Educationwise wins the Excellence in English and Maths Skills Development award at the
Apprenticeship and Training Awards 2026

We won!

We are still processing it if we are honest. On the evening of 3rd March 2026, Educationwise was awarded the Excellence in English and Maths Skills Development award at the Apprenticeship and Training Awards 2026 in Liverpool. It was a brilliant night and one we will not forget in a hurry.

But before we say anything else, we need to talk about Naomi and Shiani.

They are our Functional Skills and Learning Support specialists and this award is theirs. Not ours as an organisation. Theirs. Because the work that got us into that room on Tuesday night is their work, and it has been for a long time.

The learners they support are not always starting from a comfortable place. Some have struggled with English or maths for most of their lives and carry a lot of baggage around it. Some are returning to education after years away and are quietly terrified of getting things wrong. Some are ESOL learners working incredibly hard to communicate in a language that is not their first. And some are simply exhausted, trying to hold down a job, raise a family and complete a qualification at the same time.

Naomi and Shiani meet every single one of them where they are. They are patient, skilled and genuinely invested in every learner they work with. And it shows.

This year, Speaking, Listening and Communication first time pass rates reached 100%. Reading pass rates rose significantly. Learners who had convinced themselves they were not capable of passing an exam went on to pass earlier than expected. Employers started noticing the difference in how their apprentices showed up at work.

None of that happens without the right people behind it.

There is something else worth saying here too. When functional skills were no longer a requirement for apprentices, we kept offering them. It was not a difficult decision for us, but we know it was not the decision every provider made. We kept going because we genuinely believe that learning should not stop at what is compulsory. English and maths matter. They matter for confidence, for communication, for careers and for life beyond the qualification. Removing them because nobody was forcing us to deliver them anymore never felt like the right thing to do for our learners.

Seeing that decision recognised at the Apprenticeship and Training Awards means a lot to us. Not because of the award itself, but because of what it says about the values behind it.

We are Ofsted Outstanding. We are now award winning for our approach to English and Maths. We are proud of both. But we are proudest of the learners who got there, and the two people who helped them do it.

Congratulations Naomi and Shiani. This one is yours.