Shropshire colleges are facing massive cuts to their budget as higher education funding is slashed for adult courses.

The crisis could lead to courses being closed and thousands of teachers losing their posts across the country, a union has warned. The University and College Union (UCU) has warned today that some colleges are now facing losing as much as a quarter of their adult learning budgets.

It is feared colleges may be forced to turn away hundreds of would-be students in courses such as bricklaying, care work and catering.

Greg Molan, principal of Shrewsbury College of Art and Technology, said the college was having to cope with two “large reductions” to its budget.

He said: “Train to Gain funding has been cut by 20 per cent for all providers and Shrewsbury College is having to cope with that and a 22 per cent cut in funding for adults who wish to attend college to learn new skills.

“Whatever the Government claims to be spending as a whole, very large reductions are being made to colleges’ adult budgets and this is removing important training opportunities just at the point when people are looking to their local college to improve their chances of employment through training.”

He added the cuts would affect a range of courses in engineering, welding and fabrication, hairdressing, beauty therapy and business. He said the level of enrolments was going to be “much reduced” and they were keeping staff up to date with the situation.

Janet Ellis, principal and chief executive at Telford College of Arts and Technology, said it had had a budget cut of 16 per cent for 2010/11, which equated to about £700,000.

She said they wanted the Government to give the college more flexibility with its funding and over which courses it ran.

Mrs Ellis said they were still in talks with Government agencies over funding cuts.

She added: “We understand how tough the public finances are but we don’t want to lose high quality courses that are essential to our economic recovery and make a great deal of difference to people and businesses in Telford.”

Martin Ward, principal of Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, said the college would not be as affected by the cuts because funding for 16 to 18 year olds had been kept at 2009 levels. But he feared the college budget could be “squeezed” because the funding for this year did not take into account inflation.

By Emma Kasprzak