Business leaders in the North East have hit out at plans to cut funding from colleges whose courses were affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The North East England Chamber of Commerce has joined five further education colleges in the region to urge the Government not to claw back funding for missing delivery targets.
The Chamber says the plans would reduce colleges’ abilities to provide adult education at a time when investment in lifelong learning has never been more important.
Chamber chief executive James Ramsbotham said: “This year has been tremendously challenging for further education colleges across our region.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, colleges in the North East have faced considerable disruption to their everyday operations throughout this academic year, including the implementation of local restrictions in the autumn and the recent national lockdown.
"As a result, colleges have lost a term of face-to-face programme delivery and many colleges across the North East have fallen short of their adult education delivery targets for this academic year.
“The proposed clawback of adult education funding threatens to undermine the progress made by colleges on financial stability.
“Colleges have worked extremely hard to become more financially stable and to support their communities throughout the pandemic. The revocation of this funding could threaten this progress and destabilise colleges up and down the country.”
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The Chamber has written to the Government to set out its concerns. The letter has also been signed by representatives of Gateshead College, Hartlepool College, Derwentside College, New College Durham and Darlington College.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency has confirmed that it will claw back adult skills funds from colleges where they missed targets by more than 10%.
But the Association of Colleges believes most institutions have only been able to hit between 75% and 85% of their targets due to the disruption of the pandemic, leaving colleges facing six-figure losses and the likelihood of job cuts.
Mr Ramsbotham said: “The North East’s unemployment rate is currently 6.2% which is likely to bring unprecedented demand for retraining and career change as individuals seek work, the impact on cashflow of the clawback may significantly reduce further education’s ability to service that demand.
“Adult education is integral to supporting people back into employment and upskilling the region’s workforce so it can continue to fulfil the needs of a rapidly changing economy.”
The Department for Education said it acknowledged the situation for colleges was “difficult” but that it believed the 90% threshold was fair.
It said it was announcing the funding changes now to help providers plan for the rest of the year.