24th April 2009
The Budget included measures to overcome an impending crisis in further education, announcing £250m to fund an additional 54,000 sixth form and further education places.
College leaders warned the chancellor last month that there was a funding shortfall for post-16 student places.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the extra funding more than covered the shortfall.
He added: ‘The challenge for the government is to continue to fund growth ahead of current projections for education and training places so that we do not run into this problem again.’
An additional £300m of capital investment in the stalled college building programme was also welcomed, although this will only help a limited number of projects.
