Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail any recent assessment made of the equity of the pay gap between further education college lecturers and school teachers.
Minister for the Economy: Further Education (FE) colleges, as employers, are responsible for terms and conditions, including pay, for their lecturers as is the Department for Education (DE) for school teachers.
One of the conditions FE colleges, as employers, agreed as part of their 2024/25 and 2025/26 lecturers’ pay settlement with Trade Union Side (TUS) was to undertake a review of teacher pay scale parity in 2025/26, including the presentation of a business case to my Department. I am advised by the FE Colleges’ Employers Forum (CEF) that the review is currently underway in line with the pay condition and a business case is under development. I expect the business case to assess the equity of the pay gap between FE lecturers and school teachers.
ENDS
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