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Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 811: 23rd August 2025 | Results Day Reality: Are We Fuelling The Skills Rocket Or Creating An AI Gender Gap? When just 20,708 females received Computing GCSE results, and only 31% of females study GenAI courses as adults, how do we break the AI Gender Skills Gap? On the same day as GCSE Level 1 and 2 Results Day, we had increases in NEETs (particularly females) and an extension of Youth Guarantee pilots. Read on to explore how these pieces connect and what it means for our skills future.
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
Another massive week of announcements this week. Again, you’d be fooled if you thought the big announcements were just Results Day! Ironically, we also had massive announcements from ONS on NEETs (ironically on the same day as GCSE level 1 and 2 Results Day). Youth Guarantee pilots! All on Results Day!
Results Day Realities
So we had GCSE, Level 1 and 2 Results this week. So the stats were pretty much the same as last year, give or take. There were 5.6 Million GCSE results issued, just over 1.1 Million students, which was just 29,885 more than last year.
Why Are So Few People Studying Computing GCSE In An AI Era?
One massive stand out stat for me, was Computing GCSEs. You can’t wait at a bus stop, in a queue at a coffee shop or at the gym and not have someone mention AI. Yet we had just 91,619 students studying Computing GCSE, and of this cohort, just 20,708 female students studying Computing GCSE?
To put this into context, out of 1.1 Million students, the number of female students who studied Computing GCSE was just 1.88% in the overall student cohort! Now that seems like a slow-moving train wreck for exacerbating a gender skills gap!
How Do We Address A Potential AI Gender Skills Gap From Getting Worse?
The AI Skills Gap isn’t just seen in GCSEs, Coursera, in their recent GenAI Gender Gap Report, found that Generative AI courses rose by 227%, but only 31% of those learners were women in the UK. This isn't just a UK issue... globally, the figure is 32%. So I think serious thought needs to be given to how we address this AI Gender Skills Gap!
So where to start?.. I've gone first up with NEETs... as The Youth Guarantee is all about reducing the number of NEETs basically.
ONS released the latest NEET figures (on Results Day)! It is currently estimated by ONS that there are 948,000 NEETs, up from 923,000 in January to March 2025. This represents 12.8% of all 16–24-year-olds, an increase of 0.3 percentage points on the quarter.
Rise in the Number of Female NEETs
The increase was driven primarily by young women, with female NEETs rising by 25,000, while the number of young men NEET fell slightly by 1,000. Overall, 497,000 young men and 450,000 young women are currently NEET.
Among 18–24-year-olds specifically, the NEET rate now stands at 15.0%, also up 0.3 percentage points compared with the previous quarter.
Youth Guarantee Pilots
Now, Youth Guarantee is for 16-21 year olds… but NEET figures are 16-24 year olds, this is very important to highlight. Especially as the NEET rate for 18-24 year olds is now 15% (eg higher than younger aged NEETs)!
On the same day as the NEET figures are announced.. and GCSE Results... the Youth Guarantee trailblazer scheme was extended for another year. This is an additional £45M for eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers.
Which is great.
Thursday 21st August was a really pivotal day
But… Thursday 21st August was a really pivotal day, Results day always is.. but when you couple the rising numbers of NEETs… the knock on effect for the Youth Guarantee need. Are we recommending the qualifications that young people (and adults) really need in their new 4th industrial revolution?… and it is a revolution on skills needed and an evolution of skills gaps that is only going to get more vast unless we have a joined-up approach.
Interestingly, just last week Skills England forecasts 900k new priority jobs by 2030. Skills England highlighted that these sectors will be Digital and Technologies, Adult Social Care, Construction (Housebuilding), and Engineering, which will see the largest increases in workforce demand.
BUT... According to this week's JCQ data, the number of students studying or receiving grades in Computing or Science-related GCSEs is lower than last year. So are we pointing young people early on with their GCSE and then Level 3 choices in the right direction?
Particularly when the two top in 'Demand Jobs' highlighted by Skills England were: Care workers and home carers (+90,000), and very closely followed by programmers/software development professionals (+87,000).
So if Programmers and Software Development Specialists are the second most needed growth job roles, why aren’t we feeding this back to parents, teachers, and students when they make their GCSE choices? Are we also teaching skills that are sought after in Computing GCSE, say, like Python, that are crucial for AI, Data Sciences, etc?
Do We Need to Think of Early Stage Careers and Course Advice from Potentially 13 years Old.. To Line Up To Post 16 Skills Needs?
So I would say this highlights the massively important task of providing data and careers advice to students, to parents and teachers, from 13-14 years old, when they are making GCSE subject choices. Then again, at the end of school and in the period we are in right now, post Results Day. For levels 1, 2, and 3. How do we also keep this agile? The growth in GenAI has literally been over the past three years. How do we create a system that is flexible and adapts?
How do we align, careers advice and guidance, when should we start this?... how can we make sure this is available for all ages as well? If we can spot priority areas, surely we need to fuel the 'skills rocket' with the correct fuel and position it in the right direction?
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
UK Retrofit Skills Gap: 9 Reasons Why Colleges Are Struggling to Keep Up By Maria Gonella, Managing Partner at Quantum Group
Opportunity and Diversity: How Clearing is Changing and Why it Needs to By Gary Davies, Deputy Vice Chancellor at London Metropolitan University
Policy vs. Practice: How The Government, Skills England And The L&D Industry Can Rebalance UK Training Needs By Al Bird, CEO at Instep
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
A Practice of Care: Learning from Danish Folk High Schools By Dr Lou Mycroft, Co-Director FE Constellations, a nomadic educator, writer, and Green Changemaker.
AI or Teacher Feedback: What Do Students Think? By Imran Ali-Farzal, Co-CEO at KEATH.ai
What’s New in the World of FE?
GCSE Level 1 and 2 Results
GCSE Level 1 and 2 Results 2025 | Sector Reaction
Announcements
Thousands of Apprenticeship Opportunities Created through School Rebuilding Programme By the Department for Education (DfE)
Apprenticeship Scheme Opens to Applicants to Get More School Leavers into Civil Service By the Cabinet Office
Goverment Extends The Youth Guarantee Trailblazer Scheme By the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Reports
August ONS: NEETs Rise to 948k, But Female Inactivity Increases By Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Appointments
Innovate Awarding, part of Lifetime Group, appoints Rob May as new Managing Director By Innovate
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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