Teacher pay announcement: College sector response

In response to today's teacher pay award announcement, including £185 million in 2023-24 and £285 million in 2024-25 for the further education sector, the Association of Colleges has released the below statement.

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges says:

“We know how hard the Secretary of State has been fighting to win new investment for colleges and how serious she is about supporting the sector, so we’re delighted that she has secured a significant win today. This is the first time we know of where college funding has been decided alongside schools, rather than it feeling like an afterthought and I’m hopeful that that is a sign of the recognition at the highest levels of just how important colleges and college staff are to the economy and communities.

As ever, the devil will be in the detail, and we look forward to seeing more of that next week. This will then help us to be able to formulate a new pay offer, which we hope to be able to do promptly so that colleges can put their offer to their staff and the unions, and the sector can focus on continuing to deliver for the millions of students who study and train in colleges every day.”