The MP for Kensington is backing a campaign by Grenfell residents to save their local college campus from housing developers, in a letter handed to governors before another evening of heated protest.

Labour member Emma Dent Coad’s letter, seen by FE Week, was hand-delivered by protestors to Kensington and Chelsea College’s governors ahead of a contentious board meeting last night.

It is understood that two hot-button issues were discussed: the future of KCC’s Wornington Road campus, which could be demolished largely to make way for housing, and plans for KCC to merge with Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College.

“In our post-Grenfell times, we need to build trust and keep all our local services,” wrote Ms Dent Coad (pictured above, inset).

“I am therefore asking you to stop the merger decision-making process now, to allow genuine dialogue in a spirit of co-partnership with the local community which you serve.”

The Wornington Road campus, one of the college’s two main sites, was recently sold under a lease-back deal for £25.3 million to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which has outlined plans for the site that would at best result in greatly reduced teaching space.

But this has generated increasing controversy since the devastating fire at the nearby Grenfell Tower in June, in which at least 80 people died.

Save Wornington College campaigners claim that this is the latest example of local services for poorer people being eroded, including those who were affected by the tragedy.

The same protest group also opposes the merger in part because members fear the resulting giant institution will be less likely to retain learning at Wornington Road.

Hundreds of residents and staff members, who back the campaign, attended a packed public meeting with college leaders in September.

Many gathered again outside the gates last night to take part in a rowdy protest.

“Much of which was apparently disrupted by our noisy demo drumming throughout,” claimed one campaigner Gill Evans. “At one point the whole board had to move to a different room.”

KCC principal Dr Elaine McMahon told FE Week this morning about a survey the college is carrying out to assess the long-term future of its estate.

“Following a tender process, Fusion has been appointed to undertake a detailed survey of the college sites [including Wornington Road] and to undertake an options appraisal to consider different curriculum delivery models that are affordable, meet strategic objectives and stakeholder needs,” she said.

“Further discussions with RBKC will take place when we have the results from the survey of the North Kensington site building.”

The Save Wornington College group also sent an open letter to college leaders ahead of tonight’s meeting.

“The community want to keep the north Kensington college where it is, not in a RBKC new development, but in a renovated Wornington Road building, where there has been educational provision for 140 years,” they wrote.

“Now is the time for the council and the corporation to think creatively and imaginatively about other options that could lead to the recreation of a vibrant community college.

“The future of KCC can no longer be considered in isolation. It is part of the same policy and ideology which has seen other public assets in RBKC mismanaged, then disposed of and – in June – tragedy rip through our community.”

Reflecting on the future of the Wornington site, Kim Taylor-Smith, who took over as deputy leader of the council in July and is lead member for Grenfell recovery, told FE Week that he was listening.

“This is an issue I inherited, but I can say it was the college that approached the council about buying the site in 2016,” he said.

“I can confirm that having listened to the concern on the issue, we have extended the college’s lease on the site by a year to September 2019, and no redevelopment plans will go before the council before then.”

He added that, in the meantime, there will be a new consultation will be held with the college and residents over how and if the Wornington site could continue and “flourish” in future.

Principals and chairs from 140 colleges have written to the prime minister begging for more funding for 16- to 19-year-old learners.

They want the prime minister to address long-term underfunding for that age group.

“Our students are now in danger of studying an impoverished curriculum, which has already reduced in breadth and choice, and cannot prepare our young people to take their place in employment and compete in a global economy,” they wrote in the letter.

“You will be aware that colleges educate the majority of young people aged 16-19 in England, and our work is essential in improving the skills of the nation, boosting social mobility and improving productivity, particularly in light of the changes Brexit will bring.

“We know that additional funding is planned to support the new T-levels, and some capital has been identified to underpin the new Institutes of Technology, and we are keen to support these developments.

“However, this additional money will not reach the majority of students studying in our colleges, and a more significant issue remains regarding the breadth and nature of the education and training colleges can now offer to our young people.”

An AoC spokesperson complained that in England, the current base funding level for 16- to 18-year-olds is £4,000 per year, which “decreases to £3,300 at 19”.

Such funding covers around 600 teaching hours per year – equivalent to around 15 hours per week, according to the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which “compares poorly with countries such as Denmark, which has a minimum number of 26 teaching hours per week, the Netherlands, which provides 1,000 hours per year, and Norway, which offers 980 guided learning hours per year”.

College leaders are asking for an immediate £200 uplift to the base funding rate per student, to help maintain the breadth of provision and help attracted and retain teachers and trainers.

“This is not just a funding issue, it’s a moral issue and should deeply concern every one of us,” said David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges.

“How can we expect our young people, whether at school or college, to get the support and education they need to progress in their chosen path without the right investment?

“The government has already made a welcome funding commitment to increase the teaching hours for the incoming T-levels, but this will cover only around 25 per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds.

“The next step must be to address the unfairness for the majority of young students.”

The Association of Colleges said it will be working with other organisations, including the Association of School and College Leaders and the National Union of Students, to highlight the issue ahead of the autumn budget.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, said: “This is a helpful letter that complements the work being taken forward through the Support Our Sixth Formers campaign and shows the strength of feeling across the college sector.”

The SFCA’s campaign, launched in May, also calls for an additional £200 funding per sixth form student, along with a call for VAT to be scrapped for all sixth form providers. 

“Sixth form students in England are being short changed – if the government is serious about improving social mobility, raising standards and increasing productivity it should prioritise this modest increase in funding in the forthcoming Budget.

“Why plug the gap in schools funding and put more money in the pockets of graduates if the crucial phase of 16-19 education is continually starved of resources?”

Britain’s biggest defence manufacturer has promised that its apprenticeship programme will not be affected by today’s announcement that it is cutting nearly 2,000.

BAE Systems, which among other major contracts makes Britain’s nuclear submarines and Eurofighter Typhoon jets (pictured), announced that job losses would be made at its centres across much of the country.

It runs a large apprenticeship programme, with around 2,000 apprentices currently on roll, but a spokesperson denied they would be affected when asked today by FE Week.

“There will be no impact on apprenticeships or grads,” she said. “We really appreciate the contribution they make to the company. Every apprentice and grad will complete their training.”

She added there were also no plans to rein in future support for apprenticeships, including the numbers that they will take on in future.

BAE Systems is listed as an employer-provider on the register of apprenticeship training providers.

In the last academic year, it was allocated £3.1 million for 16-to-18 apprenticeships and traineeships and £940,488 for adult apprenticeships.

It was last inspected by Ofsted in 2010, when it was rated ‘outstanding’ overall, in a report full of praise for its apprenticeships.

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said he was pleased to hear BAE’s ongoing commitment to apprenticeships and he hoped the company would be true to its word.

“I hope that BAE systems are able to follow through on their view that will be no diminishing of apprenticeships,” he said.

“We also of course have to think about the impact on the supply chain and the firms there that will be offering apprenticeships as well.”

The new National College for High Speed Rail was officially launched by the education secretary yesterday.

The college, which has taken on its first cohort of apprentices, is the third of five government-backed national colleges to fully open.

Justine Greening was full of enthusiasm at the official launch.

“It is part of how we are steadily transforming technical education in this country, training up a new generation of skilled young people and the existing workforce so that British business has the skills it needs and people have the opportunities they want – a win-win for everyone,” she said.

The NCHSR, which has campuses in Birmingham and Doncaster, received £40 million in government funding to construct new buildings and equipment, with a further £12 million provided by the Sheffield city region combined authority, and the Greater Birmingham and Solihull local enterprise partnership.

Its first small cohort of apprentices were already employed in the rail sector in September, and its first full entry will enrol in September 2018.

The former apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon, who now chairs the Commons education select committee, was guest of honour at the official opening ceremony for the National College for Digital Skills in London, in November last year.

The college, also known as Ada, received £18.2 million from the London local enterprise partnership’s further education capital fund, and £13.4 million from the government

The National College for the Creative and Cultural Industries, based in Purfleet, Essex, which was allocated £5.5 million from the public purse, opened to students the previous month.

Details of the five national colleges and the £80 million allocated to their development by the government were announced in May 2016.

In addition to the three colleges already fully open, plans were announced for a National College for Nuclear, which will have campuses in Somerset and Cumbria.

It secured £15 million for buildings and equipment, together with a further £3 million from the south-west LEP and £4.5 million from Bridgwater and Taunton College.

A spokesperson for NCN told FE Week that over 100 students were enrolled at its northern hub, based in Cumbria, although the southern hub, based at Bridgwater and Taunton College in Somerset, is not set to welcome its first cohort until January. 

The NCN is due to be officially launched on February 7, he said.

The fifth college to receive a share of the cash was the National College for Onshore Oil and Gas, which received £5.6 million plus equipment donations from industry.

But FE Week reported in April that plans for the college had stalled, while the industry develops.