According to those familiar with FE north of the border, Scotland - which is several years ahead of England as far as college restructuring and mergers are concerned - could well represent the ghost of FE yet to come.

There certainly do seem to be plenty of parallels between policy in England and the reforms already introduced in Scotland. And not all of them are positive. Take apprenticeships, for instance.

While the levy is designed to encourage large employers to hire more apprentices, most of the concerns centre around whether small and medium-sized employers (SMEs) will be sufficiently engaged with the programme as it is currently envisaged.

In Scotland, however, it seems that the government cares even less about the role of small businesses in the apprenticeship programme; or, as it still insists on calling it, in a slightly embarrassing fashion, the “modern apprenticeship” programme. How retro.

A firm no

Anyway, in a somewhat bizarre move, Scottish education secretary John Swinney has decreed that SMEs will be all but excluded from the Holyrood government’s flagship programme to encourage employers to recruit apprentices.

The scheme, Scotland’s Employer Recruitment Incentive (SERI) - worth up to £4,000 for each apprentice a firm hires - will no longer focus on helping SMEs to hire apprentices, unless the young person in question “falls within one or more of the groups considered to face the greatest barriers to employment”. As far as everyone else is concerned, it would seem that he ain’t bovvered.

“This,” Mr Swinney reckons, “will ensure that SERI is more relevant to the current labour market.” By ignoring the bulk of potential apprentices? FErret’s all for helping the most disadvantaged young people - but not at the expense of everyone else. This is one lesson from Edinburgh that FErret hopes the Westminster government doesn’t follow.