Adult Education

(asked on 9th March 2015) - View Source

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will reconsider the budget allocation for the Skills Funding Agency for adult skills for 2015-16.


Answered by
 Portrait
Nick Boles
This question was answered on 12th March 2015

We have no plans to change the Skills Funding Agency’s budget allocation for 2015-16. It represents a fair funding settlement for skills in this country, as a partnership between Government, businesses and individuals. We continue to give top priority to apprenticeship as the gold standard for vocational education, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ annual funding for apprenticeships has now doubled over the lifetime of this Parliament.

Ministers frequently meet further education colleges to discuss matters of policy and implementation. Indicative funding for the 2015-16 financial year was set out in our skills funding statement for 2014-15 published in February 2014, and the Government has consistently emphasised the priority it is gives to apprenticeships in allocating funding. The 2015-16 allocations are consistent with a strategy that we have pursued since 2010, and colleges have had opportunity to respond to this by growing their apprenticeship provision, and opening up new income streams.

The overriding principle is that funding should follow the learner, and be allocated to the most valuable programmes. But the approach to funding also takes into account the impact on individual providers from year to year.

The Skills Funding Agency considers the impact on colleges and providers when agreeing allocations.

The Government does not plan skills funding and provision at local or regional level. The freedoms and flexibilities offered by the adult skills budget gives colleges the ability to offer apprenticeships and other provision to respond best to those priorities and meet the needs of learners and employers in the local area. The Skills Funding Agency will where appropriate seek the views of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) on funding allocations.

In the region recent investments have included:

· £18 million for a new training facility at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. This will form part of the National College in Advanced Manufacturing opening in September 2015.

· £1.3m of Local Growth Fund to take forward the development of a new Apprenticeship Centre at Warwickshire College as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Deal.

· £1.2m in skills capital projects which will include FE establishments from 2016/17 to meet the skills needs of local employers.

· £783,000 of Regional Growth Fund to support the implementation of the Skills for Growth programme as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP City Deal.

Beyond apprenticeships, our funding priorities include traineeships to enable young people who are not yet work ready to develop the skills and experience they need to get into employment. We also prioritise English and maths for those who have yet to achieve GCSE Grade A* to C standard.

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