Applications to FE colleges 'down by 40%'

Demand from employers to recruit apprentices from FE colleges is estimated to have fallen by more than 50%

Applications to Northern Ireland's six further education (FE) colleges are down by 40% in some areas.

The six colleges teach 61,000 students, many taking vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) in areas such as plumbing or childcare.

Demand from employers to recruit apprentices from FE colleges is also estimated to fall by more than 50%.

That is according to the head of Belfast Metropolitan College, Ms Louise Warde Hunter.

She was speaking to assembly members on Stormont's economy committee on Tuesday morning.

College representatives were giving evidence about the challenges they were facing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Applications are down on last year by up to 40% in some cases," Ms Warde Hunter told MLAs.

"There are thousands of employers with whom we already work or could work.

"However we expect that fewer will sign up to programmes with us, and across the six colleges in Northern Ireland demand from employers to recruit apprentices is estimated to fall by more than 50%."

She also told the committee that since March 2020, 2,338 apprentices studying through the FE colleges had been furloughed and a further 191 had been made redundant.

Risk that students won't qualify

In response to a question from the chair of the committee, Sinn Fein MLA Dr Caoimhe Archibald, Micheal McAllister from South West College said "hundreds" of students may not receive their qualifications this summer.

While many students will get "calculated grades" those taking work-based courses like electricians, plumbers and in childcare have to be assessed in the workplace to get their licence to practice, Mr McAllister said.

"There is potential for a large of students not to get their full award this summer - students who would normally be finishing - and that's a major concern for us," he said.

"If the guidance is not forthcoming, is not comprehensive and is not timely, then there is a significant risk that a number of students - potentially a significant number of students, into the hundreds - will not achieve their qualification at the end of this academic year and that's a major concern."

Belfast Metropolitan College had a particularly steep decline in its enrolment in just one year

Ms Warde Hunter also told the DUP MLA Gordon Dunne that the colleges would be unable to admit all of their students to campuses when the new term began in September.

"We won't be able to have all of our learners on site even when we do come back because of social distancing and therefore we are going to have lower numbers," she said.

"That is a permutation which we are actively working through."

The college representatives said there were significant funding pressures in making campuses ready to admit students under the conditions dictated by the coronavirus pandemic and providing more information technology available to students to enable them to study, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

They said that around 75% of students had been engaged in remote learning during lockdown, but DUP assembly member Gary Middleton expressed concerns about the other 25% - saying that many of those may come from poorer households.

"Investment is needed to tackle digital poverty," said Ms Warde Hunter.

"This is a much bigger societal and policy issue."

Leo Murphy from North West Regional College told MLAs the current situation represented the "most challenging" time of his 30 years working in FE.