Emergency cash to cope with a teenage population spike will create around 9,000 extra college places across Leeds and Greater Manchester, it is forecast.
Both regions received £10 million each in post-16 capacity funding from the Department for Education, with Greater Manchester using the money to pay for a series of small expansions while Leeds City Council funded two new city centre buildings.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which added an extra £10 million of its own cash to address the 16-19 population bulge, estimates it can boost capacity by 5,315 extra places by September.
Its approach has been to lease and convert office buildings, remodel workshops for construction skills, fund refurbishments and recruit extra teachers.
The two main college groups in Leeds – Luminate and Leeds College of Building – have both bought buildings to create an extra 3,770 places.
The DfE’s capacity funding was announced in April. It is estimated that the number of teenagers aged from 16 to 18 surged by 230,000, or 13 per cent, between 2017 and 2024, and will rise by another 110,000 (5 per cent) to a peak in 2028.
FE Week understands enrolments across Greater Manchester increased from 28,670 in 2019-20 to 35,620 in 2023-24.
Speaking at the Association of Colleges conference last week, DfE director of labour market skills and funding Sinead O’Sullivan said “very little funding” was available for college capacity in 2025-26, so most of it was given to Leeds and Greater Manchester as they had “the most level of need”.
However, she noted “plenty of others” needed extra capital funding.
A further £375 million has been allocated for post-16 capacity until 2029-30, following the last capacity funding round that saw £230 million shared between 89 colleges and sixth forms.
The Manchester way
All nine FE colleges in Greater Manchester have been allocated a share of the region’s money, some of which was drawn from unspent “local growth funding” available to combined authorities.
Manchester College, which got the biggest share at £5.6 million, aims to create 345 new places by September by creating a new engineering workshop, remodelled construction spaces and science labs.
Wigan and Leigh College is expanding four of its sites to create 841 spaces by leasing two office buildings, upgrading its skills academy and enhancing its engineering and construction centre.
Tameside College expects to deliver an extra 1,116 places by refurbishing its existing building to add 11 new teaching spaces.
It will also recruit more teachers and support staff, and invest in IT hardware.
While the DfE funding pot is strictly for capital projects to create additional capacity, the extra £10 million GMCA provided was split, with £5 million used as a “top up” to the DfE’s capital funding and £5 million for “flexible” revenue and capital.
Revenue spending includes £395,000 set aside for college workforce development with qualifications for staff, informal CPD, engagement with employers and “market factor uplift supplements” for industry specialists from high-demand industries.
A recent report approving the overall spending package says funding is being prioritised to create places in priority “gateway sectors” such as construction and the green economy, and takes into account factors such as recent learner numbers, employer need and “reported over-subscription” for courses.
Initially, the region’s nine college groups asked for £19.2 million, but the total was brought down to £10 million after negotiations and a “proportionate reduction” to all bids.
Leeds goes big
Across the Pennines, Leeds City Council reports that Luminate is in the process of buying a 127-year lease of Livingstone House, a city centre six-storey office building by the River Aire, with its £8 million share.
The college group hopes it will become the base for Leeds City College’s school of health and social care, creating up to 1,500 extra educational places “across all vocational areas”.
However, until further funding is raised the five upper floors will be mothballed, chief executive Colin Booth told FE Week.
He said although the extra investment into post-16 capacity was “extremely welcome, we cannot afford to be complacent”.
He added: “Leeds City College has operated at maximum capacity for the last few years, with waiting lists for courses in areas like health and engineering.”
“Without sustained and targeted investment from government, increasing numbers of young people will be left without a suitable place to learn, in Leeds and across the country.”
Meanwhile, using its £2 million share, Leeds College of Building has bought a former Vodafone site next to its city centre campus.
The 5,000 square-metre building has a warehouse-like space on the ground floor and office space upstairs.
College CEO Nikki Davis told FE Week the building was “perfect”, would house about 2,000 learners as a “conservative” estimate, and aligned with plans to become a construction technical excellence college.
However, further funding will be needed to convert the building, meaning it is unlikely to be ready by September.
In a recent scrutiny report, Leeds City Council said it had already created an extra 975 places by the 2024-25 academic year by working with colleges and ITPs.
It estimates its numbers of 16 and 17-year-olds rose by more than 3,000 between 2021 and 2025.
The council added that its officials were working with colleges to make a “system-wide bid” to the DfE next year.
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