Up to 300 jobs are at risk at training providers Intraining and Rathbone Training, both of which are part of the UK’s largest college group NCG.

Staff are to be consulted on redundancies and the closure of all 19 of the two training companies’ 19 sites across England, as part of a scaling back of NCG’s training arms.

Intraining and Rathbone Training, which employ 425 people, made a £3.6 million loss in 2017-18. The two companies’ Scottish and Welsh operations are not affected by the current consultation exercise.

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The two training providers have 4,500 learners on the books - around two-thirds of which are apprentices. NCG will now restrict new recruitment at its training providers and although it is expected that most learners will complete their courses this year, some learners may have to have alternative educational opportunities found for them.

NCG chair Peter Lauener said the organisation is committed to supporting learners through to complete their programmes.

He added: “This will be a major issue for the staff and we will look to give them full support. We’re also very clear that we want to support all of the learners that we have at the moment. Numbers have been reducing because of the markets the businesses have been operating in, which have experienced significant change.

“Our intention is to support learners through to complete their programmes, ideally in every case, but that will be individual discussions. But as far as possible. This is not just closing the door and leaving learners to fend for themselves.”

‘We can’t afford to sustain that’

The training providers will move away from delivering study programmes for 16- to 19-year-olds and focus any new recruitment on short-intensive training that can be delivered before May and to “radically refocus on apprenticeships in new areas that can be sustained by levy-funded employers”.

Mr Lauener said: “The crunch question is what do we want NCG to be famous for in three years’ time. Well, I want it to be famous for outstanding student experience. I want it to be famous for growing the next generation of leaders by having excellent CPD - I think that’s where we get benefits from as a group. And innovation in curriculum design and delivery, and probably developing much better learning platforms. We have got a lot to do to achieve that but I’m fairly confident.

“Part of the strategy we have done was then to say ‘where are we with the training providers?’ Because they’ve made significant losses and we can’t afford to sustain that. They posted a combined loss in 2017-18 of £3.6 million. The business plan was that they would return to surplus in 2018-19, but we concluded as early as October that this was looking unlikely.”

A subsequent strategic review of the two training providers, the markets they were working in and the quality they were providing. Lauener said following that NCG felt there needed to be “quite radical change” in the training providers, ahead of the consultation. He added: “Nothing is confirmed until the consultation process is over.”