It will come to no surprise to anyone that I wholeheartedly believe in the power of education. So when our manifesto was released last week, I was delighted to see such a keen focus on policies to support our wonderful yet undervalued FE colleges. For far too long our colleges have been underfunded and unsupported and the Lib Dem manifesto seeks to change this alongside highlighting the importance of lifelong learning.

In the manifesto, we pledge to review of further education funding, including the option of exempting colleges from VAT. FE funding compares extremely unfavourably with both university and school funding, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies highlighting that FE and skills saw the largest spending cuts across all areas of education since 2010, with college spending per student approximately 10% lower than 2010-2011 levels and adult skills spending 23% below 2009-2010 levels. Colleges also pay VAT, unlike schools and academies, and approximately £200 million could be reinvested back into the skills system and make a key difference in colleges ability to equip young people with the skills they need to succeed.

We also pledge to create new “Lifelong Skills Grants” which will give all adults £5000 to spend on education and training throughout their lives, with the aim to increase this to £10,000 in the future when public finances allow. This offers a clear differentiation from existing and promised government commitments through their Lifelong Learning Entitlement, because it is a grant, rather than a loan. We understand that for any adult deciding whether to make the plunge into learning that there is a myriad of considerations, the time to complete their studies, and the costs if they have to give up some hours at work. Additionally, most adults with families and financial responsibilities are loathe to take on more debt, even if it will lead to a better job with better pay. These grants will give adults an investment into their futures, that will lead to better success and growth for the nation.

Additionally, it is absolutely vital for us as a nation to properly invest in the skills for the future and the need for the creation of a lifelong learning culture is clear. With an aging population, a lack of technical skills, technological change, and the move to a net zero economy, we need every adult to have the capacity, motivation and opportunities to carry on learning throughout their lives. Advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and robotics are profoundly changing the way people work, learn, communicate and live and we need to retrain and upskill adults to take advantage of some of the fantastic opportunities these technologies bring.

However, over the last 15 years, the UK has seen a significant decline in the levels of participation in adult education. Since 2004 participation rates have almost halved (down 49%) from 29% to just below 15%, with only one in three adults self-reporting any participation in learning in 2023 (the lowest level in 22 years). Millions of people are missing out on opportunities to retrain and upskill for a new job or career and employers are unable to fill key vacancies where skills gaps exist, so reversing this trend is incredibly important.

These figures also create another problem which the Lib Dem manifesto seeks to address and that is to strengthen up careers advice and links with employers in schools and colleges. This will help stimulate demand for training from those people who have often had a bad experience with education and who need access to retraining and upskilling the most. A key challenge is to ensure that advice reaches those who are not in education, employment or training, with these adults usually unaware of the opportunities that exist in the skills system, so ensuring we have robust and integrated careers, information, advice and guidance will be crucial in supporting adults in their journey from course selection to employment.

I have always been a big advocate of skills and believe there is something profoundly satisfying in achieving a new skill at any age. It is fantastic to see the Lib Dem manifesto present such a comprehensive and forward-thinking approach to both address some long-standing inequities for our FE sector while looking forward to how we will meet the challenges of the future.

* Baroness Sue Garden of Frognal is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on further and higher education and skills in the House of Lords and Deputy Speaker.