7:04am Thursday 24th May 2007
By Nick Lakeman
FUNDING cuts of £1 million at Warrington Collegiate will lead to courses for hundreds of vulnerable students with learning disabilities and mental health problems being axed.
Around 50 staff in the supported learning department will also lose their jobs and courses taught at dozens of day centres will end.
Bosses at the college, which prides itself on its Equal Opportunities policy, told shocked staff that curriculum changes' were being made because not enough of the students, some of whom have Down's Syndrome and schizophrenia, were getting jobs when the courses finish.
"The funding comes from the Learning and Skills Council and they're saying because we can't show progression in the workplace, there's no point funding other courses," one tutor told the Warrington Guardian.
"They think further education is only about gaining a job, that if you can't get a job at handover, you have failed. Only a small proportion go on to find employment but the benefits to their self-esteem, confidence and well-being are immeasurable - that's what has driven us all this time."
Around half of the department's staff were told at a meeting called by the principal, Paul Hafren, last Wednesday, that they would be asked to take voluntary redundancy. The rest, many of whom were teaching off-site, had to learn of their fate from colleagues.
Our source said people were absolutely gob-smacked' by the news, having jumped through hoops' to help the college earn a grade two in a recent Ofsted inspection.
The courses, which include vocational subjects such as IT, woodwork, maths and English and therapeutic ones such as yoga and tai chi, will cease in September.
Hundreds of 16 to 90-year-olds, some suffering from clinical depression, others recovering from strokes, will be left without the special tuition they need.
Mainstream courses are expected to be more popular than ever before, the Collegiate having spent £27m on a new building to attract students from a wider area.
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