**** SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF PAGE***** Community College Southland manger Leighton Robb releases a statement.

Community College Southland is closing its doors after 20 plus years, but nobody is sure why and the manager has been avoiding all media inquiries from ‘whatsoninvers.nz’

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Founder Mike Sanford was alerted by a source two weeks ago about the closure, and contacted the facility manager Leighton Robb to find about more details.

He initially made no comment and a week later Mike contacted him again – this time Leighton finally confirmed the college was closed from January 18, but said he wasn’t interested in talking to the media and hung up, after being asked about staff redundancies.

The website also said that from January 20 there would be no more Youth Education programmes in 2021, although Youth Service and Job Connection would continue to be provided.

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The college is part of COMCOL (Community Colleges New Zealand), that has branches in six South Island locations including Blenheim, Rangiora, Timaru, Dunedin and Nelson.

It is a charitable organisation that offers 16-19 year olds skills, qualifications and training in equine, hospitality, hairdressing and retail, business, as well as sport and recreation.

Students gain NZQA unit standards and work towards NCEA for up to two years full time, with free fees.

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The colleges are Government funded and in Invercargill also sponsored by both the Invercargill Licensing Trust and Community Trust of Southland.

Based in the Menzies building on Esk Street Community College Southland was opened in 1991, and on its Facebook page states that the students who started last year would still be able to complete their course this year.

On Wednesday Mike Sanford spoke to Leighton Robb personally, while attending another meeting in the same building, and the manager said he would forward him the email containing information to stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education (MoE)

That afternoon an email arrived stating that Community College NZ was “not interested in your website or service containing or printing information relating to our closure.

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“Key stakeholders such as MoE, TEC and other support services working with vulnerable youth schools have been informed.”

‘‘whatsoninvers.nz’ made a final phone call to Leighton on Thursday morning as a courtesy call to let him know we would be publishing the story, and would appreciate his comment.

He said the community had been informed about the closure and told us to stop hassling him as he had staff to deal with, and that was his main concern at the moment.

‘whatsoninvers.nz’ feels that the public has an absolute right to know what is happening with this closure, particularly when community funding is involved, and is disappointed with the way the college has dealt with the situation.

COMMENTS from Leighton at Thursday 8:30pm.

“After operating our education and vocational training from the Menzies Building in central Invercargill for 30 years, we have made the difficult decision to cease our Youth Guarantee programmes. Youth Service and Training for Work will continue. This decision follows several years of poor financial performance of the Youth Guarantee contract and our inability to commit to a new term of lease required for this operation.

“Since 1990 we have provided foundation education and vocational training alongside other activities, first as Southland Academy and since 2002 as Community College Southland.

“We currently operate the Youth Service mentoring service and Training for Work/Job Connection employment placement programme funded through MSD. These programmes will continue to be provided in Invercargill and across the Southland region.

“With such a long history and with staff still dedicated to assisting our young people grow and achieve, this is a very sad point to come to.

“We are in discussion with other Invercargill education providers to assist our current and prospective students carry on with their training and qualifications. We are also doing what we can to look after the College staff affected by this decision. Some are long serving, all are committed and we are sorry to interrupt their careers with this decision.”

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