Adult Programmes Costs and Rates report

Adult Programmes Costs and Rates report

25th November 2020

Today AOC have published an Adult Programmes Costs and Rates report that reveals the impact a lack of funding has had on adult education in colleges. The Government’s ambition for getting people back into jobs won’t work without an immediate boost to adult funding. Funding rates for adult skills and education need to be set at the same level as those for 16-19 year-olds if the National Skills Fund is to be successful in reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

The report reveals that even at the maximum class size, none of the practical courses vital to the nation’s recovery are viable at current funding rates. This is no surprise given how inflation has eroded the rates over 10 years and how many of the courses suitable have high costs for materials.

Below are the campaign asks along with social media assets and template tweets for you to use on your own channels to support the call for an increased adult education budget.

As the Chancellor gears up for the Spending Review on Wednesday 25 November, we are calling for the government to make the following reforms to adult education:

  • Increase the core funding rates for the Single Activity Matrix (SAM) to bring equity with the 16-19 funding rate;
  • Implement the High Value Courses Premium as per the 16-19 methodology;

AoC’s Chief Executive, David Hughes issued the following statement to the media ahead of the report’s publication:

“Today’s findings show that thousands of adults who find themselves out of work and require retraining are at risk of being left behind. Adult education has been neglected in education policy for too long. The government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee extending full funding for a first Level 3 qualification to adults over the age of 23 was a welcome step but our analysis shows that without a funding rate increase, those ambitions will not be achieved.

“As the report shows, the courses needed to train key workers and productive sectors that will get the country moving again simply cost too much to deliver compared with current rates. A failure to act will leave businesses without skilled workers and people in long-term unemployment and poverty.”

You can download the report here.