Wiltshire College may need to make staff redundancies due to Covid-19 impact
They say they've got a budget deficit of around £2 million after the pandemic.
Wiltshire College say they are looking at ways they can reduce their staff costs due to a "substantial drop" in income levels.
Their employees are being consulted with about the decisions and they are hopeful redundancies will be at a minimum.
Amanda Burnside, Principal & CEO of Wiltshire College & University Centre said:
"The College had a turnover of £35m last year and we did see a substantial drop in our income levels as a result of Covid-19, particularly in terms of apprenticeship, commercial and residential income and are looking at a number of ways we can reduce our staff costs in line with that reduction.
Our staff are fully aware of this and we are consulting with them as to the best way of achieving the savings. We are hopeful that we will be able to minimise redundancies through a range of routes including voluntary redundancies and more efficient ways of working as well as flexible working requests."
"FRANKLY OFFENSIVE" BY THE GOVERNMENT
It comes as the University and College Union (UCU) has blasted the government for causing this due to the conditions they've set for education settings to receive loans.
The college says the conditions for a loan set out by the Education Skills and Funding Agency's methodology means it will have to slash its wage bill.
UCU have claimed they were given a notification of up to 40 job losses at Wiltshire College.
Regional official Nick Varney said:
'Wiltshire College provides an essential service to its local community and its finances were on the mend before Covid hit. By trying to work to current government funding rules it is putting staff at risk of losing their jobs, as well as its crucial work at risk. Ministers spent the summer talking up further education as part of the levelling up agenda, yet poorly paid staff are now being threatened with the sack in the run up to Christmas. It is frankly offensive the government would choose to follow a formula that means staff must go before colleges receive any support - whilst we are in the middle of a pandemic.
This summer ministers promised to rebuild and level up the economy post-Covid by using further education to upskill the nation. It must now walk the walk, stop imposing outrageous conditions on loans needed to keep staff and students safe, and fund colleges properly."
English colleges have been told they must fund all extra costs of making their campuses Covid secure through existing funds.