LTE Group welcomes funding to address 16-18 capacity challenges in Greater Manchester
The news follows a positive meeting between college leaders and Skills Minister Baroness Smith of Malvern.
LTE Group has welcomed a recent announcement from Skills Minister, Baroness Smith of Malvern, to provide the further education colleges of Greater Manchester with an additional £10m of funding to address 16-18 capacity challenges.
With population growth across the region set to put pressure on the number of places available in the city region’s nine further education colleges, LTE Group CEO John Thornhill has joined Richard Caulfield, Policy Manager for GMColleges, in recognising the positive step towards ensuring that young people across the city can access the college places that will enable them to gain the skills required to secure successful and rewarding employment.
The news comes as it was also confirmed that LTE Group has been awarded £3.16 million in college condition funding from the Department for Education to pay for further improvements to its estate.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr Thornhill said: “We have been working alongside Greater Manchester’s other colleges to highlight the further education capacity challenges that we face in the next five years and welcome that this has been recognised by the Department for Education.
The additional funding will go some way to ensuring that we are able to provide the number of places required for the growing 16-18 population.
"We now look forward to seeing the full details of how this funding will be allocated and what it can be used for so that we can fully assess how far this will go in ensuring that all young people in the city region can secure a place on a course that will enable them to access the opportunities that exist in Greater Manchester’s economy.”
The announcement followed a recent meeting in Westminster between the principals of colleges in Greater Manchester and Skills Minister Baroness Smith of Malvern, in which a wide range of topics related to the sector were discussed.
Thornhill added: “We have been heartened by the government’s understanding of and commitment to the important role colleges play in driving economic growth and supporting our communities.”
Responding to the announcement, Richard Caulfield, GMColleges Policy Manager, said: “GMColleges welcome this positive step from the Department for Education, which will go some way to addressing the 16-18 capacity challenge which colleges across Greater Manchester face. During our recent visit to Westminster, it was heartening to hear first hand about the government’s understanding of and commitment to the important role colleges play in driving economic growth and supporting our communities.
“We await full details of how this funding will be allocated and how we can use it to meet the growing demand across our colleges for the next academic year. There is more work to be done to ensure that all young people in Greater Manchester who want to progress their careers by studying in a college in the years to come are able to do so, and we look forward to working closely with the DfE, Greater Manchester Combined authority, our local authorities and other stakeholders to address the ongoing projected shortfall in places across the city region.”