Comments on: Further education funding has been frozen for 30 years – why don’t governments care about it?

By: Will

Will — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 13:00:40 +0000

Every so often their seems to be a realisation that the skills shortages, low productivity etc are very largely a consequence of underfunding the FE sector, Most electricians, plumbers and others in the building trade, mechanics and engineers at all levels gain NVQ at these institutions, yet here we are braced for further cuts

By: patrick newman

patrick newman — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 11:41:12 +0000

Most secondary headteachers will tell you that their sector of education has not been protected during the time of the coalition government. There is often a difference between stated policy and the application! The cuts identified by the IFS (and the NAO and teaching unions) do not include the latest round of austerity which will be applied to education where a further 6% is being demanded by the Chancellor. The signs are that this May regime if anything is more hawkish on public spending than the Cameron-Osborne era. Cuts to education especially do not make sense and just where does the government think they are going with this?

By: John Reilly

John Reilly — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 11:17:02 +0000

The reason why FE has always been seen as the poor relation by successive political elites (whether Labour, Conservative or Coalition) is that, by an large, they and their families have absolutely no interaction with the work of further education colleges. Independent/public school, Oxbridge, political or civil service career ……….and repeat the process each generation.