Brutal college funding cuts have been described as the “economics of the madhouse” by South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth in a Scottish Parliament debate.

The local MSP revealed the impact of the cuts on Dumfries and Galloway College. He accused the Scottish Government of failing to value the college sector and of contributing to the recruitment crisis facing local businesses in Dumfries and Galloway due to the reduction in apprenticeship places at the college.

Colin Smyth also criticised the Minister for Higher and Further Education of being “posted missing” during the current industrial dispute, which has seen local college workers take strike action to defend pay and conditions.

Speaking in the chamber, Colin Smyth said: “A week never passes without local businesses telling me about the acute labour and skills shortages that they face.

“Those businesses are desperate to recruit and upskill their staff and take on apprentices. However, when I speak to my local college in Dumfries and Galloway, they tell me that its Skills Development Scotland apprenticeship contract for 2023-24 has been cut by 13 per cent.

“At a time of peak demand for apprenticeships, crucial areas for the local economy, such as construction and engineering, have waiting lists for apprenticeship places at that college.

“It is the economics of the madhouse.

“It was bad enough that the Scottish Government budget that was agreed in February meant a real-terms cut of £51 million for colleges, which would have led to a 10 per cent reduction in activity levels at the college in Dumfries, but the decision to axe a further £26 million has meant brutal cuts in colleges, with courses axed not because of a lack of ambition from our colleges or a lack of demand from students or employers but because of a lack of priority on skills from the Government.

“Where is the SNP’s green fair work agenda when those cuts mean that colleges are now embarking on compulsory redundancies? Where is the fair work agenda when college staff are having to take industrial action to fight for a fair deal for last year, never mind for this year?”

Colin Smyth has also demanded the Scottish Government intervene to support Colleges Scotland to offer a proper pay deal for staff.

He continued: “When it comes to college pay, the perception of college staff is that Government ministers have been posted missing. I do not know whether the minister has been on a picket line and spoken to college workers; I have been on many. If he had been, he would know that none of them wants to be on strike.

“The workers’ demands are not unreasonable; what is unreasonable is the real-terms pay cut that they have been offered, the funding of that inadequate pay offer on the back of sacking staff and the lack of intervention from the minister to broker a deal.

“That says all that you need to know about the lack of priority that the Government is giving to our colleges.”

“I will end on a final plea to the Minister to take a more interventionist role in brokering a deal between college staff and colleges.”