training provision at Burnley Council may be scrapped after this year's trainees cost the council nearly £145,000, a leaked report says.

A press conference has been called for Monday at 10am to discuss the future of the training section at Livingstone Mill which employs 12 people and currently has 40 trainees.

The council receives payment from the East Lancashire Training and Enterprise Council on a contract basis.

ELTEC expected 76 people on the 1995/6 training to work contract to get jobs but, because only 39 people managed to get a job out of 157 who started, the council has picked up a bill for £144,892, nearly twice the estimated cost of the service.

Of those trainees 106 came away with a National Vocational Qualifications, but ELTEC wanted the figure to be 144.

A report which will be discussed in private at the personnel sub-committee on Tuesday says: "There is evidence from statistics supplied by ELTEC that trainees are going into different occupations to those for which they have received training.

"It could be considered wasteful to train people for jobs that do not exist in the local labour market.

"In reality, the actual cost of the service has not been particularly high, even when expressed as a cost per job. However in our current position of a spending freeze and balances almost at the minimum level, the risk of a significant overspend on any budget must be avoided."

Four options are up for consideration.

Firstly, employ two business development workers, make an administrative assistant redundant, and close the painting and decorating and bricklaying activities. Cost £146,436 in 1996/7.

Another option is as the first, but includes closing the carpentry works.

A third plan is the same as option two, but includes stopping training at the mill in horticulture and catering and concentrating on employer-based training.

A fourth option is to close completely.

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