Backbench Conservative MPs tell fringe event that policy to consolidate further education colleges will hinder recruitment of construction workers
Tory MPs have raised concerns about their own government鈥檚 plans to consolidate further education colleges, in part because of the impact it will have on training the next generation of construction workers.
Speaking at a Conservative Party conference fringe event organised by RICS and the CIOB, Simon Hoare MP said that plans to rationalise the current network of FE colleges down to as few as 39 providers were 鈥渁 nonsense鈥�. He said: 鈥淭his idea of consolidating colleges may work in urban areas where there are good transport links but in rural areas it鈥檚 nonsense. We鈥檒l have to see government policy change there.鈥�
The plan is being pushed through by skills minister Nick Boles, who is also minister for construction. Boles wrote to FE colleges in July outlining a review of existing colleges, which he said would 鈥渆nable a transition towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient providers鈥�, because of a funding crisis in FE education.
In the same session Jo Churchill MP, who represents Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, said she would 鈥渇ight with tooth and nail鈥� to keep her local FE