Welcome to FE Soundbite edition 681. How do we get a World class Apprenticeship & Skills system? This is the weekly e-newsletter and e-journal brought to you be FE News ISSN 2732-4095. We know life is busy, so here is a snapshot of the latest announcements and cool thought leadership articles from influencers and cool thinkers across FE and Skills this week on FE News.

Happy NAW! Did you get involved in any celebrations or spread the word / wave the flag for Apprenticeships and skills this week? It is such a busy time, so if you have been involved in NAW, I bet you are shattered! It has been a busy week, we had 40+ NAW articles by 9.30am on the Monday morning (eg the first morning) and over 6,200 unique visitors on FE News on day 1 of NAW! Honestly, I have lost count on the number of NAW articles.. but here is our NAW2023 tag page for all of the content this week.

My personal fav #NAW2023 thought leadership articles

My mate Tom Bewick wrote an article that really stood out to me: Five things that still need to happen to secure a world-beating apprenticeship system by 2030 . Sue Pittock wrote a really interesting piece, that has resonated really well with a lot of people: NAW: Ensuring part-time workers don’t get left behind.

I also really like Suzanne Slater's article: Why apprenticeships can be key to supporting learners with SEND into employment.

We also had great exclusive pieces from Cap Gemini's Suzy Style and Nichola Hays.

Interesting research and reports from this week

ROI calculator on courses for learners?

Lots of interesting research this week, stand out for me was the Social Mobility Commission who are calling for an easy Return on Investment calculator for learners. The SMC is asking for a central information hub on labour market returns for HE and FE, basically to compare courses and highlighting that some learners would be better off studying in FE than HE.. interesting!

DfE and UCAS made an interesting announcement with thousands of apprenticeship opportunities to be advertised to young people alongside undergraduate degrees in plans to broaden UCAS and there was another interesting announcement from DfE with Employer support fund for T Level industry placements

Stand out FE Voices for me - Prisoners finally have a place this National Apprenticeship Week

This article really stirred me, I know we had the announcement and law change that Prisoners can now get involved in Apprenticeships, but it sort of dawned on me, that a whole new bunch of people will really benefit from Apprenticeships and this is the first year they can celebrate NAW.. NAW is great for celebrating all of the great and the good about Apprenticeships, and in my mind Prison Apprenticeships are a fantastic jewel in the crown edition for Apprenticeships!

Did you check out the Apprentice Takeover livestream?

Did you check out the #FutureOfApprenticeships - the Apprentice Takeover livestream? Wow, this was a real first for us, this was produced, published and presented by Apprentices in NAW! The FE News team of Finley, Holly and Danielle managed the production side and promo, we also had John Joe, Umayr and Sophia interview David Hughes and Sue Pittock. Very cool! Looking at the stats this is the most popular Livestream to date! Massive thank you to our friends at NCFE who had the drive and vision to bring this together, a lot of work went in from everyone to make it happen and they smashed it out of the park!

This is our 20th anniversary at FE News, I wanted this to be a year of innovation and celebration and the team delivered! As this was a very cool innovation and a total celebration of Apprentices.