After campaigning hard all year, we were delighted that in July the Secretary of State for Education secured around £200 million in 2023/24 for colleges and other FE providers to address key priorities, including the recruitment and retention of staff.
The money is significant – and yet not enough.
Significant because it has allowed the AoC to this week recommend that colleges aim to increase pay by 6.5 per cent, in line with the school teachers’ pay award accepted by the teaching unions. Not enough however, because after 13 years of funding cuts, college pay still lags behind schools and industry, and the cost-of-living crisis is still biting hard.
Three things are clear to me. First, we have shown that by a concerted campaign nationally, supported by college leaders across the country, we can win the investment our sector so sorely needs.
