By Lou Doyle New 14 plus pathways announced by Andy Burnham do matter but parity of esteem is about work as much as education “From today, Britain will value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap.” This is what Andy ...
By Lou Doyle The Department for Education’s annual funding rule changes for apprenticeships have become a defining feature of the skills landscape. Intended to refine the system and raise standards, they now risk creating an unintended ...
This blog was written by Zoe Bolger, SDN Mesma Group’s Director of Commercial and Operations. “I’ve been to plenty of conferences, summits and sector events over the years, bringing together people who care deeply about the work ...
In full: The winners of the Quality Professionals Awards final 2026 Manchester: The winners of The Quality Professionals Awards for Further Education and Employability 2026 were revealed on Friday, 19th June. 300 people from across ...
This blog was written by Stephen King – SDN Mesma Group’s Technical Education Specialist One of the points I keep returning to in the apprenticeship assessment reform debate is that the aim should be the right level of provider ...
Welcome to this month’s SDN Mesma Group insights and resources! Practical tools for implementing the new 2026-27 apprenticeship funding rules Apprenticeship Units Support Package: Design and Deliver a Compliant Offer Insights: ...
Welcome to this month’s SDN Mesma Group insights and resources! Insights: the latest on Qualification Achievement Rates, contextualising maths and English, and insights into Ofsted inspections with the revised EIF Now ...
We analysed 160 recent Ofsted inspection reports to understand what the relationship between professional development (PD) and teaching quality looks like in practice. The findings are useful for quality managers and senior leaders ...
After training sessions, there is often a shared sense of clarity… “Yes, I can see where Maths and English fit.” “Yes, I understand why this matters.” But when it comes to planning the sessions… “I’m not sure how to turn that into an ...
This free session focused on learning from inspections conducted under the revised Ofsted Education Inspection Framework. The discussions in the session were shaped by the first batches of inspection reports in January 2026. Lou ...
