To ask the Minister for the Economy what support her Department is providing to further education colleges to continue operations and adapt to COVID-19.

For the 2020/21 period, my Department has already allocated a resource budget of £209.95 million to the Further Education sector, representing over 25% of the Department’s resource budget. The allocation includes £22.8 million of additional funding to colleges this year.

Further capital investment of circa £35m in the current financial year, will enable colleges to address the COVID-19 impact and deliver state-of-the-art accommodation in line with the planned capital works programme. This will also fund essential equipment to deliver critical skills for the Northern Ireland economy and achieve the strategic outcomes which I and the Executive have set.

In addition, in order to address the many challenges arising from COVID-19, my officials are working closely with all six colleges and other key stakeholders, on a number of key strategic and operational matters. These include planning for a return to safe on-site delivery and a more normalised working environment essential to a large cohort of diverse FE learners and vocational and technical education, the completion of the 2019/20 student assessment/qualification process and, reducing the administrative burden on colleges until the emergency eases.

A Learner Support Working Group has also been established to identify what additional support is being provided for all learners including vulnerable learners and review approaches to date.

I will continue to consider the specific impacts of COVID-19 on the colleges within the context of the Executive’s overall approach to managing the emergency.