AROUND 20 jobs are to go at a skills agency in a national cull of public sector workers.

The Learning and Skills Council for Kent and Medway (LSCKM), based at Kings Hill, West Malling, is cutting about a quarter of its 80-strong workforce over the next few months.

Agency chiefs hope there will be enough volunteers but have not ruled out compulsory redundancies.

The Kent jobs will be among 1,300 being axed by the national Learning and Skills Council from a total workforce of 4,700.

The council expects to save £40m by slashing the workforce by almost a third.

Simon Norton, LSCKM chief executive, said the cuts would lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness and "make sure every penny goes into the front line."

He said the cuts would not have any detrimental effect on the quality of local education.

The LSCKM has an annual budget of £220m, with administration costing a further £3m.

It pumps Govenment cash into sixth forms, colleges and skills.

Mr Norton said the local agency had invested millions of pounds in projects at Canterbury College, Ashford Learning Campus, Oakwood Park Grammar School, Maidstone, and Mid Kent College.

"We’ve done really well and this is designed to strengthen what we do," Mr Norton said.

"All this is part of the Governmen’t drive to keep the cost of the public sextor down and get greater efficiency, but the LSC is doing this because it believes there’s a need to do it."

Five hundred of the 1,300 jobs are to go at the LSC headquarters in London, with some functions switched to the regions.

The Public and Commercial Services Union - which represents 1,700 LSC staff - condemned the plans, saying they would seriously undermine post-16 learning and skills.

"These cuts will bring devastation to the delivery of vocational courses, apprenticeships and adult learning, seriously undermining the government’s skills agenda," the PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said.