GovernmentUK commits 4bn to post-16 education to tackle skills gapBoost for National Skills Fund and further education colleges aimed at reversing decade of funding cuts

The government has committed 4bn to post-16 education inthe Budget, pledging to address a skills gap in the UK economy after years of falling investment in vocational and technical education.

In the first Budget of Boris Johnson's Conservative government, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced it would spend 2.5bn on a new National Skills Fund aimed at facilitating 'two culture changes': encouraging adults to train throughout life and pushing the government and employers to increase investment in plugging the skills gap.

A further 1.5bn will be spent on capital investment to improve buildings in further education colleges and install 'cutting edge facilities' to train for 'the industries of the future', the Budget said.

The move seeks to reverse nearly a decade of funding cuts in further education, which have contributed to a 'skills gap' and some of the lowest rates of post-18 education in Europe.

More than 80 per cent of employers last year told the CBI, Britain's largest employers' group, that a lack of vocational and technical skills in the workforce was harming UK competitiveness.

Further education providers welcomed the cash injection and said they were eager to work with the government to shape the National Skills Fund, on which the government will begin to consultin the spring.

"Today showed a clear shift in attitude towards technical and vocational education, after a decade of neglect," David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said.

"We're working with the government to secure large-scale, long-term, transformative investments and policies which will put colleges centre-place in communities across the country."

Several studies have shown FE colleges have been disproportionately affected by funding cuts. The Augar review into post-16 education, commissioned by Theresa May, the former prime minister, found the sector received government funding of 2.3bn for 2.2m full and part time students in 2018, compared to 8bn for 1.2m undergraduates at universities.

In the same year, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found spending on adult education had dropped by 45 per cent since 2009-10, and that budgets at some sixth-form colleges had been cut by one-fifth.

Some organisations suggested the money pledged in the Budget would be insufficient to address a decade of austerity-driven cuts.

"If you look at how much the sector has been squeezed, it's difficult to see how the very welcome money is going to address that," Lizzie Crowley, skills adviser at CIPD, which represents human resources professionals, said.

The government should focus on encouraging employers to provide in-work training for their staff, as well as addressing the financial barriers that continue to dissuade adults from training later in life, she said.

Source: adapted from Statan (2020)

Read the article. Drawing on the article and on module materials, explainhow increased government spending on further education colleges can improve the success of both workers and firms.