80,000 college jobs could go

The sector is expecting a drop in funding of up to 40 per cent in the courses run for students over the age of 19.

Barry Lovejoy, the head of further education at the University and College Union, said: "Our worst case scenario is for up to 80,000 jobs across the country to go."

There are also expected to be cuts of up to 10 per cent on college funding for 16 to 19-year-olds.

Julian Gravatt, the Association of Colleges' assistant chief executive said there were fears that these cuts could prevent some further education centres from being able to run more expensive courses in areas such as engineering.