Stephen has written to the Education Secretary following a campaign about the pay gap between workers in Further Education and schoolteachers.
A number of constituents in East Ham are troubled about the £9,000 pay gap between those employed in Further Education and their counterparts in schools. They are particularly concerned given ever increasing workloads and projections that college student numbers are expected to reach 200,000 by 2030.
Those involved in the campaign welcomed a recent announcement that an additional £300 million would be made available for further education, and hope it may go some way to closing the pay gap with schoolteachers.
Having sent his letter, Stephen said “This government appreciates the importance of the Further Education sector. I hope that we can work together to bring forward new national bargaining structures for Further Education and to repair some of the historic problems we are now facing.
“As ever, I am grateful to my constituents for bringing this to my attention.”