The further education sector in England is at breaking point. As colleges are being starved of funding, it is students who are suffering the most. A survey by the Raise the Rate campaign earlier this year found that 78 per cent of schools and colleges have reduced student support services or extracurricular activities as a result of funding pressures. We are in the middle of a mental health crisis among the student body, and are suffering rising youth unemployment, and yet our educational institutions are being forced to scrap these vital services.

It is almost 10 years since the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and the adult learning grant were abolished. The inadequate discretionary bursary schemes that replaced them haven’t increased in that time, while transport, courses costs and food have become ever more expensive. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are finding it ever harder to access the education that they require to expand their chances.

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Election 2019: Adult education

Adult education in this country is on its knees. Adult skills budget spending fell by 32 per cent in cash terms between 2010-11 and 2015-16, and has not recovered since. The total number of adult learners in FE dropped by over a third between 2012-13 and 2017-18. It has been much stated that 85 per cent of the jobs that we will be doing in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet - but how can people retrain to be fit for the future when there is no funding?

It is positive that there does seem to be broad recognition among the major parties of the need for increased investment in further education. The Conservatives have followed up their funding pledges in the spending round with a promise of £2 billion of investment to upgrade the further education college estate. This is combined with a promise to “consider” the Augar post-18 education review, which contained many notable recommendations of increased funding for FE that we hope are enacted. But while this investment is crucial, it is not enough. New facilities are of little use to students if the staff recruitment crisis is not solved or maintenance support is not provided.

Apprentices will not forget that the Conservatives broke the promise in their 2017 manifesto to reduce the cost of transport to their places of work and their learning providers, in spite of this being identified consistently as one of the biggest barriers to participation and apprentices receiving wages often too low to meet the cost.

By contrast, the Labour Party has sought to address many of the issues that students have identified with its proposal for a National Education Service. Plans to bring back the EMA, improve the post-16 funding base rate and provide all citizens with a lifelong entitlement to Level 3 qualifications in addition to six years training at Levels 4-6 are a radical change from the past nine years of austerity. A promise of free bus travel for under-25s where councils take control of their buses is also very welcome and will help students and apprentices to travel to their educational institutions affordably.

Apprenticeship reforms

Nevertheless, there are still notable omissions from Labour’s manifesto of reforms that students would like to see. While many will be excited by plans to democratise the education system and broaden the curriculum, it is a shame that this has not also been applied to apprentices. There is widespread concern that employer-designed apprenticeships have narrowed the education that many apprentices receive and yet the manifesto keeps employers in the driving seat when it comes to designing programmes, and apprentices aren’t even in the car. We know that apprenticeships should provide training for a career, not just one job, and greater involvement of apprentices in their education is essential in achieving that.

The Liberal Democrats also promise increased funding for further education in the shape of an extra £1 billion and a Young People’s Premium for disadvantaged pupils aged 16-18. This premium is a very interesting idea and an alternative way to reintroduce maintenance support for learners. Although we cannot pass full judgement on it until we know what proportion would be paid directly to students, it is disappointing that the Lib Dems have restricted access to this only to those under 18. Similarly, the party’s “Skills Wallet” is a very welcome recognition of the need to improve adult education and create a system that is truly lifelong, but we need to ensure that it is not only those who already have access to learning who gain most benefit. This funding must reach those who are shut out of our colleges and providers now, and the training received must be of high quality.

The treatment that the Lib Dems give apprentices in their manifesto is also very telling - not just in placing apprentice policy under the economy rather than education section. For example, apprentices have long campaigned for accessible, inclusive sex and relationships education and high-quality mental health support, both things that are on offer for university and college students but do not appear to have been extended to apprentices.

Meanwhile, the Green Party proposes a range of funding reforms to attempt to undo some of the cuts that FE has recently suffered, including raising the rate for 16- to 17-year-olds, creating a capital expansion fund for sixth-form colleges and increasing the Adult Education Budget. While these are all promising policies, there is a noticeable lack of detail as to how much investment this would involve.

Student support

While almost all parties speak about reforming the apprenticeship levy in some form or another, none have thoroughly addressed what they will do with it. Apprentices have consistently been very vocal about the dire state of apprenticeship pay and yet no party has addressed this either.

No matter who is in government on Friday, we are likely to see increased investment. But this will not necessarily translate into more support for students: ultimately, there are vast differences between the parties’ proposals on student maintenance support, other support services and the level of investment they will provide.

Students are calling for the next government to work to develop a new post-16 education system in England that is accessible, funded and lifelong. This is what we must judge them on and, be in no doubt, this is what students will be voting for on polling day.

Juliana Mohamad Noor is vice-president of further education at the NUS students’ union