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Further Education Colleges

6. Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle) (Lab): What steps he is taking to secure the financial viability of further education colleges. [181598]

The Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education (Alan Johnson): Funding allocated to the Learning and Skills Council for further education is set to increase by more than £1 billion over the three years to 2005–06. In 2003–04, the LSC increased colleges' unit of funding by 2 per cent. in real terms. Colleges that meet their targets will receive a further real-terms increase of 2.5 per cent. in 2004–05. The sector's success has created pressures on funding for this year and in recognition of that we have added £130 million extra to the LSC's budget.

Mr. Prentice: I listened carefully to what my right hon. Friend said, but there seems to be a huge mismatch between what the Government are saying and the reality on the ground. I recently met the new principal of Nelson and Colne college of further education in Pendle and she gave me a briefing note listing 17 areas of concern where the financial viability of the college was being put in jeopardy by factors outside the college's control. I ask my right hon. Friend to look again not just at the Nelson and Colne college but at a raft of colleges across the north-west that are making it very clear that they cannot deliver the Government's agenda—they want to be able to—because the resources simply are not there.

Alan Johnson: Let me say to my hon. Friend that I am perfectly willing to look into those 17 points. I would be very interested in seeing what I could do to help with those problems. We know that Nelson and Colne had a particular problem in failing to recruit the number of students that it expected. The whole sector—and everyone in the House—must accept that the Learning and Skills Council cannot provide funding for students who are not there. As I understand the position, this year—let alone last year, when there was a 2 per cent. real-terms increase—Nelson and Colne will receive a further 2.5 per cent. real-terms increase in funding. I accept that there are real issues which my hon. Friend is raising on behalf of his college and I am perfectly willing to look into them, but it should not detract from the overall record levels of funding that we are currently putting into further education.

Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con): Of course the worry for the college is that, with the Government having provided an extra £130 million, it will find in due course that it is clawed back through lower grants. The Government have a track record of clawing money back when no one is looking. Can the Minister confirm that the extra £130 million is a new baseline figure for FE budgets for the spending review period, and can he guarantee that it will not be paid for in future by reducing the annual grants increases that colleges would otherwise have received?
 
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Alan Johnson: I would love to be in a position where we could do things when no one is looking, but that is what parliamentary scrutiny is meant to avoid. I can give the guarantee that the £130 million is not coming from the unit of funding. It is a very genuine attempt to resolve a very real problem raised with us by the Learning and Skills Council. I should like to put another point to the hon. Gentleman. I, too, welcome the consensus built up by the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Collins) in respect of 14-to-19 education, but education is so crucial that I am amazed that his party has given a guarantee to preserve funding for schools, while planning £18 billion worth of funding cuts, which is bound to hit further education. We will have a completely different dialogue, I think, if we ever get to the fairy tale of a future Conservative Government.

Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab): Is the Minister aware that one of the most important colleges in north Derbyshire was a mining college, but the Tories clawed back all the jobs? The net result was that the college had to change its nature. What is happening now is a 5,000-job development at Markham and Bolsover, about two miles away from the old mining college. Will the Minister meet Derbyshire county council—part of the stakeholders in the new project, just off the M1, junction 29A—to ensure that we get those jobs and all the facilities for training that will be needed? As we all know, some jobs are for life, but a lot of new jobs need constant re-training and re-skilling.

Alan Johnson: I can promise my hon. Friend that I will turn off the M1 at junction 29B, or wherever it is, on the way to Hull—

Mr. Skinner: 29A.

Alan Johnson: The famous junction 29A—it's just as well I checked. I shall indeed have the meeting that my hon. Friend has asked for, as it is crucial that we have the skills and training ready to deal with the increase in employment numbers to which he referred.

Food Hygiene

7. Mr. Bob Blizzard (Waveney) (Lab): What his policy is on teaching food hygiene in schools. [181599]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Stephen Twigg): All primary pupils are taught food technology as part of the national curriculum. At key stage 3, the Government strongly encourage secondary schools to offer pupils the opportunity to study food technology, and 90 per cent. do so. Pupils learn procedures for food safety and hygiene, which includes safe food handling in the preparation, cooking and storage of food.

Mr. Blizzard: I hear what my hon. Friend says, but food is one of the main ways by which infections and diseases are acquired and transmitted. Is it not vital that more is done, beyond the primary level, to ensure that all our children understand basic food hygiene, which there is not really much about in the national curriculum? I used to be a teacher, and I did not find that
 
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children at secondary level were given much instruction in food hygiene. Will my hon. Friend have another look at this matter? I am worried that we are creating a time bomb, as fewer and fewer of today's children understand basic food hygiene.

Mr. Twigg: I shall be happy to look at the matter again. As my hon. Friend suggests, there is a strong focus on personal hygiene in the primary school curriculum, but the focus in secondary schools is more on science teaching. As he is probably aware, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is leading on a cross-government project to publish a healthy living blueprint later this year. I undertake to ensure that concerns about food hygiene are central to that document.

Mr. Eric Illsley (Barnsley, Central) (Lab): It has been my pleasure over the past few years to present food hygiene certificates to pupils at the Priory secondary school in my constituency. They are taught by one of the teachers, Christine Osbourne, in her spare time. Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to Christine Osbourne for giving up her time in that way? Will he encourage other schools and teachers to follow that example?

Mr. Twigg: I am very happy to pay tribute to Christine Osbourne and the pupils at the Priory school, and to join my hon. Friend in congratulating them on their achievements. There are many other fine examples of teachers who go beyond the call of duty to offer similar instruction. I am sure that all hon. Members would want to congratulate them.

Vocational Education

8. Mr. David Amess (Southend, West) (Con): What recent meetings he has had with employers to discuss vocational education. [181600]

The Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Charles Clarke): I regularly meet the CBI, the TUC and educationists to discuss skills and vocational education. Jointly with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, I chair the Skills Alliance, which brings those organisations together with the Small Business Service and the relevant Departments.

Mr. Amess: That might be all well and good but, after more than seven long years of this wretched Government, surely the Secretary of State understands that we lag way behind other European countries, especially France and Germany, in the numbers of youngsters with apprenticeships and vocational qualifications. The Government love setting targets: when will the Secretary of State set a target on this matter, and when would he expect to reach it?

Mr. Clarke: I am delighted that consensus across the House is breaking out on this key question, as manifested by that contribution. The number of modern apprenticeships has tripled since this Government came to office and the Government the hon. Gentleman supported left office. We are widening apprenticeships across a variety of sectors of industry. The traditional areas are construction and engineering, but we are
 
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making modern apprenticeships much more widely available. We are integrating them into the 14 to 16 age range, so that students can begin the work earlier, and we are also linking them into our foundation degrees as part of a coherent, positive and strong programme.

However, I concede that the hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) has a point. As I have said publicly on many occasions, we lag behind many of our competitor countries—not just France and Germany—in relation to stay-on rates at 16 plus. That is why we have the programme, why we have built consensus around it, and why we have targets to achieve it.

Mr. Martin Salter (Reading, West) (Lab): Is my right hon. Friend aware that Reading borough council has applied for academy status for Thamesbridge college, in partnership with the local business community? The aim is to give the college, and its staff and students, a positive future, and to provide enhanced opportunities for vocational training to meet the needs of employers and the very successful local economy of Reading and the Thames valley.

Mr. Clarke: I am aware of that, and I am glad that my hon. Friend raised the subject and is supporting that initiative. It allows me to make the point that our exciting new schools programmes, whether for specialist schools or city academies, are path-breaking on the academic-vocational question, and recognise the need to invest and give students real choice about what they will focus on in their future lives.

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