The Prime Minister has said government’s funding for colleges ensures it is providing “the best life chances for young people”.
Theresa May was responding to a question in parliament by Labour MP Toby Perkins, who asked why the education of young people attending further education was “worth so little” to the government.
Mr Perkins “could not be more wrong”, she said, adding “the funding we are making available is ensuring that we are providing the best life chances for young people who are going into further education”. “It is this government that is taking steps to ensure young people are able to take up the opportunities that are right for them.”
‘Respect for FE’
She said there had been too much of a focus on university being the only route for young people, and apprenticeships and further education had “not been respected in the same way”. “It is this government that is ensuring that we have that respect for further education, and that is ensuring we have the respect for technical education as well.”
Mr Perkins said FE funding was “in crisis”. His own son’s life chances had been transformed by attending college, he said, but funding for FE was “30 per cent down in real terms since this government came to power”.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Whatever happens with Brexit over the coming weeks, we need to ensure that we have the right skills for our country to be successful, and that will involve people from across the country having more opportunities to train and re-skill. Colleges are central to this - but for colleges to be able to deliver, they will need more and better investment, as Toby Perkins has rightly raised.
“Every community needs a successful and vibrant college. They are at the centre of their communities and must be at the centre of our country’s future, whatever our relationship is with the EU.”
‘Pay crisis’
University and College Union head of policy Matt Waddup said: “The pay crisis in our colleges has got so bad that staff are on strike to fight for fair pay. The Prime Minister’s claim to respect further education does not stand up to scrutiny and will ring hollow with the hundreds of staff braving the cold on picket lines today.
“Colleges must not use the continued failings of this government to shirk their responsibility to their staff. UCU will continue to campaign for more investment for the sector, but colleges that want to avoid further disruption need to start working with us and putting their staff first.”
