'Limited bus routes and train stations in Shropshire leave young people excluded from opportunities at college' - says MP - video Dailymotion

Shropshire Star

There is a "poverty of opportunity" where students in Shropshire are reducing their career aspirations due to a lack of transport options, an MP has said.  Shrewsbury MP, Julia Buckley has made a rallying call for further funding for colleges in rural areas to combat what has been dubbed locally as the 'A-level tax'.

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00:00My concern for Shrewsbury also focuses on educational opportunities for 16 to 18-year-olds, both in terms of funding and geographical access.

00:09In terms of geography, my local provider map will probably mirror many of those in semi-rural areas.

00:14So the constituency serves the whole county of 19 market towns, and in recent years there have been a domino effect,

00:21where smaller schools have closed down their sixth forms, leading to a centralisation in the county.

00:26As a result, Shrewsbury Colleges Group now supports over 10,000 students.

00:32It's the sixth largest college in the country, and offers a wide range of courses recently graded as outstanding by Ofsted.

00:38However, this presents geographic barriers to those aged 16 and 17 who live across the county in those smaller villages,

00:46due to lack, as we've heard, of public transport.

00:49In Shropshire, we have limited train stations, and we've lost over 5,000 bus routes in the last 12 years,

00:54leaving many young people excluded from opportunities.

00:58And one such example was a hairdresser I met in the village of Brosley.

01:01I asked her why she became a hairdresser, and she said she really wanted to do an apprenticeship in engineering,

01:06but there were no buses, so this was the only apprenticeship she could walk to.

01:10So you have poverty of opportunity, where young people reduce their aspirations to match their transport options.

01:16That's depressing enough, but where you do have a bus between towns, the average annual ticket costs £750.

01:24For many families, this is completely unaffordable, and known locally as the A-level tax.

01:30However, many rural colleges do not receive additional funding to help with the bursaries that they offer.

01:34And for colleges like Shrewsbury, they combine both A-levels and FE courses,

01:40and yet they fall between two stalls for funding.

01:42Could I urge the Minister to review this anomaly, where Sixth Forms receive funding,

01:46and FE colleges receive funding, but in rural areas, we often combine the two,

01:51and it means they miss out on crucial funding.

'Limited bus routes and train stations in Shropshire leave young people excluded from opportunities at college' - says MP

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