What Can Adult Education Learn from MENA’s 24% Youth Unemployment Rate? FE Soundbite Edition 832
Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 832: 31st January 2026. This is the 16th anniversary edition of FE Soundbite! The Quiet Collapse: What Can Adult Education Learn from MENA’s 24% Youth Unemployment Rate?
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
16 years of FE Soundbite
So, welcome to edition 832! This means FE Soundbite is 16 years old! Thank you to all of you for your support, and to the literally thousands of contributors over the years. Where did the time go? Ha ha… 2010 is when the iPad was launched?! Weirdly, I will be social sharing FE Soundbite on Saturday morning over coffee, using my iPad! Skills and employability priorities and needs have changed massively in those 16 years.. and 22 years since FE News was launched. It is only going to speed up with the rise of more automation, AI, AI agents, both physical and digital. Exciting times ahead!
The Quiet Collapse of Adult English and Maths
Our Dan wrote a really interesting piece on the recent DfE data release, which showed a headline figure of a 2% decline in adult FE participation. Sounds manageable. Dig deeper, and the picture is far more dramatic. Check it out.
13.7% NEET in the UK… 24% in MENA: A global youth employment challenge
I met the Education Above All Foundation during my visit to Qatar last year. This is a really interesting piece. The UK has a 13.7% NEET rate… which is high… but Youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the highest in the world, about 24.4% in 2023, nearly double the global average. Let that sink in… that is basically a quarter of all young people not in work! Wow!
Check out this article by Mana Mohammed Al Ansari from EAA, talking about global youth employment… in war-torn countries, to sub-Saharan Africa, where one million young Africans enter the labour market each month… each month! What can be done about the global skills mismatch, and what should be done looking ahead at the digital divide, automation, Green Skills, and sustainability?
Mind the Skills Gap: More Calls for a Reversal Back to the All Age, All Level Apprenticeship System
The Transport Committee released a report on the skills gaps in manufacturing for the transport sector. It is actually really interesting reading… and they have some interesting concepts like a Competency Passport and different ways of encouraging diversity through the Levy…. but this was another highly influential committee who have recommended a reversal on the policy of 22 and under for Apprenticeship funding, which scrapped the all age, all level apprenticeship system (which is surely Gold Standard.. and inclusive)… and a call and actually urgent need for Level 7 in manufacturing skills. Really interesting!
I hope you enjoy Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, From Education to Employability: Why Youth Skills Are the Missing Link in Economic and Climate Resilience By Mana Mohammed Al Ansari, the Chief of Economic Empowerment at Education Above All (EAA) Foundation
Secondly, Transparency and Trust: What the Public Office (Accountability) Bill means for FE By Dr Emma Roberts, Head of Law, University of Salford
Finally, A Decade of Digital Development: Celebrating 10 years of Jisc’s Leadership Survey By Robin Ghurbhurun, managing director for FE and skills at Jisc
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
The Quiet Collapse of Adult English and Maths By Danny O’Meara, Operations Manager at FE News
Why FE Must Extend Inclusive Practice to Staff By Sarah Vickrage, Fellowship of Inspection Nominees
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcements
Transport Committee Report: Restore Level 7 Apprenticeships for Over-22s and Increase Levy Flexibility to Address Manufacturing Skills Crisis By Transport Committee
New Chair and Vice Chair Announced for the Federation of Awarding Bodies By Federation of Awarding Bodies
Reports
Digital accessibility should be a route to academic excellence, not a tick box, says new report By Jisc
Voices
Balancing Cyber and Physical Security Priorities in Further Education By Will MacDonald is the Director of Product Management for the Avigilon Alta Video product line at Motorola Solutions
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 recent 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