There’s never any good news when it comes to FE funding. Politicians aren’t interested in the sector - and even if they were, the mainstream media is oblivious to anything that isn’t a school.
These truisms were comprehensively blown out of the water this week. FE’s transition from the sidelines to centre stage in the government’s post-Brexit economic strategy had gradually become clearer in recent weeks. But on Sunday morning, the sector went one better: the announcement of additional funding to make Lord Sainsbury’s overhaul of post-16 education a reality made front-page news, along with the ambition to make the new “T levels” of equal standing to the established A-level route.
How pleasing it was to see Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes doing the rounds in the media, talking up the sector’s importance. Given the many criticisms of the government’s apparent obsession with apprenticeships, there was a certain irony that National Apprenticeship Week ended up being completely overshadowed by coverage of college-based provision. But that’s what happens when No 10 grabs hold of an issue.
Improbably, FE is now at the heart of government policy
FE is a sector still suffering from years of underfunding and policy turbulence. Adult skills funding dropped by a third between 2010-11 and 2015-16. This week’s announcement won’t bring the missing £1 billion back - but it’s a start. And, improbably, FE is now at the heart of government policy.
One of Nick Boles’ final acts as skills minister was to back the Sainsbury review’s recommendations for overhauling post-16 education - “unequivocally where that is possible within current budget constraints”. At the time, many suspected this would give the government the ideal means of wriggling out of funding the reforms. Thankfully, circumstances have meant that, politically, Boles’ successor Robert Halfon has been dealt a far stronger hand.
Not everything is rosy, of course. As our lead story reveals, plenty of serious questions remain to be answered about just how far this injection of cash will go. But, as Oscar Wilde famously put it: “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” For FE, it seems that the period of being ignored is well and truly over.
@stephenexley
