The University and College Union (UCU) has created a petition calling for additional funding to pay for the recruitment of an additional 15,000 teachers into FE.
The petition, which has so far attracted more than 1,200 signatures, calls on apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon to provide “greater investment in FE” by recruiting 15,000 more teachers into the sector.
In a letter to UCU members, general secretary Sally Hunt (pictured) writes that FE needs “action as well as words”, and calls on members to sign the petition to try and “achieve social justice”.
‘Transforming lives’
Ms Hunt writes: “Last year UCU launched our FE Transforming Lives campaign. The campaign uses testimony from students to show what an enormous difference further education can make to peoples’ lives.
“To ensure a further 250,000 people benefit from these transformational opportunities would require government funding to recruit an additional 15,000 FE teachers.”
In November, the UCU was joined by the Association of Colleges, National Union of Students, Learning and Work Institute, Unison, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Voice, GMB and Unionlearn in co-signing a letter urging the chancellor to increase investment in colleges.
The letter pointed out that 15,000 fewer teachers and support staff currently work in the sector than did in 2009, and urged the government to take “a strategic approach to strengthening local further education”.
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