Celebrating the contribution of technical education in Crawley this Colleges Week

Further Education has a vital role to play in the future of the UK economy, with colleges like Crawley College ensuring that the country has the technical skills businesses need and that the next generation has a strong route into industry.

For far too long Further Education has been paid lip service, while suffering some of the biggest cuts of any part of the public sector. Under Labour, colleges will once again play a core role in educating the nation, with the party creating new Technical Excellence Colleges, to equip young people with the skills that local businesses need to boost economic growth and break down barriers to opportunity.

Existing Further Education Colleges will be supported to respond to locally agreed skills plans, working hand-in-hand with businesses to align skills and training provision with local need to ensure employers can source more of the skilled workers they need from local communities.

Apprenticeship starts have dropped by 78% in Crawley since 2016, with 940 people starting an apprenticeship in 2016, compared with just 730 in the last academic year. To tackle this, Labour have already pledged to reform the Conservative’s failed apprenticeship levy into a ‘Growth and Skills Levy’, so it can be used on a greater range of training courses, giving businesses the flexibility they need to retrain and upskill their existing workforce as well as creating more opportunities for young people.

Commenting on Labour’s plans, Peter Lamb–Labour candidate for Crawley, said:

“Throughout my time as Leader of Crawley Borough Council, we worked to bring the town’s businesses and Further Education together in order to ensure that local people had the skills they needed to earn a decent wage and help the local economy to prosper.

“Unfortunately, for all our efforts, the lack of ambition from central government and a silo mentality prevented us from realising the true potential of FE in the town.

“That’s why I’m proud that the Labour Party has shown that it will put Further Education at the heart of our mission to break down the barriers to opportunity, delivering a new generation of Technical Excellence Colleges and apprenticeships by supporting colleges to specialise in response to local employers’ skills needs.

“More training opportunities so people can gain new skills, access better jobs and grow our economy. That’s the difference that a Labour government will make.”