What Do Employers Really Think About Foundation Apprenticeships? FE Soundbite Edition 812

August 30, 2025

Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 812: 30th August 2025 | What Do Employers Actually Think About Foundation Apprenticeships?

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

What Do Employers Really Think About Foundation Apprenticeships?

Lifetime Group launched a new report this week: ‘Blueprint or blind spot: how will foundation apprenticeships play out for the learner and the employer?’ The publication follows the August launch of the first Foundation Apprenticeships, designed to build employability skills in 16-21 year olds and contribute towards addressing skills and youth unemployment crises... especially as just last week (and the data released on Results Day).. that we now have 948,000 NEETs or 12.8% of all 16-24 year olds not in education, employment or training! ...we definitely need some solutions to support and fix this!

What support is in place for NEETs 22-24 years old?... Especially as Half the NEETs are 22-24 years old!!!

Foundation Apprenticeships... the Youth Guarantee (and last week we saw more money injected into Youth Guarantee pilots) both have a cut off in support at 21 years old... but what about the 22 - 24 year old NEETs? What support is in play for them (seeing as half of all NEETS are 22-24 years old according to Work Foundation)?

Skills England Confirms Latest Approvals for Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs)

Skills England has released the latest list of approved Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs), confirming which programmes have successfully met approval requirements as of August 2025. Level 4 and 5 are often regarded as the 'missing middle'... so are we finally going to sort out this massive skills gap area?

Exclusive Thought Leadership

We have some cracking exclusives this week from Character Education to Interdisciplinary to Mandy Crawford Lee's article talking about a Poverty of Ambition.. to Storytelling through Data.

Interdisciplinary

Now, I have been a massive fan of Ed Fidoe since I hosted my first ever in-person session with Ed on a panel pre-pandemic... it was literally a standing-only event. Which was a great confidence boost when this was my first time chairing a session... and since Skills England are now mentioning Interdisciplinary more and more.. I thought I would ask Mr Interdisciplinary himself to start writing on FE News again... and this is his first piece, so I hope you find it interesting and I love his point on raising a narrow focussed cohort and how we develop wider systems thinking in the world of work.

I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.

Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles

Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week

Firstly, Apprenticeship Lexicon By Dr Mandy Crawford Lee, FRSA, Chief Executive at University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC)

Secondly, Data can be your most Powerful Storyteller By Kerry Boffey, CEO & Founder at The Fellowship of Inspection Nominees (FIN)

Finally, Rethinking Graduate Success: Why Workplaces Must Evolve By Ed Fidoe, CEO and Founder of the London Interdisciplinary School

This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!

ChatGPT’s new Study Mode: Personalised learning or just another shortcut? By Dr Rodrigo Perez-Vega, Associate Professor of Marketing at Henley Business School

Becoming Through The In-between: Rites Of Passage, Liminality And The Role of Reflection In Youth Character Development By Neil Wolstenholme, Chairman, Kloodle

What’s New in the World of FE?

From Security Guard to Strategic Asset: Reframing protection in FE and Apprenticeships By Julie Barker, COO of AUCSO and former Non-Exec Director, College and University Business Officers (CUBO), and Chair of The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO).

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 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