THE Secretary of State for Education visited Bordon last Friday, when college providers grilled him on funding.

Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT), which operates Bordon’s Future Skills Centre, said the visit by Damian Hinds - which coincided with a similar engagement with Basingstoke MP Maria Miller - put them at “the heart of Colleges Week 2018”.

The Future Skills Centre, and colleges across the UK, came together last week for the national campaign which highlights the work colleges do with learners, businesses and communities while also, BCoT explained, “calling on the Government and the Secretary of State for Education to start giving colleges fairer funding”.

Commenting on his time with the ministers, which included a tour of the Future Skills Centre, Anthony Bravo, BCoT principal, said: “Despite experiencing a decade of funding cuts, colleges continue to play a vital role in the education and training of young people.

“Further education is key to the education system which trains 2.2 million people per year, yet all too often we come second to schools and universities.

“Funding for 16 and 17 year olds has not increased for seven years and colleges now have to deliver maths and English to this age group.

“For 18 year olds our funding has been cut by 17-and-a-half per cent and again we have to deliver English and maths resits.

“Core funding is now at unsustainable levels and is not without impact on curriculum choice, teaching hours, staff pay and learner support. It’s time to give colleges fairer funding and equal parity.”

Colleges Week is an annual campaign organised by the Association of Colleges (AOC). The theme for 2018 is “love our colleges” which aims to highlight the funding issue which also includes, according to the AOC, a 24-per-cent drop in funding when a student reaches 16, an overall further education funding cut of 30 per cent between 2009-2019 and an eight-per-cent disparity between per-student funding for colleges and secondary schools.

The campaign also calls for equity with regard to pay and pensions for college staff where teachers, on average, earn a third less than teachers in schools.

A round-table discussion at the Future Skills Centre, including Mr Hinds, Anthony Bravo and deputy chief executive for the Association of Colleges Julian Gravatt, covered the apparent disparities between colleges and academies.

This has seen a lack of funding and investment in colleges while academy capital requirements are fully funded. Colleges are hit doubly hard as, unlike academies, their expenditure is subject to VAT meaning everything costs a college 20 per cent more than an academy.

A tour of the Future Skills Centre, which is a fully funded project supported by Hampshire County Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership, illustrated how further education is filling the skills gap in the construction industry while supporting the Whitehill and Bordon regeneration project.

Having this industry specific facility has enabled BCoT to tailor a new 14-16 provision which includes working with local schools, developing new apprenticeship partnerships with employers such as Taylor Wimpey and offering work in the community for student enrichment activity. “It’s a real pleasure to be back at the Future Skills Centre to celebrate its first anniversary, particularly during Colleges Week,” Mr Hinds said.

“Our schools and colleges have such a vital role to play in making sure people of all ages have the skills they need to get on in life, and the specialist construction courses available at the centre are just one of the wide range of opportunities on offer locally.

“I was delighted to also see the work being done to support the commemorative First World War project underway in Whitehill and Bordon and I look forward to seeing the evocative figure I saw in situ in the next few weeks.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges concluded: “Every single day colleges like Basingstoke College of Technology provide a world class education and transform the lives of millions of people.

“Colleges Week is an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant things that go on and a chance to showcase the brilliant staff that make it possible. It is simple, if we want a world-class education system, then we need to properly invest in it.”

The Future Skills Centre, which opened a year ago, cost £3.8m and was delivered as part of the town’s regeneration. A key piece of the development puzzle was to, when possible, use a local workforce - to enable the town to “build itself”.