Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Yvonne Fovargue and Gavin Williamson

Monday 1st March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

My hon. Friend raises an important matter. We have asked Sir Kevan Collins to look across a full and broad range of ways of giving children a boost, not just to catch up on any learning that they have lost but more fundamentally, to make major changes to how we drive educational attainment over a generation and more. All of this is something that Sir Kevan will look at.

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab) [V]]

The unionlearn fund has provided access to skills for over 200,000 workers, many of whom previously had few or no qualifications. Will the Secretary of State reconsider the decision to scrap that highly successful programme and fund it through the national skills programme.

[Gavin Williamson]

No.

Higher Education Fees

Debate between Yvonne Fovargue and Gavin Williamson

Thursday 9th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Yvonne Fovargue]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend.

In my constituency, a traditional working-class community, debt is regarded as a bad thing, and parents do not encourage their children to take on levels of debt on this scale. For me, education has always been a partnership between the individual and the state. It involves an investment on both sides. However, this rise in tuition fees, coupled with the cuts to the university teaching budget, has shifted that. The loss of funding for many courses, particularly in the arts, humanities and social sciences, has transferred the funding solely to the students of those subjects.

[Gavin Williamson]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Yvonne Fovargue]

No, I will not give away again.

Those shifts in funding cannot be fair or right. Is this the society in which we want to live, where we know the price of everything and the value of nothing? Young people in my constituency are angry; they feel let down. They have been e-mailing me and urging me to vote against this increase. I am glad that those people are angry, but I worry about the ones who have not contacted me, who perhaps feel that this unfair policy is all that they deserve, and that they can expect nothing better. It is not what my constituents deserve; they deserve the best chances in life, and I shall vote against this policy to ensure that they get them.