Further education is one of the public sector’s Cinderellas – chronically neglected by policymakers who care more about schools. The government’s latest white paper is a welcome attempt to rectify this. If the plan succeeds, it would go some way towards fulfilling Labour’s pledge to break down barriers that block opportunities for too many young people.
But there is no simple way to enhance the status of further education colleges while also raising the quality of job-linked training and adult education more widely. Previous attempts have not gone well. Overall, investment in non-academic training has dropped calamitously since 2010. The apprenticeship levy scheme introduced by the Conservatives in 2017 was a dismal failure, as employers spent the money on existing employees rather than entry-level opportunities. The take-up of new T-levels, which were meant to raise the status of technical learning to match A-levels, has been disappointing.
