When Jemma Coe was a schoolgirl in Great Yarmouth, she was in no state of mind to learn. She describes her younger self as “troubled” – a child who teachers were not able to reach and who crashed out of school at 15 without any qualifications. “I was in chaos,” she says.
But Coe, now 24 and a single mother to a three-year-old daughter, is back in the classroom and wants to learn. She was finally beginning to find her feet – only to discover that her course is to be closed because of government-imposed funding cuts.
Coe is one of 2.7 million people who benefit each year, full-time or part-time, from further education (FE). Many, like her, weren’t able to succeed first time round often because of life circumstances beyond their control. FE has given them a second chance at a time when they are better equipped to make the most of it.
On Wednesday, as part of his spending review, the chancellor is expected to announce further drastic cuts to FE budgets, which were already reduced by 14% in the last parliament.
Last week, the skills minister Nick Boles warned that FE would not be insulated from further cuts. More than 125 FE college principals, many of whom already contending with tightening budgets, wrote to the prime minister warning that further cuts would tip them “over the precipice”.
Coe, who is studying functional skills in maths and English at Great Yarmouth College (GYC) in the hope of getting an apprenticeship and finding work in an office, has been told that because of the cuts, her course is likely to end in February.
The same goes for Amy Kelly, a serious-minded 30-year-old with two children. She failed at school after her world was turned upside down by her parents’ separation. Since then she’s had two daughters and worked in McDonald’s and as a croupier in a casino. Now she’s starting her studies again and hopes to become a nurse. Like Coe, however, her route out of her current predicament may well be blocked off if her course is cut.
“I never got the education I would have liked,” she says, close to tears. “I don’t feel I had the opportunity in school or the encouragement from my mum who was on her own.”
She wants things to be different for her children. “I want to be an inspiration. You want to make a difference for them. You want to give them opportunities. It means everything to me. I can’t even talk about it because it upsets me.
“I need this. I don’t want my children to fall into this cycle. I need to break the cycle. If the course closes in February, I would be devastated.”
FE does not have the protection that school budgets (at least for five- to 16-year-olds) have been given by the Conservative government; it does not benefit from the power of the parental lobby, like schools; neither does it have the powerful supporters and high-level lobbyists who speak up for higher education. It is the poor cousin of the education world, but does a complicated and remarkable job.
Sixth form colleges – as opposed to school sixth forms – are similarly vulnerable in Wednesday’s spending review. Like FE, they too have faced substantial cuts and there are fears that many could be forced to close or merge if they lose more funding in the review.
Their role is easy to understand – they specialise in teaching A-levels to 16- to 18- year-olds. The story of FE is much harder to tell. Its mix of academic and vocational teaching – the apprenticeships on offer, basic skills courses, BTecs and higher education courses, teaching both young and older adults – can be confusing.
During a visit to GYC this week, the Guardian met not only Coe and Kelly, but also ESOL students (English for speakers of other languages). They are recent arrivals in the Norfolk coastal town of Great Yarmouth, studying to improve their English in order to find work. Their course too is likely to be cut.
Denissa Marquina, 18, from Ecuador, and Fatumata Bangura, a 19-year-old Portuguese student, both of whom want to become nurses, speak up about the importance of English. “I like to help people,” says Denissa. “I would like improve my English first. Speaking English better, I can be a nurse.”
GYC students are a fascinating mix. In the queue at the canteen there are people training to be hairdressers, engineers, welders; students of animal care, catering, hospitality and tourism. And there’s Richard Berry and Harry Mitchell, both 18, who are studying creative media production and hope to go to university. “The college is very different from high school. It’s completely changed my attitude to education,” says Harry.
Stuart Rimmer, GYC’s ambitious young principal, quietly brims with anger as he contemplates the prospect of more cuts. For many young people, he says, particularly those from deprived and challenging backgrounds, life does not always work in a neat linear progression from school to university to job. “They need more support; they need more teaching.
“Just because you’ve not had a good school experience does not mean you won’t be outstanding in your career,” says Rimmer. “Colleges are the engines of local economy and promote social cohesion. Where else can you acquire the foundation, professional and technical skills required for communities to thrive?
“I believe people grossly underestimate the impact of colleges. The new government was keen to stress how education budgets would be protected but it seems only if you are under 16.”
One of FE’s key future responsibilities will be helping to deliver the government’s target of 3m apprenticeships by 2020. In addition, colleges are picking up an enormous additional workload with thousands of students who did not gain A*-C at GCSE English and maths at school facing resits.
At GYC just 25% of new students have both English and maths at the required level. The back pages of the newspaper FE Week are full of adverts for maths and English teachers. “You’ll miss FE if it’s gone,” says Rimmer grimly.
Coe, meanwhile, is working hard. She wants to be a good role model for her daughter; she wants to be able to help her with her homework, so she doesn’t miss out on school in the way her mother did. “This is my chance to better myself, after all the mistakes I’ve made.”
