The providers Rathbone Training and Intraining, owned by college group NCG, have been placed into voluntary liquidation.
This follows the announcement in March last year that the two training providers would be wound down after making a £3.6 million loss in 2017-18. The college group’s financial health is currently rated as “requires improvement”, in part a result of the providers’ performance and costs resulting from their wind down.
NCG has stressed that neither Rathbone Training nor Intraining have had students or staff since last year, and therefore there will be no adverse effect on either group. The current directors of the training providers are employed by NCG.
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Engaging with students differently
“The decision to support the placing of both companies into liquidation was taken to avoid potential ongoing costs that would risk diverting funding away from NCG’s current students and staff,” chief executive Liz Bromley told Tes, “especially at this time of crisis when we are being required to work and engage with our students in very new and different ways”.
The group said that at a meeting of the NCG Corporation on 3 April, the board completed the paperwork in relation to Rathbone Training, indicating their agreement to the entity being wound up voluntarily. Board members also recorded their support for the director of Intraining Holdings Ltd’s decision to begin the voluntary wind up of the Intraining Group.
“This decision was taken following the successful transfer of all continuing students to other training providers and recognising that neither company now performs any activity that is in line with NCG’s charitable objectives,” Ms Bromley said.
She added: “NCG has spent significant resource and time supporting the managed wind down of the training providers. A number of new costs, outside of the budget approved by the NCG Corporation, now mean that NCG simply cannot afford to continue to fund them without putting our own finances at risk and jeopardising our capacity to deliver for our current and future students, and our communities.
“Taking decisive action now by placing these companies into liquidation will ensure that students are not adversely affected, the training providers’ creditors can be treated fairly under insolvency legislation, and staff recruitment and retention are not adversely impacted.” Begbies Traynor has been appointed as insolvency practitioner to manage the process, Tes understands.
