Colleges are warning of redundancies and cuts in teaching

The colleges have been told that no new money will be made available, after they had warned that an extra �5m was needed to avoid making cuts.

Enid Rowlands, chair of under-fire education body Elwa, admitted the money being given to the colleges was not enough, but said painful choices had to be made.

Last year, 11 of the 25 further education (FE) colleges in Wales went into the red.

A rise in national insurance contributions and increases in contributions to staff pension schemes have hit the colleges hard.

Fforwm, which represents the further education colleges, said cuts in staff and reductions in teaching time were now inevitable.

Elwa (Education Learning Wales) is responsible for funding further education in Wales.

Earlier this week, the body announced 100 redundancies as part of a cost-cutting drive.

Teacher pensions

Fforwm chief executive John Graystone said: "On behalf of FE colleges across Wales, Fforwm has been calling on the assembly to recompense colleges for the increased costs of teacher pensions and national insurance.

"We were consistently reassured that this would be the case.

"We are therefore very disappointed to find that the assembly government is only paying part of these increased costs."

Fforwm will survey colleges to assess the size of the problem

Fforwm said it expected voluntary and compulsory redundancies, as well as cuts in part-time teaching, resources and management.

It said its total budget increase of �7.33m, plus �9m for pay would have been "reasonably generous" in an ordinary year.

But, with the extra costs in areas such as national insurance and pensions, colleges were facing a funding crisis.

Dr Graystone, speaking at the college body's tenth anniversary conference in Cardiff, said colleges were already hard-pressed and many were likely to be in deficit by the end of the year.

"Fforwm will be carrying out a survey of colleges to find out the impact of this funding shortfall and what further steps they will have to take," he said.