Could A Skills Compass Help Us Navigate The NEET Crisis And Deliver 1.8 Million New Jobs?Soundbite Edition 850
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 850: 6th June 2026. Could A Skills Compass Help Us Navigate The NEET Crisis And Deliver 1.8 Million New Jobs?
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.
Gavin’s Reflective Perspective
On Tuesday, we hosted the brilliant Breaking Barriers Collective in partnership with Edge Foundation. What a day, when you have people crying in the audience as a result of stories of young people and their experiences of the ‘system’ that has failed them… you know you have a really special day… and why Milburn is saying we are at a Fork in the Road! The networking, the energy, the different experts all coming together. We had real decision makers staying throughout the day to listen and understand the NEET challenge more deeply… it was immense. I am still processing it all to be honest. Here is a cool little 1 min video flavour of the day.
A lot of attention this week has been (and rightly so), on the findings from the Milburn interim review. It is a 217-page, really holistic report on NEETs… there will be more reflections and recommendations to come. There is so much in there.
Is the Skills Compass pointing to Skills England’s direction of travel?
Now, when a lot of attention is on the Milburn Interim Review… Skills England released their annual skills report… basically their first annual review (1st June was the 1st anniversary of Skills England… can’t believe that, they seem to be around forever)!
Some positive things that have flown under the radar on the Report
There is loads in here, it is a 56-page report (I’ve read it twice)… and I have a long-form video interview with Phil Smith, Chair of Skills England, going live on Wednesday. Some things in the Skills England report that have so far flown under most people’s radar … and what is interesting to me is the direction of travel. Particularly things like the development and trial of a Skills Compass, practical things like trying to develop a ‘Common Language of Skills’ for employers and learners … or non learners like NEETs…. developing Local Skills Dashboards… and working with employers on the portability of skills… Skills Passports and whole industry sectors on aiding recruitment into specialist roles with Digital Skills Wallets… I love this. To be fair, a lot of progress and wider ideas for just a year!
So does the Skills Compass highlight a potential direction of travel for Skills England and how we need to move to an agile and flexible skills system? Check out the interview with Phil on Wednesday for more on this!
1.8 Million More Jobs by 2035. How are you preparing to upskill and reskill people for these priority roles?
One massive area, and what we need to prepare for now… is the growth in the 10 priority skills sectors…. so the eight from the industrial strategy, plus the priority sectors like health and social care and construction. Skills England data highlights that these 10 priority sectors will grow by 24% in under 10 years (by 2035), to around 1.8 million roles. Which is a lot!
So it is critical to prepare now and shape our skills offering. Layer this with Local Skills Dashboards and Skills England’s push to get sharper, more accurate data on skills needs… and the direction of travel starts to make real sense. More from Phil on this in the interview on Wednesday, but I like the intention and honestly, with Milburn, now 1 million NEETs, but the overall labour market in general, thinking of transferable skills, critical AI skills, and employability skills is key, then adding the layer on to prepare people to be ready for these massive specialist skills needs! So loads of positive food for thought to upskill and reskill people for these roles.
SEND Experts in Hand and new £1.8 billion investment
More children and young people with SEND will get specialist support without needing a diagnosis, as the government begins rolling out a new Experts at Hand service across England backed by new £1.8 billion investment. The most interesting development here, is that young people will be provided with specialist support…without needing a diagnosis! This alone (without the massive investment)… is a massive win! .. and will help address another part of the NEET puzzle! So brilliant news.
So many great articles in this week’s Soundbite. So I hope you find this helpful, and thank you, Enginuity and EAL, for sponsoring Soundbite this week… and have you put the 6th August 2026 in your diary yet for Vocational Celebration Day?
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
NEET as a Signal of System Strain By Dr Vikki Smith, Chief Professionalism Officer, at the Education Training Foundation.
The AI apprenticeship is the right move. Now make sure it trains for the right thing By Wouter Durville, CEO and co-founder of TestGorilla
Are we asking Apprenticeships to Solve the Wrong Problem? By Rob May, Managing Director at Innovate Awarding
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
How Apprenticeship Reform Could Unlock Workforce Diversity and Strengthen UK Skills Pipelines By Nichola Hay MBE, Director of Apprenticeship Strategy and Policy at BPP
Alan Milburn is Right: We cannot afford to keep Failing Young People by Design By Laura-Jane Rawlings MBE DL, CEO & Founder of Youth Employment UK
Why Local SMEs Remain Underused in the Skills System By Adam Herbert, CEO & Co-founder, Go Live Data
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcements
School Workforce Census 2025: 1,646 more Teachers in FE By DfE
Colleges included in the £1.8bn Experts at Hand offer, but year 1 steers support to the early years, By DfE
Report
Skills England publishes its first Annual Skills Report Landmark report to address key skills gaps By Skills England
Qualification Reform Alone Won’t Fix England’s ‘Missing Middle’ In Higher Technical Education, Warns New Report By the Lifelong Education Institute
Teacher confidence in AI grows, but call for more training to prepare students, new report says By Pearson
Voices
Employers want the Genuine Article, not the Finished one By Shazia Ejaz, Director of Campaigns at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)
The UK’s Plant Skills Gap is no Longer Abstract By Paul Taylor, Head of Card Schemes, NOCN Group
Does the Youth Employment Drive go far enough to Support Young People into the World of Work? By Kristian Webber, employment expert at JENZA
Assessment Evolved: Designing formative assessment for an AI world on ”AI Awareness Day” By Trent Workman Managing Director of US K12 School Assessment at Pearson
In The Know
Next week is a busy one, so as a heads up.
Monday: Exclusive video address from Jacqui Smith from the Breaking Barriers Collective on NEETs and Milburn
Tuesday: Launch of the Bridging the SEND Transition Collective report from Prof Amanda Kirby and Dr. Vikki Smith.
Wednesday: Exclusive video interview with Phil Smith (Chair of Skills England), on their annual report, NEETs, the Skills compass and direction of travel, new ideas on Data, what is the common language of skills… employer engagement, portable skills, skills wallets and loads more!
Thursday: Kicking off the new Learning for a Changing World Live stream season with NCFE (Ep1 is the Missing Million)…. on NEETs!
Cool week of outcomes planned for next week… and more to come!
By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager, FE News and