The new Transformed Labour Force Survey - an important update from ONS.

www.ons.gov.uk/releases/lab...

Devolution is an opportunity to unleash the power of colleges for… A new report published today (Friday 4 April), shows that with modest changes to the devolution system, colleges can be unleashed to deliver so much more…

Great to see this positive contribution to policy developments around devolution, with a particular focus on enabling the contribution of skills institutions including the vital role of colleges www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaig...

Great to see this package of measures helping colleges to scale up their construction training, in partnership with employers. Looking forward to working with DfE on making it happen. Pleased that colleges being recognised for how vital they are on this

Useful to see the scale of the mountain to climb for DBT to advance effective industry engagement. Concerning that skills policy singled out as one of the hardest to influence? Can Skills England drive change? www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/u...

UK growth push held back by poor Whitehall co-ordination, watchdog finds National Audit Office says departments needs to work together more effectively on industrial strategy

I seem to spend quite a lot of my time in this space (ie between industrial strategy and skills)…

Good stuff from @pmdfoster.bsky.social at @financialtimes.com

www.ft.com/content/c14b...

Graphic reads "Think Further blog series. Can regional collaboration between FE, HE and mayoral authorities help drive economic growth? Andrew Westwood."

Learn about the need for greater collaboration between colleges, universities, and local authorities to tackle skills issues and drive long-term economic development in our new #ThinkFurther blog.

Read the full blog here:
www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaig...

The govt granted 30 local authorities 'exceptional financial support' this week, worth a total of £1.3bn in 2025/26

That's slightly down from (revised) total of £1.5bn in 2024/25 but way up on the £77m of 2018/19

Hard to argue this is exceptional anymore: this is Slough's 8th year receiving it

If you make it possible for working class people to tell stories to the nation, you reduce the openings for despair-driven far-right populism. This would seem a cost-effective investment.

Devolution revolution: six areas to elect Mayors for first time Deputy Prime Minister brings six areas onto the Devolution Priority Programme with Mayors to be elected by May 2026 plus four new devolved institutions created.

ICYMI - yesterday the government announced the intention that 6 new areas will elect mayors in May 2026 with powers over transport, housing and more:

Cumbria
Cheshire & Warrington
Norfolk & Suffolk
Greater Essex
Sussex & Brighton
Hampshire & Solent

🥳

www.gov.uk/government/n...

UK HE shrinking This is a live page of all the redundancies, restructures, reorganisations, and closures taking place across the sector at the moment. Solidarity to all. This sector is vital to the country’s…

The number of UK universities actively making redundancies has now risen to 89. As predicted here, soon that number will rise to 90 and then 100. The process is inexorable, inevitable.
qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

Skills Mismatches in the UK's Creative Industries - Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre Read the latest State of the Nations research report on the skills mismatch in the creative industries produced by Work Advance.

The inportance of the creative industries to the UK economy has earned them a place as a priority sector in the Industrial Strategy. Now lets ensure we provide the skills the workforce needs @creativepec.bsky.social pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

Lifelong Learning - Hansard - UK Parliament Hansard record of the item : 'Lifelong Learning' on Thursday 6 February 2025.

Cuts in funding for adult education appear to be in the pipeline. With that in mind, it is worth reading yesterday's House of Lords speech by the Skills Minister, Jacqui Smith, who summarises the social and economic value of adult education:
hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2025-0...

Congratulations to the newly appointed leadership team at #SkillsEngland. Looking forward to working with them to help establish a better, coherent, inclusive post-16 education and skills system

What’s Ahead For The U.K.’s Industrial Policy Under Labour - ProMarket The United Kingdom has struggled to implement long-term industrial policies in recent decades, writes Diane Coyle, a trend the new Labour Party promises to reverse. She describes the policy proposals ...

The UK has struggled to implement long-term industrial policies in recent decades. With major shifts on the horizon, the Starmer government’s ability to execute on industrial policy for the country is critical, writes @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social.

“If the government wants to achieve its missions and ambitions for economic growth and fairness, additional, sustainable investment across all post-16 education must be provided in the spring spending review.” says @hughesdavid.bsky.social.

Read in full: www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaig...

Boris’s rushed retraining scheme created huge underspend Low uptake of a flagship government retraining scheme that offers free courses to adults resulted in mayors handing back half the £133m they were allocated

💸 Low uptake of a flagship government retraining scheme that offers free courses to adults resulted in mayors handing back £64 million in the first three years – half of what they were allocated

NEW on Wonkhe: The Access to HE diploma is a superb tool for widening participation. But, as Claire Swales learns, there is more the sector could do to support non-traditional students https://buff.ly/3C58NwO

Labour has been sucked into the WFH culture war. It should know better | Polly Toynbee It’s free, it’s sensible and it makes workers happy. The government needs to accept that this is the new normal You would be hard-pressed to find a single positive side-effect of the pandemic. If there is one, it is the growing numbers of people who now…

Labour has been sucked into the WFH culture war. It should know better | Polly Toynbee

The best present the government could give working people this Christmas is the delivery of the Employment Rights Bill, in full.

Conservative MPs Want to Scrap Workers' Rights to Paid Holiday and Annual Leave They are also seeking to overturn workplace protections from sexual harassment, calling them an attack on "free speech"

Senior Conservative MPs are seeking to scrap Brits’ legal rights to maximum working hours, guaranteed annual leave, and holiday pay, as Labour’s landmark workers’ rights bill makes its way through Parliament

Latest for @bylinetimes.bsky.social
bylinetimes.com/2024/12/17/c...

NEW 🚨🎄| More than 1 million will be working Christmas Day, often in insecure & low-paid work.

Delivering the Employment Rights bill would be the perfect Christmas present:

🎁 Ban zero-hours contracts
🎁 Stronger sick pay
🎁 Day 1 rights
🎁 Fair pay agreements in care
🎁 New union rights, to win on pay

Congratulations to Brendan Barber and Kay Carberry, formerly of the TUC, Prof Mary Bousted of @neunion.bsky.social and @unison.org.uk's Wendy Nichols - trade unionists appointed today to the House of Lords!

Government to set out £100m plan to make state 'like a start-up' As well as urging a "test and learn" mindset in government, ministers want to bring in tech workers on secondment.

Often describe DIUS (2007-2009) as closest thing to a startup in Whitehall. Sure DSIT felt similar (2022 to date) - NB even with tech/innovation/R&D focus that was/is bloody hard…

www.bbc.com/news/article...

English councils and planning set to be transformed under ambitious devolution plan – an expert explains A devolution white paper will restructure councils and hand significant planning powers to mayors.

"English devolution bridges two of Labour's biggest challenges: how to make people feel better off and how to rebuild trust in politics."

In my new piece, I consider how the government's English devo White Paper contributes to solving these challenges.

theconversation.com/english-coun...

The shape of devolution | IPPR Finding the right shape of the footprints to devolve power to in England is a complex exercise that requires consideration of a wide range of issues includ

As we look ahead to the English Devolution White Paper, @rosielockwood.bsky.social and I have a new essay out exploring the different ways in which the footprint of devolution deals can be determined.

www.ippr.org/articles/the...

​​English Devolution White Paper​: Power and partnership: Foundations for growth ​​The government’s proposals to empower local leaders and communities to drive growth and raise living standards across the country.​

The government publish their Devolution White Paper today. Great to see devolution taken seriously as a way to improve living standards, but also our best way to show communities that power is shifting to them. Mayors further empowered, local government rebuilt.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Really looking forward to hearing the latest results. www.oecd.org/en/about/pro...

Next week will be interesting for us adult educators, as the first results of the PIAAC survey of adult competences (i.e. the 'adult PISA') are out. We want to see that everyone has the opportunity to improve their skills and I hope that the skills gap hasn't widened in 10 years. #PIAAC #AdultEdu