This week, ColegauCymru has made two separate, but related, submissions to the Senedd Early Years, Children, Young People and Education Committee. These two pieces of correspondence are important in that they set out what we believe should be the priorities for the Committee’s programme of work in the forthcoming Senedd term (2026-30), while they also highlight the budgetary pressures facing the FE sector and the urgent need for decision-makers to act.
We have written in detail to the Committee Chair setting out the budgetary pressures facing the FE sector in Wales. Increased participation in FE is something which should be celebrated. However, with an estimated £23.5 million funding gap this academic year, and with financial pressures projected to be even worse in 2027-28, colleges face having to make difficult decisions about provision and capacity at a time when learner demand is rising sharply.
Read our letter to the Early Years, Children, Young People and Education Committee
As record learner enrolments are not being matched by funding, this has left nearly 5,000 learners unfunded and several hundred applicants unable to secure college places. Sustained underfunding is threatening financial stability, learner support services, curriculum provision, and potentially jobs, while also increasing the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Colleges are also seeing growing pressures from higher numbers of learners with additional learning needs (ALN) and changing enrolment patterns, particularly increased demand for vocational courses. The Welsh Government must provide immediate additional funding for 2026-27 and fully fund the FE funding model from 2027-28 onwards, with a minimum of £40 million required next year to meet demand and maintain the sector's long-term sustainability.
In a separate submission, ColegauCymru responded to the Committee’s consultation on its priorities - which allowed us to list seven areas of key importance to the FE sector in Wales in the years ahead. First and foremost was the budgetary pressures that colleges are facing due to record participation levels among learners. Addressing the budgetary issue is a prerequisite to our other six priorities, which are:
- The need for a new 14-19 Learning and Progression Pathway and the extension of the Junior Apprenticeship programme;
- High-quality, independent advice and guidance available to all post-16 learners and an assessment of the sustainability of small school sixth-forms;
- Investment in learner travel so that it is no longer a barrier to accessing FE;
- Commitment to a new Apprenticeship Programme, delivering a minimum of 125,000 high-quality all-age apprenticeships over this Senedd term;
- Reversing cuts to adult learning and investment in recognition of prior learning (RPL), allowing adults learners to gain recognition for the skills they already have;
- Providing colleges with the financial support they will need to recruit new staff and upskill existing staff to able to deliver through the medium of Welsh.
We continue to call on all parties in the Senedd to work together on a budget agreement that prioritises investment in young people at a time of growing numbers who are NEET. Colleges are well-placed to be part of the solution to this problem, but they must be appropriately resourced to do so.
Further Information
Letter to Chair of EYCYPE Committee
Read our letter to the Early Years, Children, Young People and Education Committee
Senedd Cymru
Early Years, Children, Young People and Education Committee
Alex Still, Policy Manager
Alex.Still@ColegauCymru.ac.uk
