- About us
- About colleges
-
Corporate services
- Corporate services
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Data Protection/GDPR
-
Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment: How we support members
- Introduction & Employment Helpline
- Absence & Sickness Management
- Contracts and T&Cs
- Disciplinary, Capability & Grievance
- Employment Briefings Library
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
- General Employee Relations & HR Issues
- Holiday/annual leave related
- Industrial Relations
- ONS reclassification related guidance
- Pay & Pensions
- Recruitment
- Redundancy, Restructuring & TUPE
- Safeguarding/Prevent
- Workforce Benchmarking, Surveys & Research
- Governance
-
Projects
- Projects
- Get Involved!
- Projects: How we support members
- Resources
- The 5Rs Approach to GCSE Maths Resits
- Apprenticeship Workforce Development (AWD) Programme
- Creating a Greener London – Sustainable Construction Skills
- Erasmus+ EXPECT Project
- Digital Roles Across Non-digital Industries
- T Level and T Level Foundation Year Provider Support Programme
- The Valuing Enrichment Project
- Higher and Extended Project Qualifications
- OfS - Higher Education Social Prescribing Project
- Pears Foundation Youth Social Action Programme: Phase 2
- T Level Professional Development (TLPD) Offer
- T Level Curriculum Macro-Sequencing
- Contact the Projects Team
- DfE Multiply Capability Support Programme
- Creative Arts in FE 2024 – developing student voice through creativity
- Resources/Guidance
- Sustainability & Climate Action Hub
- Partnerships
- Honours Nomination
- Brexit
- Recruitment and consultancy
-
Events and training
- Events and training
- Events
- T Level & T Level Foundation Year Events
- Events and training: How we support members
- Network Meetings
- Annual Conference & Exhibition 2023 Resources
- Previous Events & Webinars
- In-House Training
- Senior Leadership Development Programme
- Introducing AoC's Early Career and Experienced Middle Managers Programme
- Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities
- Funding and finance
-
Policy
- Policy
- Meet the Policy Team
- Policy: How we support members
- Policy Areas
- Policy Briefings
- Submissions
- Policy Papers & Reports
- AoC Strategy Groups
-
AoC Reference Groups
- AoC Reference Groups
- Adults (inc. ESOL) Reference Group
- Apprenticeship Reference Group
- Technology Reference Group
- HE Reference Group
- 14-16 Reference Group
- Mental Health Reference Group
- 16-18 Reference Group
- SEND Reference Group
- WorldSkills Reference Group
- HR Reference Group
- Sustainability & Climate Change Reference Group
- EDI Reference Group
- Opportunity England
- Research unit
-
News, campaigns and parliament
- News, campaigns and parliament
- General and mayoral election resources
- Comms advice and resources for colleges
- AoC Newsroom
- AoC Blogs
- Work in Parliament
- AoC Campaigns
- Briefings
- Contact the Communications, Media, Marketing and Research Team
- Communications, media, marketing and research: How we support members
-
Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion blogs
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter
- Diversity in Leadership
- Black FE Leadership Group and AoC partnership agreement
- AoC's Equity Exchange
- Equality, diversity and inclusion: how we support members
- Equality, diversity and inclusion case studies
- Home
- News, campaigns and parliament
- AoC Newsroom
- Colleges key to delivering on Starmer’s priorities
Colleges key to delivering on Starmer’s priorities
Colleges are key to delivering the priorities set out by Labour leader Keir Starmer in his speech today, the Association of Colleges has stressed.
Mr Starmer rightly highlighted the crucial role of colleges as a critical national recourse for driving economic growth and breaking down barriers to opportunities for learners of all ages.
Pledging “a new direction on skills”, the Labour leader committed to supporting a “new generation of colleges” that would be “planted firmly in the ground of young people’s aspiration”.
The country’s further education colleges are ideally placed as institutions to help boost national productivity, break the class ceiling and open up opportunities for all, deliver the health and social care workforce of the future, help build safer and more cohesive communities, and support the green transition – the five priorities set out in the Labour leader’s speech at the party’s conference in Liverpool today.
Commenting on Keir Starmer’s speech, AoC chief executive David Hughes, said:
"Colleges are sitting right at the heart of communities across the country and are a critical national resource, so it is great the leader of the opposition recognises that. Keir Starmer is right to recognise their work to drive economic development and break down barriers to opportunity. Productivity and employer investment in training and colleges have suffered from over a decade of underinvestment so it's good to see a commitment to reverse that from the Labour leader through a vital and expanded role for colleges.
“Labour's plans also include stronger partnerships between colleges, employers, local and devolved governments and universities – and we are seeing great examples of such partnerships, led by our members, across the country already. They are focused on meeting local skills needs and training the ‘lab workers in Derbyshire’ and ‘automotive engineers in Wolverhampton’ Keir Starmer said he wanted to see.
“Successive governments have tried to invent new organisations - an approach that often results in duplication and wasted spending. It's significant and reassuring that Labour’s plans are explicitly focused on strengthening and investing in the existing college network, rather than creating new institutions.
“Colleges though face enormous staffing challenges as they compete with industry on pay for technically expert teachers. If we want to solve this, we will need to see more funding. That funding can build on the work colleges do to engage with employers, trade associations and unions as partners to develop the curriculum, the facilities and the trainers so that colleges can train and retrain the workers of the future. By building on the great colleges that we have now and on the work they do, progress can be quicker and more sustainable.”