The Learning and Skills Council, which distributes funding for further education training, has informed providers it will have to cap the number of apprenticeships and workplace training places it funds, due to severe overspend.
As Nursery World went to press it was expected that shadow skills secretary David Willetts would raise the issue in the House of Commons on Monday.
Childcare training providers were told earlier this year, in line with Government policy, to increase the amount of training they offered.
Kate Stock, managing director of Smart Training, one of the largest childcare NVQ training companies, said, 'All the providers have been under enormous pressure to provide more training. We have all responded and now the LSC has said, "oops, we have run out of money, as we have overspent".'
Students aged between 19 and 25 on the Train to Gain programme and people over 25 wanting to take up apprenticeships could find it difficult next year, as it is funding for these that will be capped.
'We get a lot of women wishing to retrain after having a family and we find nurseries like employing older people. It is these people who are going to suffer,' said Ms Stock. 'The Government wants people in the childcare sector to be better qualified, yet it is preventing this happening by not providing enough funding.'
Sally Eaton, education director for the Childcare Company, another big training provider, called it a 'very serious situation' and said, 'Childcare practitioners are getting mixed messages. They are being told it is important to upskill and now they are told there is no funding and they will have to fund any training themselves. It is a huge disappointment, as we are really making headway and this will put us back as a profession.'
A spokeswoman for the LSC said, 'It is clear that growth in demand continues to grow for both Train to Gain and 25+ Apprenticeships. However, left unchecked, Train to Gain and 25+ Apprenticeship activity will exceed the budget allocations we have available in the 2009/10 financial year and create further pressures in future years.
'The LSC will take action now to agree with colleges and training providers who offer high-quality provision against agreed priorities, contracts that enable growth in Train to Gain and Apprenticeships to continue, but within the levels of investment that we have available.'
From April 2010, the LSC will be replaced by two new agencies, the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency.