Budget cuts will cost 34,000 college jobs

The union also warned that a significant impact of the planned cuts would be on average class sizes, which would rise by nearly a third.*

UCU said that its figures were conservative estimates** and that the impact of cuts on jobs and class sizes could be even worse. The union said the analysis raised serious issues about the social and economic costs of failing to educate young people and warned of a 'lost generation'.

A recent report from the Audit Commission estimated that just the current cohort of unemployed youngsters not in education or training will cost the country an estimated £22 billion in welfare payments, anti-social behaviours costs, lost tax revenues and lost earnings over the course of their lifetimes^.

The news of the damage the cuts will do to further education colleges comes just a week after an analysis of similar level cuts to universities revealed over 22,500 university jobs would be lost, bringing the total jobs to go in post-16 education in England to a staggering 56,428.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The scale of the cuts facing further and higher education are staggering and will be a hammer blow to the country. We face the alarming prospect of class sizes rocketing and thousands of teachers on the dole queue at a time when they have never been more needed."

'The staff who survive the cull will have far less time to spend with students and will have considerably heavier workloads to deal with. The costs of educational underachievement in simple economic terms will be a creaking benefits system, a likely increase in anti-social behaviour and a huge loss in potential career earnings and tax revenues.'

Mohammed Sajad runs the Alum Youth Project in Hodge Hill, Birmingham, one of the worst areas in the country for educational underachievement. He said: 'I know at first hand the huge difference colleges can make to young people's lives. Bigger class sizes and less opportunities are the last things our communities need. If we want to engage with youngsters and help them get in to education, employment or training, and off the streets, then we need more teachers not fewer.'

*The number of learners per teacher
**UCU's analysis assumes that any cuts would be spread proportionately across staff and non-staff costs. However, it may well be that variable costs, such as staff costs, take a bigger proportional hit than fixed costs, such as heating and electricity.
^ Audit Commission report: Re-engaging young people in education, employment or training, July 2010 (pdf)

UCU analysis (relates to England)

Glossary:

ASHE – Annual survey of hours and earnings
FE- Further education
FTE – Full-time equivalents
LSC- Learning and Skills Council
UCU – University and College Union