Skills for Jobs White Paper

Gareth Davies Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

As the hon. Lady is aware, we had a one-year funding round this year. Every Secretary of State always aspires to a multi-year funding round, and I think there is very much cross-party agreement on that. We were able to secure one for schools, and I very much hope that in the future we will be in a position to secure one for post-16 education.

[Gareth Davies (Grantham and Stamford) (Con) [V]]

Boosting skills will be critical for levelling up counties such as mine, Lincolnshire. Can my right hon. Friend assure me and everyone in the Grantham and Stamford constituency that our local colleges will receive the resources they need to fully achieve our ambitions for young people?

[Gavin Williamson]

In my hon. Friend’s constituency of Grantham and Stamford, there is already great provision in colleges. We want to make it even greater and make sure they have the resources to grow what they are doing. We want to make sure they are truly linked in with the local economy, because where there are skills shortages in his constituency, colleges are the first place that businesses turn to plug the gap. We want to make sure the economy and business are growing strongly and creating the employment that we all want in his constituency and all our constituencies.