The FED Learners Council is a group of people aged 16 and over who share their real experiences and wider ideas about learning to help shape how education works.
Council members come from all kinds of places and backgrounds. School and college sixth forms, universities, apprenticeships, adult learning, alternative provision, and people who’ve taken a break from education or training. All of them care about how education can improve.
You don’t need to be top of the class or have a perfect experience at school. We want to hear from people with all kinds of stories, especially those who feel education hasn’t always worked for them.
Successful applicants will be told in early December.
The Learners Council gives people learning in England a direct voice in shaping education. Together, members:
Over the past few years, Council members have:
The Council has two Co-Chairs this year: Rochelle Wong and Naomi Blackmore.
Previous co-chairs include Claire Muhlawako Madzura, Mohammed Alam Begi, Penelope Harrison, Jonas Andrew-Phillip, Leila Lai, and Mishael Kusi-Yeboah.
Anyone aged 16 or over who lives in England and is:
We especially welcome people from different backgrounds and experiences, including:
You don’t need to have done anything like this before. Just bring your voice, curiosity and willingness to listen and learn together.
We’ll help with access needs, cover reasonable travel costs for in-person events, and do our best to make sure meetings are welcoming and inclusive.
| Key dates | |
|---|---|
|
Applications open |
19 October 2025 |
|
Applications close |
21 November 2025 |
|
Successful applicants contacted |
Early December 2025 |
|
Welcome meeting |
w/c 19 January 2026 |
|
Further meetings & events |
Spring – Summer 2026 |
You’ll answer a few short questions about yourself and why you’d like to join.
You can complete the form in writing or send your answers as a voice note or short video if that’s easier.
If you need help or an alternative way to apply, just tell us and we’ll do our best to make it work.
If you’re interested, please complete this short application form by Friday 21st November 2025 at 5pm. We will then consider your application and strive to respond to you with an outcome within two weeks.
For more information, please contact [email protected].
For more information, please contact [email protected]
The Learners Council is a group of young people and students, including learners later in life, representing a range of collective interests in the future of education in England. Members will contribute their specific areas of knowledge about issues that are relevant to the FED areas of focus, such as working with a number partners and stakeholders to develop long-term approaches that inform education policy and practice. The Learners Council provides representation for a key stakeholder group – young people and learners, ensuring their voices are a key force within the FED.
The Learners Council has achieved a significant amount since its beginning back in 2021. We visited 10 Downing Street in April 2022 to sit down with key education officials and create a direct dialogue between learners and the government. We also meet termly with Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, to discuss ongoing issues within the education system and just how learner voices can be utilized to inform long term education policies. The Learners Council also has proactively contributed to the consultation pieces of several partners including University College London, Pearson and Ofsted.
The Learners’ Council has been co-chaired by #iwill Ambassador Claire Muhlawako Madzura and FED Ambassador Mohammed Alam Begi 2021 – 2022.
This year the Learners’ Council has been co-chaired by award-winning activist and PLAN international campaigner Penelope Harrison and programme management apprentice and TEDx speaker, Jonas Andrew-Phillip.
The Learners Council will:
Why join the Learners Council?
What is the time commitment?
The FED Learners council aims to recruit learners with a diversity of voices, backgrounds and experiences. If you’re interested, please complete this short application form by Friday 24th November 2023 at 5pm. We will then consider your application and strive to respond to you with an outcome within two weeks.
The English education system has never had a long-term vision and plan. Instead it has been governed for too long via the 5-year political mandate. This has created a system that is inherently unstable. The FED national consultation highlighted frustrations and constraints which hold the system back from constant improvement and development. It also highlighted throughout, and increasingly as the pandemic progressed, that there is an urgent need to consider how we can break this cycle, and how education can become a catalyst for COVID-19 recovery for our children, young people and lifelong learners and ultimately for the success of our country. Children and young people have a 15-year journey in our formal education system – from 3 to 18. It is sensible we have a 15-year cycle of planning in our education system.
We launched the FED in December 2019 with a 15-month consultation as an invitation to help shape our thinking from across the spectrum of education stakeholders – the first phase of a 3-year programme. The first FED National Education Consultation Report was published in April 2021. You can read the FED National Education Consultation Report here and view our all-party virtual launch of the report here.
You can also read our two subsequent National Education Reports here for 2022 and 2023.
We’re looking for current learners in England to join the FED Learners Council in 2023-2024, specifically:
The Council will focus on the English education system.
The FED Learners council aims to recruit learners with a diversity of voices, backgrounds and experiences.
