Education Return and Awarding Qualifications in 2021

Ruth Cadbury Excerpts

Thursday 25th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

The point my hon. Friend raises is incredibly important, because we must ensure that those youngsters, and people of all ages doing those technical and vocational qualifications who need the ability to demonstrate their professional competency, are able to do so. So it is absolutely vital that we open up our college system and open up our training providers to ensure that they can continue to progress.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab) [V]]

Following on from the question from the hon. Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby), FE colleges such as West Thames have had years of underfunding, yet they work hard to ensure that young people get the skills they need. September’s new students will have had almost two years of disrupted learning and limited time in school, so can the Secretary of State tell the House what additional support the Government are making available for FE colleges?

[Gavin Williamson]

This was an important part of the £700 million extra funding that we have made available, making sure there is funding for FE colleges to be able to deliver and expand the tutoring and catch-up programmes they already have, but this is against a backdrop of increasing funding for our amazing further education colleges that we value so highly.