Job losses ‘inevitable’ as Warwickshire College must save £3m

After the Courier found out about the cuts from a source, the college - which employes more than 1,700 staff and works with more than 20,000 students - has admitted that it is in financial difficulty and job losses will be inevitable.

The cuts come after the Government reduced its funding to the college by £10.6 million, as well as a further £1 million destined for adult courses.

And after enrolling large numbers of students in September last year, some £1.6 million extra funding was expected, but this will now be reduced to £600,000.

Speaking after staff meetings held at the institution’s six sites last week, principal and chief executive Mariane Cavalli said: “These cuts were unexpected and only confirmed in the last three weeks, giving us no choice but to make very difficult decisions to balance the books next year.

“The employers and business partners with whom we work will understand that we have had to make some rapid and difficult choices in order for us to maintain our financial viability and continue to be able to serve our communities.”

But Ms Cavalli said she was confident that by remodelling services, the college, which has been rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, would be able to maintain high standards.

She told staff that the cuts would result in “inevitable and unavoidable” job losses across the college.

The Courier’s source, who is employed by the college, said: “They have asked staff to consider taking pay cuts or come up with our own ideas to save money.

“The development in recent years at the college is a joke. The college was in debt before the new principle came in and now we have to ask, ‘was all this development really necessary?’ - because now the situation we now face is mass redundancies across all six sites and students may have to finance their own courses.”