Sunday morning politics show devotees will recognise that there’s usually a theme that underpins the headlines – be it a leak, an announcement, heaven forbid a scandal – but so infrequently is this theme directly related to the FE world. This weekend, FE was the story.

And while all the talk of ‘T-levels’ was something of a distraction, the announcement that the upcoming budget will bring new investment in FE has been warmly received by all parts of the sector. There’s little doubt that it’s needed – after significant cuts to budgets over the last parliament and an unfavourable international comparison of post-16 funding, there’s an audible sigh of relief.

Any why is it so important? We all read it, that dreaded line in the ministerial foreword to the ‘Post-16 Skills Plan’: “We accept and will implement all of the Sainsbury panel’s proposals, unequivocally where that is possible within current budget constraints” and our hearts sank. More reform, more investment required yet no money. A recipe for disaster.

So the announcement of additional funding is certainly a welcome step in the right direction. However (and with apologies for putting the obligatory damper on the ebullience of the weekend) there are still challenges ahead.

Although the headlines talked of an additional £500 million, it’s our job to look at the detail, and here’s the first thing to note: there is a phased implementation. The first additional investment of £100m will be made in 2019/20 for teaching the first two pathfinder routes. Investment will then be increased year on year until all the new technical routes are available in 2022, at which time the additional annual investment will be ‘over £500m’. I promise at this point I tried not to think of the emperor’s new clothes, but (unless someone made a change to the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act without telling me) with the next general election in May 2020, that’s only £100m promised within this parliament – and an additional £500+ million that cannot yet be taken for granted.

The extra £100m investment that will come in 2019/20 will be vital in securing the effective implementation of the new technical routes. Anyone who has experienced a change programme in the sector before (and we’ve had a few) will know that there will be expenditure across many budget lines, from potential equipment costs to ensure that colleges can deliver the new employer-designed standards, to CPD for the workforce, to marketing and promotion of the courses, to working with local employers and critically, to developing relationships for work placements.

And these placements will present a significant challenge. When I speak to any member of staff from a school, college or training provider that is involved in finding work experience placements, they all tell similar stories of hard work, many conversations, multiple knockbacks and difficulty reaching the right person within organisations. Work experience placements are hard to find. Even the Treasury press release on the budget announcement reinforced the challenge of the more substantial work placement that will form a mandatory part of the technical route. It stated that “66% of employers consider work experience important for those entering the labour market, yet only 30% offer work experience”. I don’t think anyone would argue about the value of experience in the workplace or the impact that a good placement can have, however, there was nothing in the release that would suggest ways of overcoming existing barriers.

The recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report reminded us, “alongside many policy changes, 16–18 education has been the only area of education spending to see reductions in resources as a result of recent Spending Reviews”. This has created a challenging financial settlement for the sector. However welcome the additional funding is, the apprenticeship reforms have shown us the relative cost and complexity of some employer-designed models. Those involved in the design and development of these new technical routes must consider the cost implications of these new courses, or else the additional investment could end up being spent on the wrong things.

And for those in the sector offering A-Levels or Applied General qualifications, the budget announcements offered little respite. The additional funding is explicitly linked to the implementation of the technical routes. So that ‘bigger story’ from the IFS report still contains some stark warnings.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since Lord Sainsbury’s independent panel on Technical Education reported the findings of their inquiry and kick-started what the government are now calling “the most ambitious post-16 education reforms since the introduction of A Levels 70 years ago.”

Central to Sainsbury’s reforms, and subsequent commitment from government including the 2017 Spring Budget, is to ‘level the playing field’ between an established and well-respected academic route through post 16 education, and a technical training route for ‘other people’s children.’

Part of this divide has been that for a long time, the State has significantly financially incentivised full time residential higher education; tuition fee loans and maintenance loans for living costs have been provided and the information on accessing those is relatively easy to come by. There’s even a handy government calculator. 

Post-recession, interest in forms of education and training that were ‘vocational’ and ‘work based’ grew.

However at the same time, public funding for those kinds of courses was cut.

But, in 2013, tuition fee loans were introduced in to the further education sector. Now from 19 years-old upwards, an Advanced Learner Loan will cover your tuition costs and you’ll repay under the same terms as HE student loans; 9% of your income over £21,000 a year and nothing until you earn that amount.

This is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.

Yet, the State provides additional loans to help HE students meet some of their living costs while studying.

There was still an unfairness in the system. Quitting your full time job and doing a full time level 4 in a technical subject somewhere across the country would still not be a viable option unless you were well off enough to afford all of your living costs yourself.

So, redressing the balance between academic and technical student finance support even more, then Skills Minister, Nick Boles MP, launched a consultation 12 months ago on the introduction of further education maintenance loans.

One year later, and we have now heard that government intends to go ahead with its proposals and introduce maintenance loans for higher technical students to “create real parity with the academic route”. Maintenance loans will be made available to support students on courses at levels 4-6 at National Colleges and Institutes of Technology.

Providing extra support to stimulate demand for higher level technical training is absolutely welcome. But the question has to be asked – what about all of the higher technical students of the future, on a Sainsbury approved technical training route, but not studying at a National College or Institute of Technology? Is this levelling the playing field, or is this just another ball-game of winners and losers?

In our response to the original consultation of maintenance loans, Learning and Work Institute opposed restricting access to maintenance loans for students in National Colleges and Institutes of Technology. We believe it would be wrong for the State to intervene in the supply market in such a way that doesn’t have anything to do with quality.

The government would not suddenly restrict student loans to students at Russell Group universities.

Instead, there should be a universal offer of maintenance loans for higher technical education students. Just like there is for university students.

This is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.

We look forward to when more detail will be published following the Budget on Wednesday.

In the AoC’s pre-Budget evidence (Spring 2017 Budget submission) we said “…..the Government needs to properly resource education both for young people making the transition into work and also for adults in the workforce who deserve skills support to aid their progression and success.”

We asked for fair funding for colleges. So, I am delighted that the Chancellor has listened; for too long, technical skills and education have been overlooked when investment in education is being considered; this announcement will make a significant and positive difference.

Over the next few years there will be an injection of £500m per year in supporting young people to learn the technical skills they need to be successful in work. There is also welcome support, in the form of maintenance loans, for adults wanting to re-train and a pilot scheme to test new approaches to lifelong learning.

It would be all too easy to see this as jam tomorrow, to meet the needs of the JAMs (just about managing), but that would be churlish.

The fact is, this investment is a vote of confidence in colleges who are ready to work with employers to co-design the new routes, deliver the 900 hours per year and help more young people make a smooth and successful transition to work and to higher level learning.

Of course, colleges would prefer funding increases immediately, but the Government’s finances will result in very few new funding commitments this week or even this year. That means we should welcome the investment and continue to work closely with DfE officials to get this change right so that it delivers for young people and adults.

The announcement certainly signals a step-change in thinking, backed thankfully by proper  investment  which will put us on a par with our international competitors. The current offer to 16-19 year old in academic as well as technical education falls far short of the offer in other countries – 600 hours rather than 900 – 1000 hours in many others.

I am delighted that the Chancellor has listened

We also know that many young people become motivated by experiencing the world of work, so the funding to support work placements is critical to the success of this investment. We will be working hard with our partners to secure the 180,000 work placements of 1 to 3 months which are needed to ensure that technical education is truly occupation focused.

I have seen so many young people learn from a work placement why good literacy, numeracy and communication skills are important, and it does motivate them to achieve and progress in learning.

The Chancellor is right to highlight the need to improve productivity, address regional inequalities and help adults re-train and learn new skills. There will not be enough young people entering the labour market to meet the potentially widening skills gaps and shortages. Finding ways to support adults is a crucial component of our education system and it is a woefully under-funded and overlooked need.

The extension of maintenance loans to adults on pre-degree part-time skills courses is essential to widen access and I look forward to helping the Government design and deliver the pilots for lifelong learning.

Our collective challenge is to find ways to stimulate demand for learning amongst adults and then be creative about how we can offer opportunities in ways which fit in with peoples’ lives and work.

Post-Brexit Britain will need more self-sufficiency in developing skills and people will need the confidence, support and opportunities to adapt and change over 50+ year careers. This announcement is a good down-payment to help develop a new and better system over the next decade.

We will be working with Government to help design that system and implement the changes needed over the next couple of years. We will also keep reminding them of the funding challenges colleges face and the need to address fair funding for academic routes and for adult learning.

To increase social mobility, government needs to look beyond grammar schools and universities and invest properly in adult education, says Sue Pember

In his autumn statement, the chancellor specifically identified the UK’s poor productivity as a matter of national concern.

Part of this productivity gap is down to poor skills, especially adult skills. Adults working today will still make up more than two thirds of the workforce in 2030, but the autumn statement was nevertheless a skills-free zone.

The 2017 budget must be an education and skills budget. The government’s industrial strategy must have a strong human component as well as physical capital.

Adult education has a role to play in raising productivity, strengthening community cohesion, increasing social mobility, reducing unemployment and inactivity, enhancing progression into well-paid jobs, extending working lives, tackling health and mental health issues, and attracting inward investment. It is not just one thing, it has many aspects and should be there all through our lives.

The chancellor has hinted that there might be a skills element in the budget – that’s good news – but my concern is that the government’s idea of skills only means level four and above.

We will never achieve extensive social mobility through a narrowly defined route

We have to face up to the fact that the nation continues to have a legacy of poor basic skills; 40 per cent of our young people still don’t achieve level two at 16. One in five adult employees does not have the basic English and maths skills required in the workplace, which means labour productivity is low. Although we know how to support the basic skills learner, it is no longer seen as the priority it should be and little is done by employers. We need to address this now and put the energy back into the programme.

The EU referendum has raised tensions over the place of migrants in our society and local communities, whether they have come to the UK to work or study, have relatives in the UK, or are seeking asylum. It is vital that all people throughout the UK, whatever their status post-Brexit, are given the chance to learn English; not just for themselves and their futures, but for their children’s and grandchildren’s welfare, and to achieve stronger community cohesion.

Although the government invests in this area, there is no clear policy, with different government departments regularly starting and stopping initiatives.

Research demonstrates that adult education can strengthen community cohesion. However, to be effective it needs central and local government to work together to provide an integrated structure for adult basic skills and family learning, including language training and ESOL.

The government says it is committed to increasing social mobility. All too often, however, the challenge is framed in terms of helping children from poorer backgrounds to access high-quality academic education by attending selective secondary schools, high-performing school sixth forms and into full-time higher education. We will never achieve extensive social mobility through such a narrowly defined route.

Social mobility should be improved by developing alternative pathways. Access to higher- and degree-level apprenticeships is one pathway, but so too is higher-level technical education at 18 and over.

And yet, if we are to encourage more 18-year-olds to study higher-level technical education courses (which are so vital to boosting our productivity performance) on a full-time basis, they need access to maintenance support like traditional full-time HE students.

We also need to ensure the provider base is robust and weed out all those who wish to defraud students or undermine the reputation of good providers.

We need a strategy that brings politicians from all parties together and a commitment for at least 10 years. There is shared ground and this should be an area where we can come together to meet the challenges.

It is not that we don’t have any framework; we still have the Coalition’s 2011 document ‘New Challenges and New Chances’, which set the direction, and we have the rules in the funding guidance. What we don’t have is a strategy that sets the ambition post-Brexit, brings departments together, and establishes an overarching agenda for the devolution of the adult education budget.

Sue Pember is director of policy and external relations at HOLEX