Draft Further Education (Initial Teacher Training) Regulations 2026

Ashley Fox Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 General Committees

[Sir Ashley Fox (Bridgwater) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq.

These regulations introduce four key obligations for institutions delivering specified initial teacher training for further educational courses. First, providers must register with the Secretary of State, who will maintain and publish an official list of approved institutions, ensuring transparency and accountability across the sector. Secondly, institutions are required to follow delivery guidance—in other words, they must have regard to Government recommendations on how these courses are taught, helping to maintain consistent standards in teaching practice.

Thirdly, there is a requirement to follow curriculum guidance. Providers must consider Government advice on course content, ensuring that what is taught aligns with national expectations and priorities. Finally, institutions must meet data reporting requirements, which include supplying information on both current and completed students, supporting oversight, evaluation and continuous improvement.

These regulations come from the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, brought forward under the previous Conservative Government. Those reforms created more routes into skilled employment in sectors the economy needs, such as engineering, digital, clean energy and manufacturing, meaning that more young people can secure well-paid jobs in their local areas and support their local communities to thrive. Employers have been embedded at the heart of the skills system and colleges were given support to ensure that they could offer training places for all those 16 to 19-year-olds who wanted them.

The Conservative record on education is perhaps our proudest achievement. We left the country not only with the best-educated children in the western world, but with an increasing number able to go into technical education. We will not oppose these measures, though we do wish the Government did more to uphold the significantly higher standards that we left them.