Latest news and insights

Sharon Davies, CEO of the national financial and enterprise education charity Young Enterprise, has spent years championing the power and positive impact of teaching young people financial skills.

Following her recent appearance on Pearson’s The Right Angle podcast, she shares her thoughts on why integrating consistent financial education in UK schools is a goal worth striving for. Although financial education crosses over many areas of the curriculum, such as PSHE, business studies or science, many would argue that maths is its natural home. Here, Sharon outlines her top tips on embedding the subject in maths.

The role of new digital learning technologies is not a vision of the future; it is now firmly embedded in education systems from the nursery to the university. The development of digital resources is fast-paced and it can seem overwhelming to navigate the tsunami of sales pitches promising everything from reduced workloads to perfect assessment. However, step back and remember the wise words of educationalist Dylan Wiliam that “everything works somewhere; nothing works everywhere – so we need to ask ourselves, under what conditions does x work?”

I rarely meet a teacher these days who isn’t concerned about the growing number of children with speech, language and communication needs. 

It isn’t likely to get better any time soon if we look at what is happening in the cohort of children who will soon be working their way through the school system. In a recent survey 82 per cent of health visitors reported seeing a year-on-year increase in children with speech, language and communication delays in their pre-school caseloads. And last year, Speech and Language UK estimated that at least 1.9 million primary- and secondary-aged children were struggling with talking and understanding words. That equates to one in five school-aged children – the highest number ever recorded.

In July the DfE announced an immediate pause and review of the post-16 vocational qualification reform in England.

Today, 200,000 Level 2 BTEC results are being delivered to students in schools and colleges in the UK.    Around 150,000 of these will be receiving the first qualification level BTEC results for the new Tech Awards (2022), as part of the government’s wider reform programme.  Pearson are one of a number of providers of these qualifications.       

Today, just over 200,000 Level 3 BTEC results will be issued to students in the UK.  These young people can now progress into apprenticeships, higher or further education, or full-time employment, often in key industries that suffer from a shortage of skilled workers.