For eager graduates seeking to make their fortune, the FE sector isn’t an obvious port of call. Accordingly, the primary motivator of people working in the sector is rarely monetary.
In my experience, FE as a whole is instilled with a determination to do the best by the learners who enter its doors.
Even in a sector with financial troubles, cash-strapped institutions regularly dip into their own pockets for the benefit of their learners. In 2013-14, for instance, providers collectively delivered £65 million of adult skills training for which they were not paid. Eight ended up out of pocket by £1 million or more.
When colleges are faced with a choice between turning learners away or taking them in, but at a loss, it’s not always the balance sheet that comes first. As the Association of Colleges said last year: “It’s sometimes difficult for colleges to say no.”
This is where the dilemma becomes murky. As Sarah Simons reports, there is a growing tendency for English for speakers of other languages (Esol) provision - acutely affected by funding cuts - to be topped up with volunteers. While their efforts are laudable, they are no substitute for trained teachers.
When colleges are faced with a choice between turning learners away or taking them in, but at a loss, it’s not always the balance sheet that comes first
On the other hand, there are plenty of providers that, as Natecla’s Jenny Roden puts it, are prepared to “take a hit” on funding to give their learners the leg-up they need.
In one of these scenarios, the provider takes the hit; in the other, it’s the Esol teacher who’s being squeezed out by a well-meaning volunteer.
In each case, a different bucket is being used to catch water from the leaking roof. But what happens when the buckets run out? Sooner or later, proper investment will be needed to mend the roof.
It’s easy to understand Esol teachers’ frustrations when one-off sums of funding are announced for ad hoc projects, whether they are to support Syrian refugees or Muslim women. Well-intentioned though they may be, they do little to reverse the vast cuts to provision seen in recent years. Much more beneficial would be a well-thought-out Esol strategy ensuring adequate and fair levels of support for individuals across the country.
If Scotland and Wales can manage it, why can’t England?
@stephenexley
