by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Government funding cuts and low take-up of some courses threaten 145 college jobs.

K College has launched a 90-day consultation exercise after writing to all 1,250 staff telling them that their jobs are at risk.

The former West Kent College recently underwent an £86m revamp and changed its name following a merger with the struggling South Kent College.

It operates across five campuses - Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells,, Ashford, Dover and Folkestone - and staff at all campuses will be affected, with a potential loss of around 20 jobs at each site.

Staff were told: “The College proposes to consult on deleting 145 posts (110 full-time equivalent) across the organisation College structure, affecting all managers and staff at every campus. To arrive at this target, managers will recommend reductions in staffing levels.”

All roles are at risk, ranging from lecturers to managers, support staff to apprentices. College chiefs hope most of the job losses will be achieved by voluntary redundancy.

But they warned that if there are not enough volunteers “some members of staff may face a redundancy situation.”

Low demand for some courses and small class sizes are blamed for some of the job losses, as well as Government cuts to subsidies for adult education courses.

The merger has also involved higher overheads across the college estate, as well as substantial repair costs at the former South Kent College.

It is also claimed that public funding does not reflect the new five-campus situation.

Apart from axing jobs, the college is also making savings in overtime, advertising, agency staff and consultants, staff development, travel and other allowances.

It is also ending a contract with Benenden Healthcare, and replacing paper payslips with electronic ones. Staff are invited to suggest other cost-cutting measures.

K College principal Bill Fearon, a former businessman, said: ‘We are two years into a three-year merger programme and this staffing restructure is necessary to ensure the long term stability of the College.

One of our biggest challenges is the financial structure of colleges of further education as we are funded for the number of students, but there is no allowance for the number and geographical spread of our campuses.

“Falling enrolments on some courses in Folkestone and Ashford are also having an impact on the K College budget.

"The majority of College funds come from the taxpayer and it is not good value for public money to run courses where there are not enough students to make them viable. This inevitably has a knock on effect with regard to staffing numbers.”

Mr Fearon added that the higher cost of adult education courses for learners had reduced demand “due to the economic downturn and high unemployment amongst young adults particularly across the South and East of Kent.”