Funding for further education and skills has been cut by over £3 billion in real terms since 2010, Labour has claimed.
The party has calculated, based on an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, that spending on further education and skills fell by £3.3 billion in real terms between 2010-11 and 2017-18.
The claim comes ahead of a lobby of Parliament, the focal point of Colleges Week - part of the cross-sector #LoveOurColleges campaign for better FE funding. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will be among the speakers addressing the thousands of protesters expected to attend.
Further education ‘decimated’
Labour claims that the cuts have been most severe in adult education, which has seen a real-terms cut of nearly £1.7 billion - around 50 per cent of its budget - and FE, which has faced a £1 billion cut that amounts to around 25 per cent of its total budget.
Labour has pledged to make further and adult education free at the point of use for all those who need it, although full details of how this will be funded have not been announced.
Angela Rayner, shadow secretary of state for education, said: “Tory austerity has decimated further education. The Tories are overseeing a crisis in our skills and technical education system, their flagship apprenticeships policy lies in tatters and there are well over a million fewer adult learners today than in 2010.
Milton ‘aware of funding pressures’
“These huge cuts mean that learners of all ages are denied the opportunities they deserve, and when our education system is cut by billions our society and economy suffers, too.”
Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton said colleges have “a vital role to play in making sure people of all ages have the skills they need to get on in life and I would like to thank them for their hard work”.
She added: “I am very aware of the funding pressures in further education, which is why we are conducting an assessment of education, funding and the sustainability of the sector.
“This government plans to invest nearly £7 billion this academic year to make sure there is a place in education or training, including apprenticeships, for every 16- to 19-year-old, and we have protected the base rate of funding for 16- to 19-year-olds until 2020. We are also investing in the sector as we introduce our new gold-standard T levels from 2020, which will be backed by an additional £500 million every year once they are fully rolled out.”
