For decades, liberals have trusted colleges to provide opportunity for people, no matter what their background, so they can get on in life and learn the skills needed for the safe, secure and successful jobs of the future.

Take insulation for example. Providing people with the skills to insulate homes and businesses up and down the country will create thousands of jobs, reduce household energy bills and help us achieve our ambitious climate change targets.

To train the insulation engineers of tomorrow, and many other skilled professions besides, we need to provide colleges with the backing to make it possible. That is why it is disappointing that the SNP government has cut funding to Scottish colleges by £40million.

In the wake of these cuts, Scotland’s Colleges commented that it did not believe that “substantive savings would be achieved in such a short time without seriously compromising quality, and the numbers of students that can be taught.”

This means cutting college places across Scotland at a time when thousands of young people are already being turned away from colleges due to lack of places.

It is estimated that 8,560 college place will be lost across Scotland in the next two years.

You can find how your local college is affected below.

Scottish Liberal Democrats believe we should be serious about our commitment to Scotland’s colleges and so we have found a solution to the cuts imposed by the SNP government.

By using some of the £67 million of extra money sent to Scotland by our government at Westminster, we want to fill that funding gap.

Remember, this is money the SNP were not expecting when they cut the budget by £40 million, so why not use it to secure placement numbers for this year? As Willie Rennie has said, surely it is a “no brainer.”

So far, the SNP have been silent on using this money as a solution to what amounts to a funding crisis in Scotland’s colleges.

With your help, we can persuade them in the coming months that this investment in Scotland’s colleges makes sense now and for the future.

Sign our petition

I support Scottish Liberal Democrat efforts to fill the college funding gap

Estimated impact on college budgets and students places of a 6.9% budget cut