Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to provide additional funding to further education colleges in the next 12 months.

Further education (FE) colleges can benefit from the additional £3.8 billion that the department is investing in FE and skills over this parliamentary session to ensure people across the country have access to the skills they need to build a fulfilling career in jobs the economy needs.

This includes an extra £1.6 billion for 16-to-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year, compared with 2021/22 - the biggest increase in 16-to-19 funding in a decade. This will help to fund the additional students anticipated in the system, 40 extra hours per student, and provide an affordable increase in funding rates per 16-to-19 student, including an up-front cash boost which will see the national rate of funding increase by over 8% in 2022/23, from £4,188 to £4,542 per student.

The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), with £1.34 billion of funding in the 2022/23 academic year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.

Through the National Skills Fund worth £2.5 billion over the course of the parliament, the department has made funding available to FE colleges across the country to deliver Level 3 Free Courses for Jobs. The Free Courses for Jobs offer enables learners without a level 3 qualification (or learners with any qualification level but earning below the National Living Wage) to gain a qualification for free. FE colleges will also have the opportunity to bid to deliver Skills Bootcamps next year. National competitions initially focused on digital training will be launched in the new year. Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Economic Partnership areas had the opportunity to apply for funding to commission training providers, including FE colleges, to deliver training that addresses local labour market priorities.

The department is committed to supporting more employers in using apprenticeships to develop the skilled workforces they need, and to supporting more people to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer. To support more employers and learners to access apprenticeships the department is increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year.

The department is also investing £2.8 billion of capital funding for skills over the Spending Review period, including to improve the condition of FE estates, create more post-16 places and support the rollout of T-Levels.  In addition, following the ONS decision to reclassify FE colleges last month, in April 2023 we will be investing an additional £150 million for colleges to improve the condition of their estates.