Regarding the article “Bid to tackle skills scarcity” (FE Focus, April 22), the Executive might start to address this problem by investigating the number of trades and crafts courses that have been axed by further education colleges since incorporation in 1993.
Such an investigation would certainly tell the Executive what most of us who work in FE already know: that courses which are designed to meet the needs of the construction and engineering industries are expensive to run and therefore hold little attraction for our profit-obsessed, un-elected and unaccountable boards of management.
FE colleges should put the social and economic needs of the community ahead of the desire to make a profit. They will only do so if they are placed back under democratic control.
Jim O’Donovan
Campaign for Further Education
Durward Avenue, Glasgow
