NEU comments on Gavin Williamson's speech on FE

Commenting on the Education Secretary's speech 'Further education will be central to our mission of levelling up the nation', Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:

"The NEU agrees with Gavin Williamson that FE colleges and apprenticeships play a vital role in the education and training of young people.

'Ambitious proposals to regenerate the further education sector are welcome. The devil of course will be in the detail and we will need to see what is in the White Paper in September.

'For any system to work it will have to be properly funded and pay needs to be brought up to the levels of the broader education profession. A chronic lack of funding for FE colleges and lack of employer participation in providing high quality apprenticeships has ill served young people taking this educational route and needs to be urgently addressed."