Comms has big role in overcoming education cuts

There’s no denying that last week’s spending review announcement will have huge ramifications for many industries and sectors, PR included.

However, after recent involvement in the launch of Bolton College’s brand new £90m campus, I couldn’t help thinking what the impact of the spending review will be on the education sector in particular.

When the Chancellor, George Osborne, presented his first Budget, education was among the sectors to be hardest hit by cutbacks. Higher education (HE) faired far worse than further education (FE), with reported 40 percent and 20 percent cuts, respectively. I’m no mathematician, but even I know that’s a huge amount of money which is going to leave a very large gap in the budgets of schools, colleges and universities across the country.

Surely it is a false economy to cut spending on the courses that will prove to be essential in our recovery? Fewer courses will mean fewer people in the trained pool of future employees, the business leaders and skilled professionals of tomorrow. It was only three years ago that Labour launched its five-year marketing and comms campaign ‘Our future. It’s in our hands’. This was designed specifically to produce a fundamental change in attitudes to learning to create a highly-skilled, world-class workforce.

Making education unattainable on financial grounds is unequivocally unjust, isn’t it? Perhaps we’ve become too used to being entitled to education, taking it for granted. When I look back, it wasn’t even an option for me not to go to university, it was something I just expected to do.

I couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt when helping one client, also a college, publicise its students’ successes on A-level results day this year. The headlines were awash with tales of courses being oversubscribed, with many A-grade students failing to gain university places even through the final resort of clearing, despite having achieved the required grades for their chosen courses.

Lest we forget the adult learners who make up a significant proportion of today’s workforce and who will continue to do so in the future if the retirement age is increased, as predicted. HE and FE institutions provide a vital link and valuable second chance for adults to learn.

Is investment in education and training not vital in developing the skilled workforce required to succeed in the future? Do we not risk, as a nation, becoming less and less competitive internationally?

The Coalition has packaged its campaign as ‘a five year plan to re-build the economy’. So, I guess I’ll review the impact of the spending review on the education sector in five years time. Although I suspect the implications will be far wider and far deeper than half a decade will allow us to see.

In the meantime, the situation is going to present many comms challenges for education providers. These include explaining the removal of courses, justifying fee increases, remaining transparent under enormous pressure, and maintaining reputation with potential teaching talent, to name a few. All this has to be done while trying to resonate with students and their parents.

In an environment where more has to be done with less, education providers need good PR advice more than ever if they are to remain competitive.