DURING the general election campaign, First Minister John Swinney described the SNP as having a “left-of-centre manifesto” and said a partnership with trade unions would be at the “core” of the Scottish government’s approach.

To say education unions were bemused by this assertion is an understatement. As one speaker at one of their rallies outside the Scottish Parliament in June put it: “There’s nothing left wing about waving through cuts to pay and cuts to public education for the working class.”

College lecturers have rightly had enough. At time of writing, the Educational Institute of Scotland/Further Education Lecturers Association (EIS-Fela) — is reballoting members to seek a mandate for further strike action over pay.

Not only have lecturers had to commence industrial action four times this year alone but we have also seen disputes around equal pay, conditions of service, transfer to permanent status for staff on insecure contracts, annual pay agreements, fire-and-rehire policies, and discipline and grievance procedures and policies over the past decade.

While college principals are scooping up lucrative pay deals and bonuses, teaching staff across the country are stuck on temporary contracts or being made redundant entirely.

Perhaps the most grievous insult has been the proposal by City of Glasgow College to close the Trade Union Education Centre, a resource which has provided training to union reps and shop stewards across different sectors for 32 years.

The college has now been given a stay of execution, thanks in no small part to public outcry and tireless campaigning by the trade union movement. Nevertheless, college staff continue to be undervalued.

In this latest dispute, College Employers Scotland continues to stick by a “full and final” pay offer of £5,000 over three years. This is well below public-sector pay policy and constitutes yet another real-terms pay cut for staff who have already taken a battering over years of austerity.

To add insult to injury, many colleges have threatened staff engaging in legally mandated action short of strike, such as boycotts and work-to-rule, with pay deductions of up to 100 per cent.

This is an affront to lecturers who have spent years going above and beyond to support their students out of hours, including during the unprecedented period of disruption caused by the pandemic. It is also in complete breach of the fair work obligations which colleges claim to uphold.

When I recently challenged the Further Education Minister Graeme Dey in the Scottish Parliament on this unacceptable situation, he merely indicated this was a choice for colleges and it was not for him to intervene.

Given he holds the purse strings, and given the long-term breakdown in industrial relations, this is not credible. Unsurprisingly, the Scottish government claims its options are limited, citing Budget cuts by Westminster. However, the fact is colleges have been underfunded even during years when the Scottish government has underspent or seen its block grant actually increase.

Ministers cut funding for colleges by £32.7 million this year, the equivalent of 4.7 per cent, and this came after an 8.5 per cent real-terms reduction from 2021 to 2023.

The consequences for colleges have been stark. Last month, chief executive officer at Colleges Scotland Shona Struthers told a parliamentary committee there were colleges expecting to have “no cash of their own by July.”

The Scottish Funding Council estimates the nation’s colleges now face a budget deficit of around £17m.

It is not good enough for the Scottish government to cite pressures elsewhere. While ministers claim they are prioritising reskilling Scotland’s workforce and creating the green jobs of tomorrow, they are essentially slashing support to the engine rooms of the economy they want to build.

Statistics, again from the Scottish Funding Council, show the number of students studying in the subject area of environment protection, energy, cleansing and security has dropped 0.4 per cent over the past decade.

The number of students studying in the subject area of manufacturing or production work has fallen to a share of just 0.5 per cent over the same period.

How is any of this consistent with a purported green industrial strategy?

It is not too late for the Scottish government to recognise that further education is not simply an option but a public good of immeasurable value in working-class communities.

The fact that colleges have long received less in per pupil funding than schools or universities is no accident. The skills and qualifications picked up in colleges have long been unappreciated, but they are utterly invaluable. We need to invest in colleges to invest in Scotland’s future.

Katy Clark is Labour MSP for the West Scotland region.