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Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 810: 16th August 2025 | Beyond Results Day: Are We Building The Workforce For Skills England's 2030 Vision? Level 3 Results Day, T Levels, CTECs, Skills England Priority Skills Areas, and ONS released the latest Labour Market stats... with vacancies falling for the 37th consecutive month, is the labour market cooling just as we're projecting massive skills demand?
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
A busy week and you'd be forgiven for thinking this week is just all about Level 3 results and results day part 1! So much more has happened this week. It still feels kind of revolutionary if someone doesn't refer to Level 3 Results day as just A Level Results day.
For me, looking beyond results day is where I see the 'real story' ... far beyond the usual articles on students hugging or looking depressed about their results. Personally, I see the real story emerging when you look at the overall pattern, not the individual jigsaw pieces of reports and results. This is where everything interlinks, and it's vitally important to connect these pieces together as a sector to deliver more value to learners and employers. This week more than usual a different skills story appears when you look beyond the individual pieces of the puzzle:
Level 3 Results Day
So this week we had Results day part 1... Level 3, A Levels and T Levels, and next Thursday is GCSE results day. I have actually seen a lot more news and info on places like BBC about Apprenticeships, what are T Levels, which is encouraging.
There were more than 1.1 million total Level 3 results issued in 2025 compared with approximately 1.08 million in 2024. A Levels still have the lions share of the coverage, with 814,335 results across 137 subjects in 2025, taken by 313,190 students. This was a small decrease from 2024.
T Level Student Numbers increase, but this is just 1% of all Level 3 Students
T Levels had 11,909 students in 2025 compared with about 7,400 in 2024. The number of schools and colleges offering T Levels has grown by 57% in the past year... but, 11,909 T Level students is just 1.09% of all 1.1 Million Level 3 students! No wonder the National Audit Office recommended that DfE must increase T Level student numbers... it is literally 1% of all Level 3 students!
The 10 Construction Technical Excellence Colleges and 900,000 Priority Jobs By 2030
The 10 CTECs were announced this week and Skills England forecasts 900,000 priority jobs by 2030 with the Assessment of Priority Skills to 2030, with almost one million new jobs in priority occupations projected over the next five years.
High-demand sectors:
Skills England research highlights that Digital and Technologies, Adult Social Care, Construction (Housebuilding), and Engineering will see the largest increases in workforce demand. One third of the extra demand will be for workers with Level 2 or 3 qualifications, with two-thirds requiring Level 4 or higher. The most in-demand jobs: are Care workers and home carers (+90,000) and programmers/software development professionals (+87,000) top the list of growth roles. Which is interesting with the growth of Agentic AI and GenAI tools!
The Labour Market Continues To Cool With Vacancies Falling For The 37th Month In A Row
At the same time we had the latest ONS Labour Market figures this week and the labour market continues to cool with payroll employment down an estimated 164,000 over the past year and vacancies falling for the 37th month in a row!
So this is all very interesting timing, re Level 3 Results Day, ONS Labour Market and the 37th month of vacancies falling, Construction Technical Excellence Colleges... and Skills England's 900,000 high growth and high demand jobs by 2030.
The new academic year is about to start, GCSEs and the culmination of 11 years of school coming to a close next Thursday... then it is out with the old and in with the new... kicking off the new academic year.
With the Skills England priority areas, the CTECs (and future Technical Excellence Colleges), are we really prioritising the training and education of people to step into these roles in 2030 and beyond? How do we ensure we are tracking and adapting to the skills and education needs and not making a bigger education and skills gap?
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Firstly, Independent Oversight is the Backbone of Great Governance By Kerry Boffey, CEO & Founder at The Fellowship of Inspection Nominees (FIN)
Secondly, Fintech in Apprenticeships: What Training Providers Need to Know By Eleanor Sullivan, who is passionate about technology and finance, diving into cryptocurrency, blockchain, and digital security to spark insightful, tech-driven discussions
Finally, ‘Teaching vs Policing’ – The AI Skills Crisis FE Providers Can’t Afford To Ignore By Rob Telfer, Director of Higher Education at D2L
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
A Manifesto For Modern Character: Navigating The Future With People, Planet And Purpose By Neil Wolstenholme, Kloodle Chairman
The Four Seasons of Changemaking By Dr Lou Mycroft, Co-Director FE Constellations, a nomadic educator, writer, and Green Changemaker.
What’s New in the World of FE?
Results Day 2025
2025 A level, T-level, and VTQ results day Sector Reaction
A Level, T Level and VTQ Results Day: DfE Celebrates Success Across England By the Department for Education (DfE)
Announcements
40k people to get skills training in new Technical Excellence Colleges in boost for British building By the Department for Education (DfE)
August ONS: Unemployment Rises to 4.7% as Wage Growth Slows to 4.6% By the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Reports
Employment Rights Bill: Survey reveals ‘most challenging’ reforms for employers By Ciphr
Skills England forecasts 900k new priority jobs by 2030 By Skills England
Voices
Let’s Stop Playing Education Top Trumps By Lou Doyle, Co-founder of SDN Mesma Group
Bridging the AI Skills Gap: A Leadership Imperative By Manny Athwal, Founder and CEO of School of Coding & AI
In The Know
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Will you be joining us on the 30th of October in Manchester for the Green Mindset Micro Collective? This is in partnership with our friends at the Education and Training Foundation. We've announced the chairs, Toby Perkins MP is coming to speak, he's Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee, and as some of you can remember, he used to be Shadow Skills Minister. We also have a cool venue. Check it out and join us on the 30th to help shape the Green Mindset for the sector.
We hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week. Stay curious, keep innovating, and let's shake up the world of FE together, and catch you next week!
By Danny O’Meara, Digital Project Manager, FE News
By Gavin O’Meara, CEO and Founder, FE News and FE Careers
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