AoC Recommends 2.5% Pay Rise for Colleges | Sector Reaction

After constructive and positive National Joint Forum meetings with the college unions, AoC is making a formal pay recommendation for the 2024/25 academic year of 2.5% or £750, whichever is greater.

This recommendation is above inflation and is more than the increase in funding most colleges have received this year. The funding rate for 16 to 18-year-olds increased by 1.9% but that only represents about half of college income on average. In many colleges, 16 to 18-year-old funding is a lot less than half, and because of that, the 2.5% or £750 recommendation will be challenging for some colleges, particularly those with high volumes of adult provision or other financial pressures.

The extra funding to allow a 5.5% pay rise for school teachers was the right thing to do, but college leaders were bitterly disappointed that they were once again left out. Because of that, college staff will see that unjustifiable pay gap to schools widen even further and colleges will find it more difficult than ever to recruit and retain their staff.

AoC is committed to continuing to make the case with government on pay and should that be successful has promised to seek to reconvene the negotiations with the unions and consider the issue of pay again.

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said:

“We are clear that after 14 years of punishing funding cuts, college pay is far below where we believe it should be and needs to be. Once again we are forced to make a pay recommendation far below what we believe is needed, simply because colleges cannot afford more. The £10,000 pay gap between colleges and schools is not justifiable, other than by reference to the inadequate funding colleges have had to live with over the last 14 years.

“Around 172 college leaders have written, jointly, to the Chancellor on this and other funding issues and the forthcoming budget is an opportunity for this wrong to be put right. A failure to improve college pay will be a major barrier to the government achieving its ambitions on the economy, opportunity, health and net zero. We estimate that £250m for colleges this year would ensure that the pay gap between schools and colleges does not get any bigger.

“In the spending review we will be calling for a funded plan to close the pay gap with schools and with industry over the coming years. We need to see a step change in college pay both because it is fair and right to do so, but also because colleges are central to delivering the government’s missions and ambitions, and without better pay, colleges will struggle to step up.”

Sector Reaction

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said,

“This recommendation is hugely disappointing and fails to recognise the value and contribution of our members working in further education. A pay increase of 2.5% just won’t make up for years of below-inflation awards or remedy the £9k pay gap between school and college teachers.  

“Most further education teachers work on average over 48 hours a week, and around half of qualified teachers leave the sector within 3 years. This will only get worse unless we see greater investment and the closing of the pay gap. Labour cannot ignore the crisis in further education any longer. Their ambitious plans to develop a more skilled workforce and the creation of Skills England are in danger of failing unless they ensure better pay, a workforce strategy and a new national bargaining framework for further education.”