Students' future 'in the dark'

Tory group leader Councillor Margaret Eaton says the students have been left in the dark over their future training.

And she has written to Bradford Council leader John Ryan over the treatment of the students, who are at the centre of a row over education cuts.

The Telegraph & Argus exclusively revealed in December how the Council had decided to trim £500,000 off its £1.2 million budget deficit by closing Bradford Education Training Group.

The group, which provides two year training courses for 16-18 year olds at Bradford's Bowling Park Training Services, Keighley Training Organisation and Shipley Information Technology Centre, will close its doors next month.

Worried parents had been reassured by Bradford and District Training and Enterprise Council, which also part funds the scheme, that alternative provision would be made for existing trainees.

But with less than three weeks until BETG closes its doors there has been no exchange of contracts and negotiations with training organisations are still taking place.

Bradford and District TEC education training director Mike Lowe says he is confident the matter will be resolved in the next two weeks. "The students have nothing to worry about," he said.

But Councillor Eaton said alternative arrangements should have been decided weeks ago.

"It seems that, as equal partners, Bradford Council has washed its hands of this problem.

"Confirmation of BETG's closure came in December - we are now in the middle of March and alternative arrangements have yet to be made," she added.

Bradford's acting assistant education director, Angela Drizi, said there had been some difficulty in finding places for a number of trainees at Bowling Park.

"We are negotiating with the TEC to allow them more time to find alternative placements," she said.

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