Chancellor's winter economic plan - AoC responds

As Chancellor Rishi Sunak sets out his Winter Economic Plan and the scope of the Job Support Scheme, that will replace the current furlough scheme. Chief Executive of Association of Colleges, David Hughes said it must go hand in hand with a Job Training Scheme. Responding to the Chancellor's speech, he said: "The government has made a sensible decision to protect jobs through its new support scheme. We look forward to seeing the details but hope this will reduce the number of apprenticeship redundancies. We remain concerned that the measures are still focused on jobs only. The retention scheme is now a support scheme. Perhaps the next step is a training scheme - a JTS. Now is the time to start planning for the vastly different labour market people will need new skills for, and unfortunately redundancies will still have to made, these people need the opportunity to retrain as quickly as possible to get back on their feet. The chancellor has not yet set a date for the autumn budget. Some funding paid to colleges runs out in March 2021. We hope that the Treasury confirms departmental budgets in November and acts on college funding in the forthcoming spending review.” You can watch Chancellor Rishi Sunak's full statement to the House of Commons here.