Wednesday, 21 October 2026 Search Subscribe
Students raising their hands during a computer science demonstration in a classroom

TechFirst opens to every secondary school, with 10,000 tech placements backed by major employers

Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and five other employers are backing 10,000 work experience places over three years. The Digital and Technologies Jobs Plan, published the same day, sets a goal of 20,000 entry-level jobs a year.

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The Latest

  1. TechFirst opens to every secondary school, with 10,000 tech placements backed by major employers
  2. Planning permission dropped for cross-pavement home chargers, in a saving put at up to £300
  3. Medicines regulator takes its AI and MedTech agenda to the United States as a Washington liaison role opens
  4. Stronger safeguards for wheelchair users as airports act on damaged mobility aids and staff training
  5. Share the carriage, not the noise: £100 bus fines and a national campaign against loudcasting on trains
  6. Profit warnings reach 65, the highest since 2024, as policy uncertainty weighs on listed companies
  7. Ninety Labour MPs press Healey for a higher Machine Games Duty rate on Category B machines
  8. Cooper warns of a more challenging NHS winter as £140 million goes into urgent care in England
  9. Man and woman remanded in custody over fatal Waterford arson attack on Saturday, October 17
  10. Britain backs a £60 million mission to remove two defunct satellites from orbit by 2032
  11. Possessing pornography depicting strangulation or incest becomes an offence in England and Wales from 6 November
  12. Kingman named first chair of Great British Railways as Derby headquarters plan advances
  13. Real Living Wage rises to £14.10 an hour, and £15.45 in London, for almost half a million workers
  14. Nandy says she is minded to intervene in Sky's £1.6 billion takeover of ITV's broadcast business
  15. Economy grows 0.1 per cent in August as factories rebound and services stall before the Budget
  16. Ofcom says concerns persist over X's handling of illegal hate and terror content as its investigation moves on
  17. Palantir and the Mayor's policing office settle their legal battle over the blocked Met contract
  18. Ofwat proposes a £240 million cut to water bills, with Thames and Yorkshire facing the largest penalties
  19. Healey will not raise capital gains tax to income tax levels, the FT reports
  20. Big firms turn to cost cutting as finance chiefs expect inflation and rates to rise, Deloitte finds
  21. Zelenskiy in London as Burnham pledges £45 million of missiles for Ukraine
  22. Car crashes into M&S foodhall at Silverlink at about 2.25pm on Tuesday 13 October, seriously injuring two pedestrians
  23. Britain's AI safety testers are assessing the latest models again, minister confirms
  24. Heathrow boss urges Parliament to settle the third runway question as investors warn they cannot wait forever
  25. IMF lifts UK growth forecast for 2026 but warns energy prices and rates will bite in 2027
  26. Monday, Oct. 12: Burnham tells MPs the RAF Fairford plot was almost certainly directed by Iran's IRGC
  27. Healey takes his borrowing-control pitch to the IMF as experts warn of a £35bn Budget gap
  28. MPs to debate petition calling on Britain to apply to rejoin the EU
  29. Burnham says Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit vote, a first for a British prime minister
  30. Sunday, Oct. 11: murder probe launched after man stabbed to death in Sutton Coldfield pub car park
  31. Northern lights reach England’s south coast as skies light up over Devon, Hampshire and Kent
  32. Reform promises tariffs on countries that refuse to take back migrants
  33. Flood and drought taskforce to meet for the first time as winter flood risk rises
  34. Man dies after tiger attack at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Saturday 10 October
  35. Reform piles pressure on fuel duty as diesel hits £2 and Google Maps tool faces “rage bait” backlash
  36. Burnham pledges law to stop non-compete clauses “trapping” workers and blocking start-ups
  37. Sun probe: Labour MPs took almost £300,000 of UAE and Manchester City hospitality
  38. Burnham uses Berlin visit to prepare ground for November EU summit
  39. Two Latvians arrested under National Security Act after RAF Molesworth fence breach
  40. Labour holds Holborn and St Pancras as Abdi-Wali defeats Green leader Polanski
  41. Barn owls, bumblebees, puffins and hedgehogs: Bank of England names the wildlife for its next banknotes
  42. Royal Mail to cut up to 2,500 head office jobs by end of 2027
  43. Jobs market ‘flickers back to life’ as permanent hiring grows at fastest pace in four years
  44. Eleven arrested at London October 7 anniversary protests on Wednesday as Israel moves against UK consulate
  45. Burnham weighs delaying defence spending review to next October
  46. Badenoch to close Tory conference with ‘battle for the soul of this nation’ and tax-cut pitch
  47. Seventh arrest in RAF Fairford terror-plot inquiry as 22-year-old held in Westminster on 6 October
  48. FTSE steadies after worst week since April as services firms feel fuel-price squeeze
  49. Griffith pledges a tax cut at every Budget as Tories unveil economic plan
  50. Labour hits two-year poll high as Opinium puts Burnham’s party on 30 per cent
  51. Badenoch launches ‘The Right Way’ as Tories open Birmingham conference on an election footing
  52. Firms trim price-rise plans as wage growth holds steady, Bank survey shows
  53. Burnham scraps Starmer-era plan to curb jury trials after legal backlash
  54. September car sales hit nine-year high as electric demand surges
  55. IG Group loses almost £1bn in value as revenue warning rattles the City
  56. Man accused of murdering Ann Widdecombe charged over terror plot against Nigel Farage
  57. Britain hits Putin’s war chest: 31 new sanctions on shadow fleet, propagandists and torturers
  58. Bank shares lose £18bn as Healey summons lenders to a pre-Budget summit
  59. Dame Esther Rantzen dies aged 86: the broadcaster who turned television into a lifeline
  60. UK growth revised up as Britain seals fastest G7 pace in first half of 2026
  61. France pulls the plug on the ‘one in, one out’ migration deal
  62. Burnham puts EU rejoining on the table, saying Brexit has done more harm than good
  63. Business confidence sinks to 17-month low as energy costs bite
  64. Diesel hits record 199.18p a litre as Healey opens talks with US over export ban threat
  65. HMS Portland fires new ship-busting missile in Atlantic Thunder climax
  66. Fairford five released on bail as counter-terrorism police pursue ‘multiple lines of inquiry’
  67. A newcomer's guide to Britain
  68. How Westminster works
  69. Devolution across the nations
  70. The British press and its regulators
  71. Healey’s gamble: discipline first, hope later
  72. Healey promises ‘a new age of industrialisation’ in first conference speech as Chancellor
  73. What the earnings figures mean for the state pension triple lock
  74. Burnham’s first conference as Prime Minister: the week that will define his premiership
  75. Turner Prize exhibition opens in Middlesbrough as four artists go on show
  76. 781 arrivals in a day: Channel crossings hit a 2026 high as two boats land undetected
  77. Two former winners head a Booker shortlist spanning four countries
  78. Chancellor names two new faces to the Bank of England’s Court
  79. Bank of England holds rates at 3.75% as three policymakers vote for a rise
  80. Inflation climbs to 3.1% as fuel and transport costs bite
  81. Unemployment holds at 4.9% but vacancies slide as the labour market cools
  82. A Dolly Parton tribute and a piano star: the Last Night of the Proms in review
  83. NHS waiting list climbs to nine-month high after the busiest summer on record
  84. House prices tell two stories as Lloyds and Nationwide diverge

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