A GATESHEAD company has taken over the administration of a small training firm’s £300,000 contract and helped keep it in business.

Harrogate firm FW Solutions faced potential collapse when it stopped getting paid to deliver its main contract, to deliver apprenticeships for training firm NTQUK.

This came after NTQUK had its contracts withdrawn by the Skills Funding Agency over alleged breaches of contract.

FW Solutions, which has 14 staff, was left to continue its work training 200 apprentices across the North East but without getting paid for it.

FW had to find an appropriately authorised training company to take over managing the contract with the SFA and happy to continue employing FW as subcontractor.

Gateshead-based Access Training replaced NTQUK as the main contractor for the SFA with FW continuing its subcontract work.

Access Training manages the contract and also provides the required quality management and auditing to support the provision.

FW Solutions owner Sandra Hardy said: “We were devastated – we thought we would lose our business.

“It was an incredibly difficult six months. We didn’t want our staff or the learners to be alarmed so we dug deep and fortunately found a solution in time.

“We are incredibly pleased with the support we have had from Access so far.

“They took us through a full due-diligence process and are always at the end of a phone to provide guidance.”

Access Training announced its plans to seek lead contractor opportunities such as these back in January when it won a £2m contract from SFA as a result of a partnership with Durham Training and MPH Customer Centred Training.

Access managing director Malcolm Armstrong, said: “FW Solutions has a good reputation as a quality training provider so we were more than happy to take on the contract. We have since taken on an additional 50 learners as part of the arrangement.”