Rathbone Training has 11 centres in south and west Wales

The charity Rathbone Training - which is closing two of its centres and halving staff at five others - said it had suffered repeated cuts in funding from Elwa.

But Elwa said the training organisation would get more money this year if it managed to meet its performance targets.

On Friday staff from the charity marched through Caerphilly to try and save the training centre which is due to close there, along with another in Haverfordwest.

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Rathbone Training Ltd helps more than 10,000 children, young people and adults throughout Wales, Scotland and England in 65 skill, residential and family support centres.

It aims to provides learning and training support for people who are disadvantaged.

We can no longer work as a charity with the amount of money they give us Delyth Williams, Rathbone Training

It has 11 centres across south and mid Wales, but claims it receives �850 less for each trainee in Wales than it does in England.

It said it was facing a deficit of more than �1m as a result.

It has blamed cuts by Elwa for its decision to pull out of Caerphilly and Haverfordwest, and reduce staff at five other centres.

Delyth Williams, who runs the training centre in Caerphilly, said Elwa had reduced its funding year after year.

"We can no longer work as a charity with the amount of money they give us," she said.

"There is no money in the coffers anymore so we can subsidise the training for these young people. So we've got to close the centre."

She said in England and Scotland one of Rathbone's centres would receive around �3,000 per learner, but in Wales it was �2,100.

"If we don't get more money and the centre closes 800 people will be returning to the career service and back on to the streets.

"If we can't keep going they're back on the scrapheap."

Elwa said it had allocated more money to the charity, which it would get if it met its performance targets.

It said it had not given up hope of a solution, but had set up an emergency team to ensure that trainees can be transferred to other providers with a minimum of disruption.

Richard Thomas, Elwa's head of communications, said: "We have not slashed their funding.

"We would like to try and understand a bit more about what Rathbone are actually saying.

"We had a meeting with them last May where they outlined some initial concerns that they had.

"We asked for more detailed information but didn't get it."