ATL comment on skills and the Queen’s Speech

The Queen’s Speech was a missed opportunity for the Government to show it fully understands the importance of skills, says Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said:

“An investment in education now is an investment in our future, post-Brexit. There is no suggestion that the Government will properly fund the major overhaul to technical education promised in today’s Queen’s Speech. After seven years of brutal cuts, further education colleges have been forced to make wave after wave of redundancies, and a serious recruitment and retention crisis has been exacerbated by excessive workloads and real term pay cuts. These issues need to be addressed if the Government’s reforms are to have any chance of delivering the skilled workforce needed for a post-Brexit economy.”