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Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 839: 21st March 2026. DWP Giveth and DWP Taketh Away. Will the Level 4 AI and Automation Apprenticeship Replace Management Apprenticeships? More on the £3k Youth Jobs Grant and £2k SME Apprenticeship incentives.
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
DWP Giveth... and Taketh Away
I think this week is going to go down as one of those really impactful, a paradigm shift in skills and Apprenticeship strategies for employers, for providers and the entire FE and Skills sector. This was a big week!
The Skills Strategy Paradigm Shift
I wanted to call this edition of Soundbite: The DWP giveth and taketh away. Some of this week's announcements have been hands-down brilliant. Others… confusing. Like, what… and why? Some of it is not great for employers, and I can see many specialist providers either pivoting rapidly or moving out of the funded market completely. Maybe into a hybrid part-funded, part-commercial model, which seems sensible.
However, employers aren't exactly putting their hand in their pocket for training right now. DfE (when it was still responsible for Skills) found that British employers reduced their investment in staff training by £6 billion in 2024 compared with 2022. This week was a massive moment for a lot of Apprenticeship Providers (ITPs), and I suspect the impact has far from shaken out yet
So first up, thinking positive, the good...
The Giveth - NEETs, Employer Incentives and SME Incentives
Pat McFadden has found an additional £1 billion to be invested in grants to help unlock over 200,000 paid jobs for young people, with the Jobs Guarantee to be expanded to ages 18-24... and backed by celebrity chef Tom Kerridge!
Youth Jobs Grant
As part of this announcement, there is the Youth Jobs Grant, which offers businesses £3,000 for every young person aged 18-24 they hire who has been on Universal Credit for 6 months and is looking for work. More Giveth... An additional £2,000 Apprenticeship Incentive will be available for SMEs for each new employee aged 16-24 they take on. Boom... wonderful news.
Support extended to 22-24-year-old NEETs
Seeing as half of all NEETs are aged 22-24 years old... but previous support was until 21... or under 22... and if you are a regular Soundbite reader, this is something that we have extensively explored... but this is awesome... 22-24 year olds will also be a part of this additional support (at last). So this is excellent news! But... Learning and Work did some previous research called Off the Grid which found just one in four young people who are NEET get help from the employment support system to find work. Stephen Evans wrote a cracking exclusive this week called There’s One Million NEETs In The UK. Are We Doing Enough? I'd highly recommend checking it out!.. but for me, the Youth Jobs Grant (which is very similar in idea to KickStart youth employment programme set up by Rishi Sunak after the pandemic) and the SME Apprenticeship incentive are brilliant!
However, DWP Taketh Away: 16 Apprenticeship Standards Are To Be Defunded
However... the catch.. Sixteen apprenticeship standards are to be defunded as part of the Government’s biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade, with some of the sector’s most widely-used leadership and management programmes among those axed.
Management Apprenticeships Defunded. Has the Productivity and Apprenticeships Link Been Broken?
As part of the 16 Apprenticeship Standards to be defunded, including an entire Management pathway: Team Leader (Level 3), Operations Manager (Level 5), and Chartered Manager (Level 6). So you can't be an Apprentice in management then? Seeing as the Levy - now the Growth and Skills Levy, which is now totally a tax on employers after this decision by DWP... the whole employer-led Apprenticeship system has been flipped.
Is This The End Of The Decade-Long Productivity Plan?
I can remember what I called the Productivity Speech from Nick Boles at the AELP annual conference back in 2015. The Productivity Plan and Apprenticeships have been intrinsically linked. That was basically the driver behind the push on Apprenticeships for a decade. So this is now a paradigm shift. ... and I have also long thought that FE and Skills sector should calculate and show the Return for every £1 spent on Apprenticeship levels ... but there you go.
The productivity puzzle has long been a challenge in the UK, and 'low hanging' fruit was often seen to develop leadership and management, remove the 'accidental manager' and help increase productivity. The defunding of the Management Apprenticeship suite and pathway, is going to be a massive paradigm shift in Apprenticeship delivery ... and the ITP market!
Wait, DWP Giveth Again
Then, the very next day after the big, big announcements, Skills England launches the Level 4 Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation Practitioner Apprenticeship. Now, I have also long banged on about how Management is about to face the biggest paradigm shift in skills needs.... ever... Microsoft's Frontier Firms paper, blew my mind on not just the future, but the now and how this is transforming Management and Leadership skills needs... last year and in May 2025 I tried Why AI Agents and Frontier Firms Mean We Need An Urgent Rethink on Skills and Assessment ... but I didn't think the answer was to defund like the entire suite of Management Apprenticeship pathways! This is radical!
Will the L4 AI and Automation Apprenticeship Be The New Management Apprenticeship Pathway?
Now, I know I have long said that management and leadership skills need to change, especially now that we have Frontier firms with a human-to-Agent (digital AI Agents at the moment, soon to be physical walking, talking bots)... but that is radical. Change is always hard for a lot of people to take, but that is radical, radical change, is it too big a jump... maybe... probably. I've been in FE, Skills and Employability for 22 years, honestly. Yes, definitely, this is too big, too fast... especially when you add in qualification reform, V Levels, T Levels (more announcements were just last week).
Again, I have said the pace of change is going to increase rapidly, but wow, I did not see that coming!
So as you can see... a Proper, DWP Giveth, Taketh Away... maybe Giveth again? If you can pivot and catch the opportunity. This is a fast-moving world of FE and Skills, but this is rocket-propelled!
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, There’s One Million NEETs In The UK. Are We Doing Enough? By Stephen Evans, Chief Executive of Learning and Work Institute
Secondly, When Neurodiversity Adjustments Are Seen as Perks: Rethinking Culture in FE By Nathan Whitbread, Founder of The Neurodivergent Coach
Finally, Creative T Levels Must Nurture Adaptability, Not Just Train for Jobs By Dr Fern-Chantele Carter is Global Director of Awarding and Responsible and Accountable Officer at RSL Awards
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
Opening the Black Box: Can AI Repair the Student–Teacher Feedback Loop? By Dr Michael Smith is a specialist in educational assessment, an academic researcher and co-founder of Markus. He has worked in further education for over 17 years, most recently as Vice Principal at a London College.
We Must Succeed at Tackling Youth and Disabled Unemployment Gaps By Jess Redmond (Policy Advisor) and Emelia Williams (Research and Policy Analyst), Work Foundation at Lancaster University
Cybersecurity in FE: Together we’re Stronger By David Batho, Director of Security at Jisc
Maths Performance In England Is Above Average, But Something Is Not Adding Up By Lord Agnew. Lord Agnew is Chair of the House of Lords Numeracy for Life Committee
Inclusive Pathways: Opening up Industry for Neurodivergent Talent By Alison Morris, Director of Policy at Skills Federation; Mat Parker, Head of Careers and Inclusion, Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) and Daisy Hooper, Director of Policy, Research and ER, Lantra
What’s New in the World of FE?
16 Apprenticeship Standards Axed as Government Unveils £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant
£1Bn Youth Employment Drive to Unlock 200,000 Jobs and Apprenticeships
ONS Labour Market Data March 2026: Pay Growth Hits Five-Year Low By the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Voices
A Policy Love Letter to Ministers and Officials: Bold Ambition, But Please Join the Dots By Dr Deirdre Hughes OBE, Co-Founding Director, CareerChat UK Ltd., Former Chair of the National Careers Council (England), and Associate Professor, University of Warwick IER
Britain’s Academic Bias is Holding it Back By Graham Hasting-Evans, Chief Executive of NOCN Group
A Step Forward To Help Unlock New Jobs and Apprenticeships For Young People By Susan Higgins, Director of Communications at the Edge Foundation
Assessment Reform in the Age of AI: A Turning Point for the Skills Sector By Kavitha Ravindran, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at sAInaptic
Robin’s Digifest Reflective By Robin Ghurbhurun, UK Managing Director FE and Skills; Executive Director Tertiary Leadership and Transformation at Jisc
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
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 | 