Is Andy Burnham Ready to Keep Britain Working?FE Soundbite 856

July 18, 2026

Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 856: 18th July 2026. Is Andy Burnham Ready to Keep Britain Working?

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.

Upcoming national day to celebrate vocational learning

Save the date for Vocational Celebration Day on 6 August 2026, led by Enginuity and EAL — a national campaign celebrating the value and impact of vocational and technical learning. Organisations, educators and individuals can now get involved and show their support by downloading the FREE campaign pack and joining the celebration.

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Gavin’s Reflective Perspective

So we will have a new PM on Monday. He has declared ‘I am ready’ in his speech, being announced as leader of the Labour Party. Which is great. As we need a Prime Minister who is 100% ready. We have 1 Million NEETs, and the latest research from Impetus highlights a £244,000 lifetime NEET cost! That is huge and obviously needs addressing!

Potential to save £244 Billion, which is the GDP of Greece!

What I found really eye opening from Impetus, is that there is potential to save £244 Billion (which is the GDP of Greece) with helping NEETs back into work… that is bonkers, Greece is a major economy and that is the cost of young people not in education, work and employment in just the UK. So we have to hope that Andy Burnham is ready for the task at hand!

300,000 hidden NEETs

Impetus calculates that there are 300,000 hidden NEETs… DfE talked about ‘Phantom NEETs’ in local government data just a few days ago. So will Burnham start to reach the hard-to-reach? Or go for easy pickings first?

There has been talk from different political parties about mandatory National Service, so we’ll see if that materialises (maybe not just into the MoD forces… but maybe a work experience national service, in care, sorting potholes... could be smart)… but Impetus were talking about recruiting an ‘outreach army’ of young people.

A NEET Outreach Army

Impetus talked about recruiting NEET, or formerly NEET, young people into an ‘outreach army’ to find and engage them with support into employment would open doors that Jobcentre appointments never will. It would also offer NEET young people paid training and employment.

£570 Million Cost will pay for itself in five years and save the Government up to £6 Billion

This measure is estimated to cost roughly £414m over five years, and enacted as part of a £570m package of three reforms, would more than pay for itself within five years and could save the government up to £6bn in the long run based on the reduced lifetime costs of each NEET young person. This represents a theoretical return on investment of £10.50 for every £1 invested.

But… good for the outreach army to be in paid work… but will it give the experience that employers are long term looking for?

On the Impetus report, there were some big former political heavyweights endorsing the findings, such as Lord Blunkett, who still has massive influence in the Labour Party. But does he have influence over Burnham and the new team we will be forming?

Employer confidence and the supply side of vacancies to match against

The National Audit Office highlighted that employer confidence is critical to Construction Skills Package Success (the £625M + construction skills package to create 60,000 roles to support the delivery of construction skills for 1.5 million houses)… now we do know that Burnham still wants to build houses, particularly Council houses… so Construction skills is going to be key. But the NAO highlights: To achieve its aspiration of up to 60,000 workers, and support its housing and infrastructure commitments, the government will need better data, to prioritise resources, and to get employers’ buy-in. Without this, skills shortages could drive up costs and put major delivery commitments at risk. Dr Sharon Smith wrote a really interesting exclusive this week on the importance of data, the RONI’s (Risk of NEET indicators), but everything is pointing to better data, labour market, skills needs, NEETs, missing NEETs, etc. Will this become a priority under Burnham to ensure we are pointing the skills compass in the right direction?

Is Andy Burnham Ready to Keep Britain Working?

Looking at the wider labour market, and away from NEETs, young people the DWP highlighted this week that 100,000 disabled people and those with health conditions have been supported to move closer to the labour market by Pathways to Work advisers… 100,000 is a cracking amount of people… but the overall number of people economically inactive due to ill health or disability is 2.7 million people, DWP confirmed that 2.7 Million people are on Universal Credit assessed as too sick to work, over 170,000 of whom are aged 16 to 24. The Keep Britain Working review highlights this cost to be £212 Billion per year.

Andy Burnham has to be ready! As something needs to change… the NAO report just looks at construction.. but we have eight industrial strategy priority areas, plus 2 (10 in total by Skills England), what is being done to match these needs… as only the other week we had the just 19% of Level 2 and 3 students were in a priority skills area… we have a new academic year coming up… are we matching to the skills needs?

Next week, we have the Breaking Barriers Collective report launch (on Tuesday) in partnership with Edge Foundation. This is looking at NEETs, and it is the findings from the collective intelligence event back in June…. But we really need a joined-up, all-level careers, skills and employability model to meet the skills needs by industry, the emerging needs.. and training people in the correct skills areas, to reduce the NEET numbers, help those who are economically inactive due to ill health back into work… and reduce the astronomical welfare costs.

How are you celebrating Vocational Celebration Day?

.... and thank you to Enginuity for sponsoring FE Soundbite this week. How are you celebrating Vocational Celebration Day on the 6th August?

Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles

This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!

Firstly, Why FE Colleges Must Be Recognised as the UK’s Innovation Engine By Elaine Baxter, PhD, CChem, FRSC, FRSA, founder and director of Boutique Innovation

Secondly, The Most Important Word in Apprenticeships By Andy Hillerby, Founder, Apprenticeship Improvement

Finally, Flexibility with Purpose By Graham Hasting-Evans, Chief Executive of NOCN and President of BACH

Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week

Neuro-inclusion Article One: The Research Project That Led to My ADHD Diagnosis By Stuart Martin, the Founder of George Angus Consulting and of the Neurodiversity-Supportive Standard

We Need to Look For Warning Indicators Long Before A Student Disappears From Destination Data or Fails To Enrol On A Post-16 Course By Dr Sharon Smith is the Assistant Head of Teaching & Learning (Quality) at Tute Education and a Research Associate and convenor within BERA’s Alternative Education Special Interest Group