Welcome to FE Soundbite Edition 663, this is the weekly e-journal and newsletter brought to you by FE News - giving you the latest news and thought leadership from the week in the World of FE and Skills.

So Monday was the Queen's funeral and the end of a period of mourning. Personally, I found watching the funeral really moving. So then... wow, a short week, packed full of announcements and reports (all probably on hold for the mourning period).

Mini Budget and Growth Plan

The biggest thing for me personally this week, was the 'Mini-Budget', the 'Growth Plan' and 'Welfare Reform' changes. For a 'Mini-Budget' it wasn't exactly mini! Tax cut announcements alone, this 'fiscal' announcement was the biggest tax-cutting moment in half a century... with £12B corporation tax cut, £17B National Insurance cut... it was significant.

We had two major announcements before the Mini Budget, which were later confirmed around Welfare Reform Changes and a new buzzword - 'The Growth Plan'.

We have a cool sector response article highlighting the sector's views on the Mini Budget and Growth Plan announcements.

Earlier in the week, there was a much-anticipated announcement on help with Energy costs.

Interesting reports and research released this week:

EDSK released a report on Employer investment in Skills and the Apprenticeship Levy. UCAS released details on record numbers of students starting their HE Journey... with stats also on T Level students as well.

Exclusive articles from this week:

We have had some epic exclusive thought leadership articles this week on FE News:

AELP's Simon Ashworth wrote a great piece on Funding and accountability reform must not sideline independent training providers, ETF's Charlotte Bonner wrote a really interesting article that is well worth checking out: How will the DfE’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy affect your organisation?

Alice Barnard from Edge wrote about: Giving Evidence: The Education Select Committee Careers’ Education Enquiry

We also had John Kleeman write about: How can organisations best train and assess the skills of their employees? Marie Horton on Bridging the gap between further education and engineering

IFS wrote their second part of a mini series: The missing middle of higher technical learners.

Derek Thompson wrote about How to perfect students’ digital experience on hybrid campuses

CapGemini's Sally Caughey wrote a new piece for us: Social mobility: how can the tech sector support young people?

SkillsWorldLIVE was also back this week: Summer Exam Series: What lessons can we learn? With an exclusive interview with Dr Jo Saxton, the Chief Regulator at Ofqual... So Professor Tom Bewick interviewed Dr Jo Saxton. Which is quite something!

So a full on week!