YORK College’s principal says no more redundancies are planned as she looks forward to a ‘golden future’ for the college after a challenging period.

Alison Birkinshaw told The Press that while the college was currently facing a £800,000 cut in Government funding for 16 to 18-year-old students, this was more than offset by £770,000 extra for apprenticeships and £250,000 for industry placements.

And she revealed that applications for places on A-level courses this autumn were up by 153 or 20 per cent, vocational courses were up by 199 or 15 per cent and apprenticeships up by 12 per cent - increases which should be reflected by additional Government cash in a year’s time.

She said the number of adults studying at the college, for example to improve their workplace skills, was also set to grow following a Government announcement that further education was to become free for anyone earning less than £15,000.

The college had also been shortlisted in leading a consortium bid to become one of Britain’s new Institutes of Technology, which aim to offer top-quality training and apprenticeships in higher-level technical skills to bridge skills gaps in the economy.

It was also among the first 52 colleges and schools in the country to be set to teach new technical courses called ‘T-levels,’ which will provide young people with a choice between technical and academic education post 16.

She said a demographic drop in the numbers of 16-year-olds over recent years was also coming to an end, with the number of potential students in the mid-teen population set to rise over coming years.

Dr Birkinshaw, who has served for the past year as national president of the Association of Colleges, was also increasingly hopeful that Government funding for further education would be boosted in the next spending review in 2020 after years of stagnation.

Her comments come only a month or so after The Press revealed that a small number of redundancies were being planned in the sports and public services departments.

The principal also warned in a letter to staff in May,which has been leaked to The Press, that there were some ‘significant challenges ahead,’ and Government cuts meant steps were being taken to reduce costs. She said this could mean vacant posts remaining unfilled and the size of the senior management team being reduced.

She added then: “When funding is so tight, and we are making little progress (despite my best efforts) in persuading government that the funding Further Education receives is completely inadequate, we must make sure we are managing our curriculum in the best way possible.”

Dr Birkinshaw told The Press that staff were being recruited in certain areas where demand for places was rising, such as construction and engineering, and said that in other areas where demand was falling, there might be a decision not to fill posts which fell vacant but there were no plans for more redundancies.