23 November 2007
For Personal Use Only
- Author: Tim Ross and Tom Scotney
- Source: Birmingham Post, pg7
Skills Secretary John Denham clashed with college leaders in Birmingham yesterday as he warned they must work more closely with businesses or face funding cuts.
Mr Denham told further education colleges they would have to change to give employers the training their staff require.
But lecturers said the Minister was undermining the “liberal” ideal of education for its own sake and turning colleges into nothing more than “skills factories”.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Colleges (AoC) at the ICC in Birmingham, Mr Denham said: “The challenge to change is not coming from Government but from the communities you serve.
“There is pressure from employers to meet their training needs, particularly for the high-level skills the economy now demands.”
Mr Denham said more funding would be diverted through a scheme led by employers to train their staff, called “Train to Gain”.
And colleges will have to “work more effectively with Jobcentre Plus and improve provision for the workless”.
“The reality is that if colleges do not respond to this demand, they risk losing funding. More importantly they will also be failing the communities they serve,” he said.
College leaders hit back at Mr Denham’s plans.
Michael Wedgeworth, from Blackburn College, said: “Some of us believe we are creating skills factories rather than centres of learning and education.
“We should be given space to deal with issues such as citizenship, personal development and exploration.
“All this emphasis on employers, skills and so forth makes it impossible to give this wider, liberal education in colleges.”
The Minister was told the Government’s funding cuts had already forced one million adult “leisure” courses - such as evening classes - to be axed.
Maggie Scott, director of learning at the AoC, said colleges were “well aware of their responsibilities” and willing “to meet the challenges set out by Government”.
“But they will in turn need business to back schemes like apprenticeships and to increase their investment in training,” she said.
Meanwhile, pop star turned political activist Bob Geldof told the conference more work needed to be done for needy African communities.
The former Boomtown Rats singer and Live Aid organiser used the occasion to call for people to dip into their pockets for the cause he has championed for more than two decades.
He praised the work of G8 leaders, who he lobbied to give more aid to Africa at the G8 summit in 2005, and said there had been huge changes in the fortunes of sub-Saharan African countries, with economic growth rates in double figures in some countries.
“Since 2005 20 million children have gone to school as a direct result of Gleneagles,” added the singer.
But he said it was up to people as well as governments to put their hands in their pockets and help Africa, saying: “I’m a great believer in charity, when politics fails charity steps in.”
“What you’ve got to remember is that this isn’t just a problem for them, Africa’s just eight miles to the south of Europe and we will be the first to be affected if there are problems.”
The AoC annual conference brought together experts and college principals from across the UK
Filed by Nikola Cvetkovic under Education and Social Policy
