Bradford College: 107 jobs to go due to coronavirus cuts

Bradford College said it was consulting with staff and unions over 107 job losses

A college is cutting more than 100 jobs due to a drop in income during the coronavirus lockdown.

Bradford College said it had "been unable to secure any provider relief funding to support the fall".

FE Week magazine reported the college had a bid for financial support rejected by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

The college said it had to make savings of £1.5m and unions were being consulted over 107 job losses.

The College Group employs 654 staff, of whom 385 are teaching staff, according to its 2019 accounts

Julie Kelley from the University and College Union described the job cuts as a "knee-jerk reaction" and urged the college to join it in calling for government support.

"The college says it needs to make cuts due to a fall in apprentices but these proposals will impact on students across the college," she said.

She added: 'We understand the financial pressures colleges are facing due to Covid-19, and the knock-on losses to apprenticeship income and are urging government to provide colleges more financial support."

'Deeply saddened'

In a statement, Bradford College said it hoped that "compulsory redundancies are kept to a minimum".

"In addition to mitigating the effects of Covid-19, the proposed restructure ensure that the college continues to meets it financial obligations to lenders and ensures we do not risk breaching our banking covenants following last year's financial restructuring," the college said.

The statement added: "We are deeply saddened to be in this position, especially after the exceptional efforts by all our staff who went above and beyond expectations to ensure learning continued online and students remained supported."

The Department for Education (DfE) said it had opened a second round of its Provider Relief Scheme, which offers financial support to colleges.

"Any training provider that submitted an application, which did not meet the required criteria were able to appeal if they believed their application had not been properly assessed," the DfE said.

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