Department for Business, Innovation and Skills poster. Credit: British Embassy via Flickr
David Cameron’s speech on tackling extremism two weeks ago included the following words: “we need to lift the horizons of some of our most isolated and deprived communities. At the moment we have parts of our country where opportunities remain limited; where language remains a real barrier; where too many women from minority communities remain trapped outside the workforce and where educational attainment is low.”
Two days later further and adult education providers across England received a letter from the Skills Funding Agency, the body in charge of further education, informing them of a massive reduction in funding for the provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). The announcement comes as the sector is still reeling from the 24% cut in its budget announced earlier on in the year. This cut takes the form of the complete withdrawal of funding for mandated ESOL courses, classes for migrants on Jobseekers’ Allowance; colleges, most of whom would already have their classes and teachers in place for the next academic year, were given less than two weeks notice of this funding change. In a further punitive move, they have since been told that they must continue to offer the courses even without the money.
