Education: Further Education Colleges

Baroness Maddock Excerpts

Tuesday 9th October 2012 Grand Committee

[Baroness Maddock]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lady Sharp on securing this debate and on her report, which everybody has appreciated this afternoon in their contributions. The report clearly shows the importance of further education colleges in their communities. It concludes that an FE college is embedded in its community in almost every town and city in England and Wales. However, where I live, in Berwick-upon-Tweed, we are not in that happy position. That is in stark contrast to the situation when I lived in south-west Hampshire and was chairman of governors at Brockenhurst College, which at that time was, I think, in the top three.

My purpose in taking part in the debate is to highlight the very low level of FE provision in north Northumberland. We are at the heart of a very rural area with a sparse population. We have one high school with a sixth form in the town. The next nearest high school is at Alnwick, 30 miles away, or one hour by bus. The nearest college is at Ashington, which is more than 50 miles away and one and a half hours by bus. There is, of course, a college in Newcastle, which is 67 miles away and 50 minutes by train, but because it is quite a long way away the cost of that train journey is quite high. I am pleased to say that, since the Liberal Democrats took minority control in Northumberland, students can now get their train fares to Newcastle paid.

Northumberland College in Ashington delivers some courses locally—mainly trades and other practical skills involving some of our excellent local tradesmen. There are some good apprenticeship courses, but the college does not do any A-level courses. As a town we have a very low skills base and we have low levels of take-up of further and higher education. It is difficult to get the exact figures for Berwick because the last Government reorganised local government in Northumberland and we now just have figures for the whole of Northumberland, which do not reflect the very great differences between the north and south of the county. Again, I cannot get the exact figures—I used to be able to get them from Berwick Borough Council—but we have almost the lowest average wage in the country. Those who leave Berwick for higher education tend not to come back, as there are few job opportunities locally.

Many in Berwick have been working to try to improve FE provision with a view to getting some higher education opportunities as well. Under the Labour Government, I supported local efforts to bid for the programme for more universities, particularly for communities such as ours that are a long way from higher education. Despite being the furthest from higher education in England, we were unsuccessful.

Local efforts have not been helped by local government reorganisation and the demise of One North East. We thought that various sites and buildings owned by the local authority and One North East might provide the possibility for a college. I regret to say that, during 13 years of the Labour Government, there were no new college or school buildings anywhere in north Northumberland. Travel to colleges elsewhere is expensive and takes time, as I have indicated. It is not helped by the fact that the A1 in north Northumberland is still a single carriageway, despite dualling to the south and to the north over the border in Scotland.

I have two questions for the Minister. Are the Government aware of gaps in FE provision such as those in north Northumberland? What opportunities are there now for the development of an FE college in our area embedded in its community and providing the benefits so clearly set out in the excellent report of my noble friend Lady Sharp?