“Our colleges are starved of the funding they require and they are unable to offer salaries which match those of school teachers or the private sector. This means they frequently struggle to recruit staff with industry-specific training skills.
“The new government has made matters worse by failing to extend to colleges the funding recently allocated for the school teachers’ pay award for 2024/25.
“This has happened at the same time as it is launching a new quango, Skills England, to support delivery of the skills training that is needed by young people and the UK. However, this strategy will not be a success without the necessary investment in the FE workforce.”