ABOUT 30 jobs are today set to go as one of Suffolk's largest colleges has been forced to cut costs.Otley College is making the job cuts because of a predicted shortfall in its income for the next academic year.
ABOUT 30 jobs are today set to go as one of Suffolk's largest colleges has been forced to cut costs.
Otley College is making the job cuts because of a predicted shortfall in its income for the next academic year.
Otley College has been forced to consider a restructure of its management.
It is anticipated that about 30 support staff and managers will be offered redundancy packages after a consultation process.
At this stage, the proposal will not affect any teaching staff at the college and bosses hope there will be no impact on the working lives of current and future students.
It is also anticipated that some new posts will be created and the college will look at other ways of brining in money.
Principal Philip Winfield said: “Having recently achieved a 'good' grading in our Ofsted report and having enjoyed record numbers of students to the college this year, it is regrettable that some of our support staff and managers will be affected by this financial position.
“We will continue to consider the various ways in which we can support staff affected by any changes and sympathise with their concern.
“This situation is disappointing but we need to increase our efficiency, continue to offer high quality educational programmes, while look at new ways of securing a stronger financial position for the college in the future.”
Otley College is one of the largest further education centres in the county. It has 450 full-time staff and 8,000 students are signed up
Founded in 1960, the college has recently completed a new multi-million pound state-of-the-art new construction centre aimed at training people in the industry.
Otley started as an agricultural college and has now diversified into offering a wide range of courses with practical applications.
These include foodskills - ranging from catering to food manufacture - through to animal care, construction, forestry, engineering, sports studies and other practical skills.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here