Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 22 March 2017.
From that reaction, at least you’re acknowledging that there are problems here in Wales, unlike the leader of the house when I questioned her on this point last week. This isn’t fake news. These are true financial figures from colleges here in Wales. We’ve seen huge cuts in terms of funding for part-time courses in particular—71 per cent in recent years, and a reduction of 13 per cent in real terms to further education colleges. Those are cuts that are now biting hard in those colleges. Some are withdrawing access to certain courses. I appreciate that you want to focus across the border in England, but if you can focus on Wales for a moment, what are you doing in order to improve the prospects of those colleges, so that we don’t see courses being withdrawn in local communities, and we don’t see further education colleges not being able to have the sort of economic impact they’ve had in those communities in the past?