UCU responds to Budget report

Responding to today's budget and plans for extra funding for new technical education, UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 

'Our colleges have been cut to the bone in recent years and we urgently need proper investment to give people of all ages looking to improve their skills the best chance to succeed. If the chancellor wants a country that is match-fit for Brexit he needs to look at a rounded funding package that covers young people and adults and introduce it now, not at the end of the decade, so that colleges aren't at a standing start when the new technical routes kick in. Plans for technical education to have parity of esteem with degrees are not new, but we need more detail on these plans, not simply news that the government have earmarked technical courses as a way for more students to pay fees.'