Correspondence

DfE Update further education: 5 August 2026

Published 5 August 2026

Applies to England

Action: Submit your estimated 16 to 19 participation data   

For academic year 2026 to 2027, we are requesting your estimated 16 to 19 student numbers for R04 in your returns at both R02 and R03. Submit these estimates on or before 6pm:

• R02 Tuesday 6 October 2026
• R03 Thursday 5 November 2026

This voluntary collection will follow the same approach as in the previous academic year, with your first estimate requested alongside the R02 collection.

This helps us understand 16 to 19 participation earlier in the academic year which will:

• help us track progress on government objectives, particularly around maximising opportunities for young people
• monitor the likely financial position for the academic year
• inform better policy decision making as necessary

We will not use the information to make any decisions about your funding and the survey is not compulsory. We will assess the data at an aggregate level; however, we ask that returns to have the same rigour as a formal return.

Action: Download your post-16 monitoring reports 

Following on from our 8 July DfE update article, we’re reminding you that we will be moving the platform behind the post‑16 monitoring dashboard to a new system later in August 2026. This change will not affect how the dashboard looks or how you access reports.

Some 16 to 19 reports may be unavailable during the move until R14 is available in November 2026. We recommend you download your R10 and R11 post‑16 monitoring reports from the dashboard on view your education data before Monday 17 August to keep access to recent data. We do not anticipate any disruption to the adult reports during the transition.

The dashboard highlights potential data and funding issues so you can act early.

Review your reports regularly to maintain accurate data and funding.

Information: Essential digital skills standards published 

We have published revised essential digital skills standards, setting out the essential digital skills adults need for life and work. Providers can use these immediately to inform the design and delivery of essential digital skills provision.

We have updated and expanded the content in response to technological change, including artificial intelligence, and it now covers entry level 1 to level 2.

This is part of the government’s commitment to review adult essential skills, as set out in the post-16 education and skills white paper.

We developed the standards with providers, awarding organisations, employers and representative bodies.

Existing Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQs) and Digital Functional Skills Qualifications (DFSQs) remain in place. We will provide further information in due course  on how the revised standards should be used with existing EDSQs and DFSQs and our approach to qualifications.

Information: New funding models added to enter learning data

From Monday 10 August 2026, there will be 2 new funding models available in the enter learning data (ELD) service:

• growth and skills short course offer apprenticeship units (FM39)
• study programmes (FM25)

You can now use ELD if you deliver:  

• apprenticeship standards (both funded FM36 and non-funded FM99) 

• growth and skills short course offer apprenticeship units (FM39) 

• Care to Learn (FM82) 

• study programmes (FM25) 

We’ve made several improvements to help you manage your learner data more easily. You can now: 

• record learning aims as non-funded (FM99) even when they form part of a funded apprenticeship course (FM36) 

• migrate individual learners separately if their data has changed in the previous year 

• view details of all previous imports, now including counts of learners imported and not imported  

We will update the enter learning data guidance to reflect these updates. 

Information: Apprenticeships and apprenticeship unit documents published for August 2026

Following the recent growth and skills levy announcement, we have updated and published the following documents:

• apprenticeship funding rules: 2026 to 2027 (version 3)

• apprenticeship unit funding rules: 2026 to 2027 (version 2)

We have also issued updates to the following documents:

• apprenticeship technical funding guide
• apprenticeship unit technical funding guide
• apprenticeship funding

Information: Growth and Skills Levy  funds financial support for hiring young apprentices

Additional investment through the Growth and Skills Levy has been announced, including a package of financial grants and cash incentives for employers taking on a young apprentice.

From 1 August 2026, apprenticeship training will be fully funded for all eligible under-25-year-olds. This is alongside up to £8,000 in support for small and medium-sized enterprises  hiring young apprentices, and National Insurance contributions relief for apprentices under 25.

A new bursary, worth up to £4,500 per year per household, will address a Universal Credit barrier that can leave some families financially worse off when a young person takes up an apprenticeship. This is funded through the £1 billion additional investment in the Growth and Skills Levy announced in May 2026.

The package also includes £287 million to create over 22,000 additional college and post-16 places across 87 projects, alongside the £9 billion already invested in 16 to 19 education for 2026 to 2027.

Together, these measures aim to deliver 50,000 new youth apprenticeships by the end of this Parliament.

You can find more information by visiting Growth and Skills Levy.

Information: Apprenticeship guidance and templates updates 

The following have been updated on GOV.UK:

• the off-the-job training (OTJT) collateral

• the apprenticeship agreement template
• the privately funded apprenticeships guidance

This is primarily to update logos. Content has also been revised to align with the apprenticeship funding rules: 2026 to 2027 which include the new OTJT policy, where appropriate.

As requested, the OTJT guide has been made shorter by removing questions that are no longer needed. The evidence collection form now includes a calculator and shows an example of a completed form.

Reminders: Further education sector financial data collection dry run – Q1 submission deadline

Following on from our 1 July 2026 DfE Update article, we would like to remind colleges in the sector that the deadline for quarter 1 (April to June 2026) submissions is Friday 28 August 2026.

You can find further details on the financial data dry run 2026 to 2027 GOV.UK page, which includes links to both the data collection workbook and the guidance document.