Debate contribution: Belfast Metropolitan College, Castlereagh Campus: Proposed Closure

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 21 May 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

21 May 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Belfast Metropolitan College, Castlereagh Campus: Proposed Closure

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4491990

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am pleased to speak in this Adjournment debate and congratulate Joanne Bunting for securing today's debate. It is a vital subject. I do not represent East Belfast, but I do represent South Belfast, which is right next door to the boundary. In fact, the campus is very close to the boundary of South and East Belfast, or it was until the most recent boundary changes. It is important to say that although what was Castlereagh College, now the Castlereagh campus of Belfast Met, historically takes a significant chunk of its intake from that part of east or south-east Belfast, its intake goes significantly further than that heartland, as it were, into south Belfast, other parts of Belfast and further afield to parts of Ards and north Down.

It is a significant contributor to our FE offer in the greater Belfast area, as has been said.

For a start, it is highly regrettable that the proposed closure has been communicated in this way. There are real concerns among students, staff, unions and other key stakeholders that the process has not been handled well, to put it in the most diplomatic terms. Before I engaged with senior management in Belfast Met, I engaged with concerned staff members, affected students and, indeed, unions. There was genuine shock and sadness at the development and at the approach that was taken by Belfast Met. It is important to acknowledge that there are real budgetary constraints on the Department and, consequentially, on Belfast Met. I understand that senior leaders in public services are having to take or at least consider decisions that they would not otherwise take, but it is important for those of us who are public representatives, particularly public representatives for areas such as south-east Belfast where, as has been said, significant groups have not done as well as they should have in skills and education, to say that those people deserve the best possible opportunity. There is a historical and real tradition at what was, as I said, previously known as Castlereagh College, now the Castlereagh campus of Belfast Met, of those groups getting access not just to traditional apprenticeships or trades, important though those traditional qualifications are, but to cutting-edge qualifications, whether in advanced manufacturing or in cyber and tech. As has been said, some of those trades have left the campus and are now pursued in other parts of the Belfast Met estate. Whether that was the right decision is debatable, but there is real frustration that some of those specialisms left Castlereagh. It is important to say — it will come as a surprise to people who have perceived the Castlereagh campus to be a more traditional further education site — that it is an island- and Ireland-leading campus in its tech provision. It is therefore vital that, at a bare minimum, Belfast Met and, by extension, the Minister and the Department be obliged to give an account of why simply taking all that provision out of south-east Belfast will improve FE provision in the city overall and how that connects to the economic vision that the Minister has set out and to our broader determination to improve and upskill our economy and create opportunity in working-class communities in particular. Those are real questions that the people who are engaged in this, who are studying or employed at Belfast Met or are involved in the wider community, are asking, and I am afraid that they have not been answered yet. While I acknowledge that the leaders at Castlereagh campus face real budgetary pressures and that they at least have to consider taking difficult decisions — the formal consultation period, to which I and others responded and made our views known, ended in February — the bare minimum that could be done is to pursue absolutely every avenue in order to avoid the blunt instrument route of closure and to give to those who care about further education provision in that part of south-east Belfast the most thorough explanation possible of the alternatives. That has not yet been given, which has contributed to a real sense of a lack of communication and of frustration on the part of people who care about education provision — not just education provision but opportunities and the ability to create a skills pipeline into the, in many cases, world-leading businesses that David Brooks mentioned — in that part of Belfast. I look forward to hearing from the Minister the Department's position, its view on the future sustainability of Belfast Met overall and whether simply closing Castlereagh campus is an unavoidable outcome. I would like to hear whether alternatives have been considered. If that is the route to be followed, has it been stress-tested, and have alternatives been exhausted? What is the plan for the working-class communities in particular who availed themselves of courses at that campus? Inclusion is vital, but it is also about producing a pipeline of skilled workers, whether they go into cyber technologies or into the creative industries. As I say, there is real concern about this, particularly in that part of Belfast but also in the FE sector more broadly, so we are keen to hear from the Minister about the Department's view.

873 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification