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This month, we’ve been celebrating the positive impact of Apprenticeships on individuals, business and the economy, through National Apprenticeship Week. The awareness raising week is co-ordinated by the National Apprenticeship Service and aims to shine a light on the successes of apprentices throughout the country. It seems fitting that David Cameron marked the start of the week by re-affirming the government’s commitment to work-based training, sitting at “the heart of our mission to rebuild the economy".

This month news broke about the proposed Department for Education (DfE) changes to Level 3 qualifications delivered to 16-19 year olds. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to share this news and our own response to this with you. The DfE proposal is that in order for Level 3 qualifications to be counted in league tables, they’ll have to meet a number of requirements, depending on whether they are ‘Applied General’ or ‘Occupational’.

The Government has published its response to The Richard Review of Apprenticeships, with a consultation that sets out plans for major changes to apprenticeships over the next 3 years. The changes include putting employers in the driving seat, empowering them to place recognised and meaningful industry standards at the heart of every apprenticeship.

Marking the start of National Apprenticeship Week, David Cameron has committed to making apprenticeships the ‘new norm’ for young people who don’t want to go to university. The Prime Minister has said that he wants work-based training to sit "at the heart of our mission to rebuild the economy" and be seen as a first class career move. At a visit to a training academy in Buckinghamshire, he called upon employers, educators and MPs to expand apprenticeship roles for young people in order to give school-leavers the chance to learn a trade and build their careers.

Following the Wolf review of vocational education, the Department for Education is now consulting on proposals to establish rigorous standards for Level 3 vocational qualifications taken by 16-19 year olds in schools and colleges from September 2014. The plan is that only ‘high value’ qualifications that meet specific sets of requirements will count in performance tables from this point onward. Quality and rigour are very important to us here at NCFE. Supporting learners to reach their full potential is at the heart of everything we do. Therefore, we’ll be working with the Department throughout the consultation process to find workable solutions that will best support learners to achieve success.

Many children go without enough to eat during the school day, according to a new online survey of 250 school, youth and health staff working with children in England. The Children's Food Trust poll has found that 68.1% have seen an increase in the number of families struggling to feed their children in the past 2 years. What’s more, lunchboxes are containing more junk food and less fruit.

I was interested to see the headline results of the ‘Impact of FE Learning’ study which revealed that a third of men and nearly a third of women who participated in Further Education got a better job as a result. The report from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills found that the primary motive for FE learning was to improve job prospects, or get a new job. Although this news isn’t surprising to those of us who work in this important sector, it’s good to see the message being highlighted – Further Education has employability at its core and has the power to change lives.

Before the half term break, the government announced that it was scrapping its plans to replace GCSEs with an English Baccalaureate. The reversal was announced by Michael Gove, the education secretary alongside other curriculum changes. Since this announcement, the spotlight is now on the future form of GCSEs. Michael Gove told MPs that there is still “a consensus that the system needs to change” to address grade inflation, dumbing down and loss of rigour. From autumn 2015, 'new' GCSE courses are set to be launched in English, maths, the sciences, history and geography.

Business leaders are well known for their criticism that too many young people are leaving school without adequate skills and lacking in important employability skills.  They suggest that young people are leaving education have poor standards of literacy, numeracy, communication and problem solving skills. With nearly a million young people still classed as NEETs it is vital that we work together to ensure their talent and potential is not wasted.  This is why it’s particularly heartening to read about the additional funding that has been secured by sixteen providers from the Apprenticeship Application Support fund run by the Association for Employment and Learning Providers on behalf of the National Apprenticeship Service.

Lord Heseltine’s proposals to hand skills funding over to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) look closer to becoming reality, as the government 'accepts the principle' of the single funding pot. The proposals include a budget of around £17billion to be put in a single ‘pot’ for all LEPs to bid for in 5 year tenders. Each LEP would compete with its neighbours to secure the funding for its skills need (ie colleges and Independent Training Providers (ITPs)).