The House of Commons Education Committee has laid out a blueprint for how the Government should spread prosperity and achieve its mission of economic growth by investing in the further education (FE) and skills sector.
The report concludes that the sector has been starved of funding and overlooked for over a decade, despite a growing consensus about the importance of strengthening vocational and technical education and the need for services to support students’ wellbeing.
The further education and skills sector is critical to the delivery of each of the Government’s missions and it needs investment to deliver.
The sector has been chronically underfunded for 15 years and the disparity between the typical salaries of teachers in FE and secondary schools is now 15%. This has contributed to a crisis in retention and recruitment of staff and a feeling that FE is undervalued.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that between the 2010-11 and 2019-20 financial years, funding per student aged 16–18 fell in real terms by 14% in colleges and 28% in school sixth forms.
The Committee also calls for further devolution of education and training for 16-19-year-olds to Strategic Authorities, and for this provision to be included in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.
Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes said:
“Successive governments have rightly talked up the FE and skills sector as an engine for economic growth across the whole country, but it’s an engine that’s been left to run on fumes.
“15 years of real terms funding cuts and stagnant pay have left colleges struggling to recruit and retain teachers who earn far less than their peers in schools. Far from receiving the parity of esteem it’s been promised in the past, FE continues to be treated like the Cinderella of the education system.
“We call for investment in the sector and the establishment of a statutory pay review body to make recommendations on staff salary increases. New funding should also take into account the prevalence of special educational needs and disabilities, as well as local levels of deprivation.
“The Government has recently taken steps to reverse the decline in apprenticeships – a key pathway to equipping young people and adults to prosper, and to delivering the skills employers need. But more work is needed at pace to get apprenticeships back on the agenda of employers around the country by simplifying funding and making them more accessible. Five years on, T Levels also need a bigger push to establish them alongside A levels and Applied General Qualifications.
“Skills England was welcomed as a good idea on paper by leading voices in British industry, but doubts have crept in over its independence from Government. We are clear that if an independent review finds that Skills England doesn’t have the autonomy it needs to assert genuine influence, then it should be established in law to guarantee its powers.”
