Corus re-training cash will be strained
THE GOVERNMENT’S promise to make £5m available to retrain Corus workers who have lost their jobs in the latest round of cuts will put extra strain on an already overstretched regional budget.
Yesterday, as the PM again came under pressure in the Commons to step up its support for striken steel workers, nebusiness revealed that the so-called “extra money” was recycled cash, partly funded by the North East Development Agency. But the other main funding stream which will be used to help local workers - the Learning and Skills Council’s Train To Gain programme, which was said to be perilously close to broke last year - is also creaking.
Chris Roberts, chief operating officer for the the LSC, said: "The national Train to Gain budget for 2008/209 was £900 million of which £67m was committed to the North-east. The North-east budget was fully committed and spent.
"The national Train to Gain budget for 2009/10 is £1 billion, with £70m of the budget committed to the North-east.
“We expect this budget to be fully committed and spent as the LSC endeavours to up-skill throughout the region“.”
He said the Corus Response Group, which meets in Redcar today to discuss the latest round of cuts was working with Corus to establish needs regarding redundancies and up-skilling and that the LSC would “deploy resources appropriately".
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