People problem affects FE recruitment goal

Further education colleges face an uphill struggle to hit widening participation targets, said Kate Anderson, Further Education Funding Council director for London. At a seminar on widening participation in London, she said money was not the problem in trying to recruit 700,000 more students by 2002, but rather attracting people reluctant to return to education. John Brennan of the Association of Colleges said: "The money being pumped into the system over the next two years is in excess of anything we have seen before. But colleges are still looking at efficiency gains. Widening participation in 1999 to 2001 should be deliverable, but I think the third year looks out of reach."