Kirklees College to axe 50 jobs

The job losses will affect all college centres, including Dewsbury and Batley, as bosses come to terms with £5m worth of funding cuts.

The college confirmed that the equivalent of 56 full-time jobs have to go.

The Additional Learning Support service – which provides support to students with disabilities – will be most affected, due to large reductions in funded teaching hours.

Teaching posts will also be affected due to the reduced number of hours the government is funding for 16-18 year old students.

College principal Peter McCann said: “Kirklees College, like many other colleges, is facing significant financial challenges. The college is having its budget cut by £1.4m in adult learning and £4m in the 16-18 year old provision.

“Over the next few months, the college will be working with staff and union representatives to facilitate redeployments where available. We will be doing all we can to avoid compulsory redundancy by asking staff to register their interest in taking voluntary redundancy.”

He added that two new ‘state of the art’ centres – both in Huddersfield – had placed an extra burden on the college’s finances.