THE region’s largest college has been accused of shifting resources to other parts of the country while cutting jobs on Tyneside.
Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell has criticised NCG, the parent company of Newcastle College, for putting 180 staff at risk of redundancy at the same time that chief executive Dame Jackie Fisher got a one-off bonus of £72,788 on top of an annual salary of £186,984.
The group has added a college in Lancashire and a national training group to its business while it is also in talks with Northumberland College over a merger.
The college says any surpluses generated in Newcastle are reinvested in learning in the city and it has recently announced plans for a new sixth-form college following multi-million-pound investments in other facilities in recent years.
Mrs McKinnell has taken up her concerns with the Government, saying: “All of this comes at a time when NCG is seeking to expand nationally, with surpluses made in Newcastle effectively being transferred to other, less deprived, parts of the country.
“NCG’s chief executive is paid over 17 times more than the lowest-paid member of staff whose job is at risk.”
John Hayes, Further Education (FE) Minister at the Department for Business, told Mrs McKinnell that it was a matter for the college if it wanted to expand its services to other parts of the country.
But he added: “Ministers wrote to all FE college principals and chief executives in May last year, spelling out the need for public services to play their part in reducing the level of public debt and to seek savings.
“They emphasised that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was seeking to apply restraint to all aspects of pay and bonuses, with a clear lead being given by senior staff, and sought to encourage other publicly-funded organisations, including FE colleges, to do likewise.”
Last night, Ms McKinnell said the ongoing situation at Newcastle College was a cause for concern.
She added: “So many jobs are being cut across both the public and private sector as a result of the Coalition’s savage public spending cuts, and the last thing we need at the moment is to be reducing the number of people whose role it is to train the workforce of the present and the future.
“There are also concerns about NCG’s plans to continue its expansion when it is making a large number of people in Newcastle redundant. Surely any reserves or surpluses made in Newcastle should be retained for the benefit of our community?”
Dame Jackie was awarded a one-off bonus by governors to provide continuity of leadership at a time when the college group was expanding.
A spokeswoman for the college said: “The minister has unfortunately not been given the full picture.
“The chief executive of NCG leads two outstanding colleges and one of the UK’s largest private-sector training providers.
“We are very proud of our colleges and we continue to invest our profits into our colleges. In the coming weeks we will see the opening of our Renewables Academy in North Tyneside, our new college in West Lancashire as well as our Fiat successful job entrants on the Work Programme in Birmingham.”
