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What's happened so far

On Wednesday 1 March we held a day of campaigning activities in Parliament to highlight to MPs and to Government that without additional investment in further education and skills, we will not be able to fill skills shortages in key priority areas of the economy and deliver the labour market the country needs.

The day in parliament involved:

  • Future Skills Coalition panel event with representatives from AoC, AELP, and City and Guilds, as well as Peter Aldous MP, Lord Blunkett MP and Jo Johnson MP. The panel discussed the investment we want to see in FE.
  • A photo opportunity outside parliament
  • Meetings between college leaders and their local MPs
  • Future Skills Coalition drop-in session for MPs to stop by and learn more about the campaign.

Alongside our events in Parliament, we invited all colleges to get involved in campaigning activity during this week. It is great to see so many colleges arranging regional events to build on relationships with MPs and highlight the need for additional investment.

Day of action impact:

  • There were meetings with at least 55 MPs which was our primary focus
  • Good media coverage locally & nationally
  • 30,200 impressions on Twitter & 511 interactions with #mindtheskillsgap hashtag
  • A group of Conservative backbench MPs wrote to the Chancellor calling on him to invest £400m
  • There were AEB & Capital funding announcements from DfE on 1st March
  • We had support from Liverpool City Region Mayor & 5% AEB rate rise announcement
  • The Skills Minister apologised for not having attended event on the day to show his support
  • It felt good to be making our voices heard and to come together to show why colleges matter

Mind the Skills Gap Campaign