More than 25 jobs are at risk at Gateshead College after a multimillion pound “unplanned financial deficit” was discovered in its accounts.
Last month we revealed how the award winning college had appointed a team of forensic accountants to investigate what caused the deficit, which is understood to be around £6m.
Now the college has confirmed that 26 jobs are currently at risk as it starts to implement a three year "recovery plan".
The roles are mainly from business support areas.
An employee who asked not to be named said: "It's people like cleaners, receptionists, low paid admin staff.
"It's been quite an emotional day. There's a lot of anger."
Chris Toon, Acting Principal at Gateshead College said: “As a result of funding reductions along with an unplanned financial deficit, the college has developed and started to implement a three-year recovery plan which involves the proposed reduction of some roles.
“Currently 26 posts are at risk, mainly from business support areas, however no final decisions will be made until consultation concludes. We have opened a voluntary severance scheme to mitigate as far as possible the number of compulsory redundancies.
“These proposals will help us address some short-term financial pressures the college is facing at the moment but will also bring our staffing costs in line with sector benchmarks whilst ensuring we can continue to deliver the highest standards of education and training for our customers and stakeholders.
“These decisions are extremely difficult to make, particularly because we have such hard-working, committed staff, and myself and my colleagues will be doing everything we can to support those potentially affected.”
The independent team will publish a full report on their investigation this month, which is also when Gateshead College is due to publish its annual accounts.
A spokesman for Gateshead College previously said: “There was an unplanned deficit in the last financial year and an investigation by a team of independent forensic accountants has been commissioned by the governors to establish the explanation for this; for obvious reasons we can’t comment further until that is concluded in January.
“As soon as the situation came to light, the college re-modelled its budget and produced a sound three-year financial plan on confirmed income which returns the college to a financial position showing a surplus by 2020/2021.
“These plans have been shared with the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and FE Commissioner who we are working closely with.
“This situation will not affect the education and training we offer our students and customers, which remains our paramount concern."
Earlier this year, Gateshead College was named the best performing college in England for post 16 education and training.
The award was given to the college after ESFA figures showed the college had an overall achievement rate of 96% - more than 10% above the national rate for further education colleges.
