Correspondence

DfE Update further education: 15 April 2026

Published 15 April 2026

Applies to England

1. Information: 16 to 19 in-year growth funding academic year 2025 to 2026 

There has been another large increase in 16 to 19 funded students this year. This growth is positive for the many young people who have been able to take up opportunities for 16 to 19 education and represents a strong response by the sector. 

However, because of the size and distribution of this growth in student numbers, it again creates funding pressure above the budget we have available. We are changing our funding methodology for this year’s in-year growth to provide you with the highest possible funding within budget.   

We will provide approximately three-quarters of the funding expected based on arrangements published in August 2025.  

This change applies to the exceptional in-year growth for student numbers only. We are not changing the methodology for: 

• high needs in-year growth in special post-16 institutions or centrally funded exceptions
• bursary and free meals in-year growth

We have always stated that our method depends on affordability. If you have concerns regarding the impact of this change and need to discuss this, please contact your place-based team or contact our customer help centre. 

If you qualified for in-year growth based on the rules from August 2025, you will receive a growth payment at the lower level. Providers will start to receive growth payments from July 2026. Eligible schools and colleges will receive a single payment in July.  Academies will receive eleven-twelfths in July and one-twelfth in August.

2. Information: College governor online financial dashboard webinars

In May 2026, we will host a webinar on the college governor online financial dashboard. We recommend cascading this update to the governing body.

Designed specifically for independent further education (FE) college governors new to the sector, the session will explain how to use the dashboard’s data, including financial health grades, cash days, income streams, and FE Commissioner benchmarking, to support strategic decision-making.

The webinar, a PowerPoint presentation followed by a short Q&A session, will be online and will last approximately one hour.

We plan to deliver this webinar on 3 dates, for governors grouped together by the following regions:

• North
• Midlands and South-West
• London, South-East and East of England

Sign up if you are a college governor.

3. Information: Funding rules for 16 to 19 provision 2026 to 2027  

The funding rules for 16 to 19 provision 2026 to 2027 cover the period Saturday 1 August 2026 to Saturday 31 July 2027 for all types of institutions (except for academies whose funded year is Tuesday 1 September 2026 to Tuesday 31 August 2027).  This is our current advice for the funding year. 

We have made the following additions and updates: 

• added an exception in paragraphs 14 and 41 allowing institutions to contact the department about complex individual residency or immigration cases, rather than just groups
• clarified in paragraph 89 that funding cannot be claimed for students retaking a passed qualification solely to improve their grade
• specified in paragraph 98 that if an activity ceases early, such as passing English or maths in November resits, institutions must replace the remaining planned hours with other meaningful activity
• redefined the actual end date in paragraph 123 as the student’s final learning, exam, or assessment date, whichever is later - institutions cannot claim planned hours after this date

4. Information: Free courses for jobs engineering expansion

£47 million is being invested in adult skills to support the engineering and manufacturing sectors over 3 financial years. We will do this by expanding the free courses for jobs (FCFJ) offer to support delivery of more engineering and manufacturing training.

In the first year of investment, we will allocate an additional £16 million nationally for FCFJ for academic year 2026 to 2027. In areas where strategic authorities manage the adult skills fund, the funding will be devolved.

In non-devolved areas, FCFJ providers with a track record of delivering engineering provision can expect an increase to their allocation for academic year 2026 to 2027 to fund more courses.

We will expand the national list of qualifications eligible for this funding to include more level 2 Engineering and Manufacturing courses. You can see qualifications approved for funding. We aim to communicate the new courses added to the list in summer 2026.

5. Information: Positive progress in latest apprenticeship qualification achievement rate results

The latest apprenticeship qualification achievement rate (QAR) has been released with positive results once again. The QAR for academic year 2024 to 2025 is 65.4%, a rise of 4.9 percentage points on last year. Total achievement volumes have also increased by 11.3% to 198,330, more than 20,000 higher than the previous year. View the full report.

Thank you to all providers, employers and apprentices for your continued hard work and commitment to improving achievement rates. This strong progress reflects your effort and focus.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden, has written an apprenticeship standards achievement rates letter to the sector to set out his commitment to high quality across the skills system and to thank providers and employers for their ongoing support.

6. Reminders: Deadline for school rebuilding programme nominations

In February we launched a new nomination round for the school rebuilding programme. We will select 250 school and sixth form college projects by early 2027.

The nominate a school for the school rebuilding programme guidance sets out the type of projects we are looking for and information on how to navigate the online nomination portal. Responsible bodies should read the guidance carefully before submitting a nomination.

Responsible bodies must submit nominations before midday Thursday 23 April 2026. We will not consider late submissions.

If you have questions about the programme or the nomination process, email School.rebuilding@education.gov.uk.