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Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 816: 27th September 2025 What Do Post-16 Pathways, Mental Health and Safeguarding Concerns Tell Us About Youth Progression?
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
The countdown to the main Party Political Conferences has begun, with the Labour Party conference starting on Sunday. The main headlines will be about ID Cards by the end of this parliament... but in the world of FE, Skills and Employability, it has been a long, long week of announcements. It's blink and you could miss it stuff, as there have been so many important and interconnected announcements this week:
What are the Select Committee Recommendations for FE and Skills?
On Tuesday we had the cross-party Committee recommendations for FE and Skills, basically highlighting that the FE and skills sector has been starved of funding. Well yep, we'd all agree with that!
They also recommended more funding, more funding for equal pay (due to the £9k pay gap between FE and school teacher pay)... I mean, talk about an FE and Skills crowd-pleaser of a report!
At the back, there is more on recommendations to keep level 7 and all age, all levels Apprenticeships. At last, more on NEETs and more on supporting 22-24 year old NEETs into learners, which I have felt like a strange fella shouting in the desert about with for quite a while now (as Youth Guarantee is to 21 years old, the 22 and under Apprenticeship ruling excludes 22-24 year old NEETs)... but.. nope, people and people in authority were listening, which is epic!
Modularisation of T Levels... and the increasing calls for Modularisation of Quals
There was more on Modular T Levels from the Select Committee (there is more and more calls for modularisation of qualifications, Apprenticeships etc of late), more on GCSE Resits, don't scrap applied General qualifications and independence... and the gravitas of Skills England. So a cool cross-party report. Also more on mental health support for learners. Which is a brilliant call. More on this in a bit!
Let's see what happens with the recommendations!
Government Announces Up to £6,000 Retention Payments for FE Teachers in Critical Subjects
Almost instantly, another crowd pleaser... DfE Announced Targeted incentive scheme aims to retain skilled educators in STEM, construction, and early years education on Thursday. .. but remember, we have had the recent split.. DfE is looking after FE (what they are seeing as 16-19 years old and HE), not Skills and Apprenticeships, which is under DWP... so this is great for FE Colleges and Sixth Forms, but what about dual professionals in Apprenticeships (where the skills gap and pricing is even more accute in some subject areas)?!
£25 Million Youth Hub Investment
I loved this: there is a £25M Youth Hub investment announced, with every Premier League club working with DWP to provide Youth Guarantee support. Love this! Youth Hubs (for 18-21 year olds), which are hosted by sports clubs and other community venues in England, Scotland and Wales, will almost double in number thanks to £25 million investment. Seeing as we have 948,000 NEETs or 12.8% of all 16–24-year-olds.. this is very, very welcome.
To Me, Probably The Most Important Report Released This Week (There Were A Few), Seems To Have Gone Off Most People's Radars: New Post-16 Pathways Outcomes Analysis
Department for Education provided the most detailed analysis to date of the pathways taken by young people who don’t go straight to university after finishing school or college.
The groundbreaking study, which tracked over 3,600 young people through detailed monthly activity data from age 16 to 20, reveals that the vast majority (82%) of those not taking the traditional A-levels to university route are following positive, progressive pathways into early adulthood.
Now, I think this data is going to be absolutely key for a number of reports and White Papers we are waiting on. So I thought I would try and put this on your radar:
Nine Distinct Pathways Identified:
- Full-time Education into Employment (28% of non-university students) – two years of education followed by sustained work
- Apprenticeships & Training (19%) – showing the strongest outcomes across multiple measures
- Delayed University Entrants (18%) – starting university one year later than traditional students
- Extended Full-time Education (16%) – spending longer in non-degree education
- FTED into NEET (8%) – moving from education into unemployment and looking for work
- University Non-Completers (6%) – starting university but withdrawing before completion
- Returners (2%) – returning to education after periods in employment or training
- At Home (2%) – predominantly caring for family or unable to work due to illness/disability
- Other NEET (1%) – economically inactive but not actively seeking work or education
NEETs: 16-20 Year Olds
Now, you know me, I have been highlighting concern of the growing NEET numbers and data for years, very intensely and intentionally for months and months now. We have 948,000 NEETs or 12.8% of all 16-24 year olds, or 15% of all 18–24-year-olds are NEET.
To highlight, this latest DfE data is for 16-20 year olds.
According to the DfE Data, moving from Full Time Education, 8%, yes 8% of young people are straight in as NEET. The important thing to look at here, is the why? The report doesn't delve into this, but I think much more should be looked at cause and effect to address this.
18% of Young People On Potentially Vulnerable Pathways
The research identified 18% of young people on potentially vulnerable pathways, including those experiencing long-term unemployment or predominantly staying at home (2% of young people stay at home caring for family or are unable to work due to illness or disability). These groups showed significantly poorer outcomes across wellbeing, mental health, and material circumstances.
Outstanding Apprenticeship Outcomes
77.5% of those on apprenticeship pathways achieved Level 2 in English and maths by age 19/20. Young people on apprenticeship and training pathways significantly outperformed others on wellbeing measures, reporting the highest life satisfaction (7.5/10), happiness (7.4/10), and sense that their activities were worthwhile (7.7/10). They also had higher wages: £17,000 annually vs £15,700 for employment pathways.
Mental Health Alert:
One in three young people across all pathways reported clinically significant levels of psychological distress, reflecting concerning trends reported elsewhere about declining youth mental health.
Another major set of data was announced this week and again, seems to have gone under most people's radar? This was the OfS Sexual Misconduct Survey 2025. This was a survey looking at Higher Education... but highlights that nearly one quarter of those who responded have experienced sexual harassment since entering higher education.
The data highlighted:
- Women were nearly three times more likely to experience sexual harassment than men (33% compared to 12.2%).
- Nearly half (46.6%) of lesbian, gay, or bisexual students experienced sexual harassment, compared to 21.7% of heterosexual students. They were also more likely to have experienced sexual assault/violence (29.8% compared to 12%).
- Over half (59.1%) of students who reported at least one incident of sexual harassment in the last 12 months, said that some or all of the incidents took place in a university or college setting.
- Most shocking of all to me: 1.5% of students reported that they had been in an intimate personal relationship with a member of staff at their university or college in the last 12 months. Of those, 68.8% said that the staff member(s) was involved with their education or assessment!!
What Lessons Can Be Learnt Here On Positive Learning Environments, Culture And The Shadow Cast From Safeguarding?
We have talked about progression routes in Education.. or lack of progression routes if we think of NEETs.
What is the FE and Skills sector's duty of care to try and reverse these types of Sexual Misconduct stats as students progress in their education routes? What behaviours, acceptable (and highlighting what is not), can we bring into the spotlight in our everyday safeguarding and learning culture, so this sort of behaviour doesn't continue into HE or the place of work?
I think it is a significant topic for the sector to discuss. Especially when just this week, there have been mental health concerns highlighted in several reports. I wonder again, if there are links and connections that are there, but not tallied up. So what can we as a sector do about this and taking Safeguarding seriously?
So a lot to take in, in a flood of announcements. For me this is all so interconnected again, so I hope trying to highlight this also helps you join up the dots, especially during a really busy period and busy week. The easy distraction is the report we all agree with, eg FE and Skills has been underfunded and needs more. There is soo much more to the announcements this week than this. The progression pathways is a massively important set of data in my mind that will be referenced for years to come.
I hope you enjoy FE Soundbite this week.
Epic Exclusives Thought Leadership Articles
Our Top 3 Thought Leadership Articles This Week
Why Sustainability Must be Embedded in Education and why the FE Sector Should Lead the way By Jo Dyson, Education Director and ESG Lead at First Intuition
Beyond the Cliff Edge: Supporting Educators to Secure Success for Learners with SEND By Dr Vikki Smith, Executive Director, Education & Standards at the Education Training Foundation (ETF)
Accessibility Matters: Turning High-Level Audits into Tangible Wins By Vikki Liogier an Education and Digital Capability Consultant
This week, we also had some other Epic Exclusives!
Lessons in Digital Inequality: Degrees of Digital Divide By Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance
Closing the Safety Gap, Why Policy Alone Won’t Protect the Workforce By Nick Lakin, Director of Education & Quality, Virtual & Skills College (VSC)
The Human Touch: Why Careers Guidance Must Remain Grounded in Empathy and Ethics By David Morgan, Chief Executive of the CDI
What’s New in the World of FE?
Announcements
Government Announces Up to £6,000 Retention Payments for FE Teachers in Critical Subjects By the Department for Education (DfE)
Youth Guarantee: Football Clubs Partner With Government To Help Young People Into Work With £25 Million Youth Hub Investment By the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Further Education and Skills sector ‘starved of funding’, MPs call for urgent investment By the House of Commons
Cambridge Sets Six Principles For Ethical AI In Language Education By Cambridge English
Reports
New Post-16 Pathways Outcomes Analysis By the Department for Education (DfE)#
OfS Sexual Misconduct Survey 2025 By the Office for Students (OfS)
New report finds almost three-quarters of teaching assistants are thinking about changing careers By NCFE
Appointments
Paula Thompson Appointed Chief Operating Officer of Progress Education By The Progress Group
Voices
Personal Development is at the Heart of College Values By Jamie Hulme, Tutorial Manager at Stoke on Trent College
Over An Imaginary Coffee With Jacqui Smith: A Plea For The Forgotten Many By Phil Farrell, Director of Awarding, Gateway Qualifications
ETF Response to the Education Committee’s Report on Further Education and Skills By Dr Vikki Smith, Executive Director, Education and Standards, Education Training Foundation
Scotland’s National Innovation Week: How Colleges Support Innovation By Gavin Donoghue, CEO, Colleges Scotland
Investing in Educators: Why Staff Development is Key to Student Success By Imran Mir SFHEA, FSET, CMgr MCMI, FRSA
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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
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