FURTHER education colleges across England face an “unprecedented staffing crisis because of devastatingly low pay,” the University and College Union (UCU) warned today.

General secretary Jo Grady slammed “over a decade of austerity which has held down pay and cut college resources.”

The intervention came after a new report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) revealed a steep real terms fall in teacher wages across the sector, with about half of employees leaving the profession within just three years of starting.