I write post Activate, Liberal Youth’s flagship training weekend. This year, it also included policy debates and constitutional amendments – two of which were on Further Education.
Liberal Youth’s leadership on Further Education has improved significantly over the past year, with Freshers Fairs conducted in FE institutions for the first time, as well as training for regional chairs on how to engage with Further Education students in their areas.
I’ve demanded much better from the Liberal Youth Executive for 6 years, arguing that setting our foundations in Further Education would make the Liberal Democrats totally unique from other parties. The discussions around tuition fees have been had, and had again. It’s time to move on.
If we are going to truly change the education system into one where every student has the ability to become whoever they want to be, we need to appreciate that Further Education is the vehicle to make that happen – Apprenticeships, Work Based Learning, ESOL, BTECs, A Levels are all a part of the #FEparty. What’s more, if social mobility is going to be a core of future changes in education, Liberal Democrats must be a part of shaping it. I fundamentally believe that Liberal Youth can initiate that ground-breaking change within our party.
At Activate, we agreed two really important steps.
The first was to campaign to improve the replacement for Educational Maintenance Allowance in England. It stopped short of saying EMA was wonderful, respecting that while it did make a difference to those students who genuinely needed the support, it was given to some who didn’t need it. It attacked the Department for Education for using poor sampling to justify the decision to scrap EMA, and warned that the proposed rise in the education leaving age to 18 in 2015 will put extreme pressure on EMA’s replacement. A line in the motion to join up with the National Union of Students on relevant campaigning was removed, with delegates complaining that the NUS leadership doesn’t represent Lib Dem students and doesn’t even seem to want to. The motion forces future LY Executives to keep every one of its Conferences updated on the work being done on Further Education.
Secondly a new Further Education Working Group is to be set up, made up of people selected by the Liberal Youth Executive for their experiences. This group has some key aims; supporting the Liberal Youth executive in challenging the party on its Further Education policy (or lack of), bringing forward future policies to Liberal Youth Conferences, challenging Liberal Youth on its engagement with Further Education students, working with any relevant working groups or committees within the Liberal Democrat federal structure and reporting back to Liberal Youth Conference.
Both are a major breakthrough for those, like me, who have campaigned for years for Liberal Youth to begin owning the agenda on Further Education. It shows that the arguments for change on this issue in Liberal Youth have been won, and now is the time to engage in proper debate with the federal party about what we want Further Education to look like.
* Callum Morton is leading the buzz around the #FEparty hashtag and works in Tom Brake MP’s office as an apprentice.