toward a more digital, Apprenticeships-aligned model in the longer term? Will this also link to Skills Bootcamp needs for older learners, returners or career changers?
So, an interesting development, but for me still a lot of questions to be answered, and a very interesting and potentially exciting development. If, again, it is data-led, it could also highlight gaps in provision and, hopefully, accelerate programmes to match demand. If that is the case, this is massively exciting!
Apprenticeship Starts are up!
I have heard many people in the sector repeatedly say that Apprenticeship starts are down, but in the announcement on the clearing system for 'near misses'... DWP says that there have been 353,500 apprenticeship starts in the first year of this government, which is 13,920 more than the year before (2023/24)! There is no clarification on the levels... on which programmes (is this all level 7?... or ages... particularly with the switch to focusing on younger people for Apprentices)... just the number! Which is good that we have an increase!... but, does this leave much left in the Levy pot for the remainder of the year?
Exclusive thought leadership
Wow, what a line up of content and thought leaders we had this week.. from the Exclusive interview with Skills England Chair Phil Smith on flexies in Apprenticeships, Apprenticeship units to preparing an agile skills and apprenticeship system for the future.
To an exclusive with Jack Sargeant, Minister for Skills for the Welsh Government highlighting that over 100,000 publicly funded and accredited apprenticeships have been delivered in Wales this Senedd term.
So, according to the English and Welsh teams, Apprenticeship numbers and particularly starts are up!
Apprenticeship Flexies
Phil Smith was talking about flexies, I thought this week's ScreenSkills article was really interesting from Laura Mansfield discussing the screen industry (TV, film, animation etc).... Laura highlights that research from ERIC suggests that 75% of young people are interested in creative careers, yet many remain unsure how to begin... however, freelancers make-up over 50% of the screen workforce... shortening apprenticeships from 12 to 8 months helps, but screen industry contracts often run less than nine months ... so it still doesn't match how the creative sector actually works.
Nichola Hay's article really resonated with me... and I 100% agree (a week after Anthropic made one single update on their Claude AI LLM... which affected financial service share prices around the world), we are on the cusp of major, major disruption in the world of work, this means that everyone, of all ages, needs to constantly reskill, upskill and in some sectors... totally pivot... so her article on Apprenticeships for All: Upskilling for Any Age and Career Stage ... is massively important and timely!
Looking at future skills, AI and Apprenticeships... wow, loved Jenny Taylor's article on Apprenticeships closing the AI skills gap. Particularly as Jenny highlights that Apprenticeships are underrepresented in modern fields such as AI!
FAB have a new chair... and we had a brilliant exclusive from new FAB Chair Tim Bennett-Hart on Pragmatism, Partnership, and the Pace of Change: A New Chapter for Qualification
NAW wouldn't be NAW without the Apprentice's voice
Our Dan wrote a really honest piece about his Degree Apprenticeship You know us, we live it... we believe in Apprenticeships, so here is an insight from our lead Apprentice.. our Dan. I hope you like it! People have loved this, so I hope you find it helpful too.
Further News
Outside of NAW announcements - we also have Ofsted with new QR codes for Ofsted inspection findings to Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Inspections FAQs... and the Education and Health and Social Care committees have launched a new inquiry into children and young people’s mental health... this is the select committee's direct quote... not mine: 1 in 5 young people face ‘probable mental disorder’!
I hope you enjoy Soundbite this week. Happy NAW and Valentine's! I hope you enjoy Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, Pragmatism, Partnership, and the Pace of Change: A New Chapter for Qualifications By Tim Bennett-Hart, CEO of RSL Awards and Chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB)
Secondly, Skills England Chair Phil Smith on National Apprenticeship Week 2026
Finally, Apprenticeship Assessment Reform: Risks, Opportunities and the Year Ahead By Alex Morris, Senior Consultant at Avencera
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
Why Apprenticeships are becoming a strategic advantage for UK employers By Sheila Flavell CBE, COO of FDM Group
Apprenticeships for All: Upskilling for Any Age and Career Stage By Nichola Hay MBE, Director of Apprenticeship Strategy and Policy at BPP Education Group
Apprenticeships play a leading role in closing the AI skills gap By Jenny Taylor, UK Early Professionals Program Leader at IBM
Welsh Government apprenticeships open doors for thousands seeking their route into work By Jack Sargeant, Minister for Skills for the Welsh Government
Collaboration should be the watchword for National Apprenticeship Week By Mark Hilton, Policy Delivery Director at BusinessLDN
A Degree Apprenticeship Is Harder Than Anyone Tells You, But It’s Worth It By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager at FE News
What’s New in the World of FE?
Annoucements
Apprenticeship Clearing Pilot Launches to Unlock 50,000 New Opportunities By the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
School Building Programme to Deliver 13,000 Construction Apprenticeships and T Levels By the Department for Education (DfE)
MPs launch inquiry as 1 in 5 young people face ‘probable mental disorder’ By the House of Commons
Ofsted’s Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Inspections FAQs By Ofsted
Ofsted launches new QR code badges for promoting inspection findings By Ofsted
Bridging the Digital Divide: Three Colleges Named as National Digital Insight Hubs By the Association of Colleges (AoC)
Make UK calls for Skills Investment Pledge to reverse plummeting apprenticeship numbers By Make UK
Appointment
NCFE strengthens board with four new trustees bringing global and sector expertise By NCFE
Voices
Cracking into the Screen Industry with Apprenticeships By Laura Mansfield, CEO, ScreenSkills
In The Know
We have two Collective Intelligence events planned for 2026... aka Collectives
We have big plans for upcoming Collectives, and you can get involved. One is on SEND in April .. and another on NEETs in June. We have learnt a lot from the Green Mindset Collective and we are drawing from this on how to give people more voice, more influence on the report... and to make the report more action focused (the Green Mindset Collective had a playbook for people to use, not just a dusty report that is never accessed, but something usable as a takeaway for the entire sector).
On 24th April 2026, at Tavistock Square in London, join us for the Bridging the SEND Transition Collective in partnership with ETF
On the 2nd June 2026, join us for the Breaking Barriers Collective event in partnership with Edge Foundation, working together collectively to solve the NEET puzzle.
These aren't conferences; these are collectives. These aren't lectures or chalk and talk, but interactive: it's rolling up your sleeves and making real change, where you get involved and actually give real input. These are two massively important Collectives, so join us and help shape the report and sector response!
By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager, FE News and | 