Lexington Communications’ Education & Skills Practice is led by Chris Cuddihy. Contact us on education@lexcomm.co.uk and follow us on Twitter on @Lex_EduSkills

1. Backbench Conservative MPs joined Labour in criticising the
Schools White Paper and the plan for full academisation of
schools during a parliamentary debate. There has since been
speculation the Government may not go ahead with this.
The Fair Education Alliance released their second State of the
Nation Report Card, finding inequality continues to be deeply
entrenched in the education system and that, as things stand,
the UK will not meet the FEA’s five impact goals for 2022.
The IFS found that the spending gap between the poorest and
richest schools has doubled in 20 years. Spending per pupil in
2013–14 among the 20 per cent of secondary schools with the
poorest pupils was £1,800 more than for the richest 20 per cent.
To coincide with national offer day, Labour released analysis
showing that a quarter of primary schools are now full or over
capacity, while there will be 295,000 more pupils by 2020.
TeachFirst published analysis showing that the poorest children
are four times more likely to have to attend a primary school that
requires improvement or is inadequate.
The IoD published a report on the age of automation, urging the
Government to look at introducing a top-up on personal income
tax allowance if people are paying to increase their skills with
lifelong learning.
The Government announced new food and farming degree
apprenticeships to boost innovation. They are being developed
by a consortium of employers and industry representatives.
The Department for Transport announced the new Strategic
Transport Apprenticeship Taskforce, designed to create 30,000
new apprenticeships in the sector by 2020.
The Learning and Work Institute called for 200,000 more
apprenticeships in London so that businesses do not lose out on
the apprenticeship levy by contributing more than they get back.
The OBR revised down predictions of how much the
Apprenticeship Levy will raise for each year up to 2020/2021.
The figures show that each year has been revised down by
£100m.
Skills Minister Nick Boles and Universities Minister Jo Johnson
wrote to college and university leaders asking for their support to
encourage students to vote. The deadline for registration is 7th
June to vote in the EU referendum.
The IFS found that graduates from wealthy families earn
significantly more in their careers than their less well-off peers,
even if they studied the same course at the same university.
They also found differences in earnings according to university.
Ucas recorded a 6.5 per cent rise in acceptances to
postgraduate teacher training programmes last year.
18th
April 2016