The Future Skills Centre in Bordon played a vital role in our area’s vocational and construction training.

It gave local people - especially young people and adult learners - access to high-quality courses close to home.

For many in towns and villages across Surrey and Hampshire, it meant training without the need for long journeys or expensive relocations.

Its closure represents a serious blow to our local skills infrastructure. The Government’s refusal to intervene or support the centre is a clear sign that it does not understand the needs of the post-16 sector or the communities it is supposed to serve.

Earlier this summer, I wrote to the Minister for Skills to raise serious concerns about two recent decisions by the Department for Education. Both changes threaten to narrow access to training and close doors for those in our community who most need opportunity.

The first decision is the withdrawal of funding for the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme from August 2025.

This is not a glossy marketing tool. In many of our local schools, ASK was the only structured way pupils heard about apprenticeships.

Through assembly talks, CV workshops, and mock interviews, the programme offered students practical help to consider their future. Without it, smaller schools in rural and semi-rural areas will be left to fill the gap themselves, despite having limited resources.

The second is the removal of government funding for Level 7 apprenticeships for anyone over the age of 21, unless they are a care leaver or have an Education, Health and Care Plan.

This will cut off a valuable route for mid-career workers in our area who are looking to advance or retrain. These programmes have helped NHS nurses move into advanced clinical roles, supported planners with leadership development, and enabled employees in small firms to gain management qualifications.

Local employers have used them to grow their own talent and meet specialist skills needs.

My intervention followed discussions with apprenticeship and training experts across Surrey and East Hampshire. They are in no doubt that losing these programmes will harm the local skills pipeline at a time when both public services and private businesses already face real difficulties recruiting.

These decisions reveal a narrow and outdated view of what opportunity means. Labour seems to believe that only full-time professional roles are worth supporting.

That is not the reality in Farnham, Bordon, Haslemere and Liphook. Our economy depends on self-employed tradespeople, small business owners, casual hospitality staff, care workers, and adult apprentices. They all need practical, accessible ways to train, upskill, and grow.

Conservatives have long recognised that skills drive growth. Supporting people to progress at every stage of working life is not only good for individuals - it is good for the employers, public services, and communities that rely on them.