A VITAL training service helping people back to work looks likely to be withdrawn from Okehampton because of funding cuts.

Westward Pathfinder has announced that Learndirect Training offered at the Ockment Centre is to be withdrawn at the end of next month, following Government spending cuts.

The charity currently rents the computer suite in the Ockment Centre to deliver a range of courses designed to help people with their employment prospects.

This will see the end of the Friday work club, helping people get back into work. The club helps people write CVs, search and apply for jobs online, and helps to rebuild confidence through improving interview and telephone techniques, socialising and moral support.

The work club was key in helping people find work after the closure of Polestar and Robert Wiseman Dairies.

The centre also runs courses in English and maths, teaching these skills to a GCSE level 2, and other workplace skills.

Manager Geoff Mills, who runs the training at the centre, said: 'Closing the resource down has a two-fold effect. The Ockment Centre will lose the revenue from the hire of the room, although hopefully they will be able to do something with it.

'My main concern is the people of Okehampton to be honest, because it's another blow for the town. We get a lot of people coming in here to be retrained and particularly to be using the work club.

'We get somewhere between 16 and 19 people each week using the club. Not all new people, obviously, because at the moment you are not going to find a job straight away. People do come back, and to me, that shows that there is a need for something here.

'People who use the club have said they can't understand it, and it's devastating for them.'

George Curry, chief executive of Westward Pathfinder, said: 'We are a victim of all the Government spending cuts that have happened in the last two years. As an organisation we have had to rejig where our limited funds go and what services we can afford to deliver.

'I hope that we can find some funding from somewhere. The decision to close was only taken relatively recently, and with great reluctance. We will try to find grants and funds both locally and further afield.

'The job club will be a big loss, as will the computer and life skills training, but we sadly just can no longer afford to deliver these things.

'­We've lost a lot of money in the last twelve months, and if we don't take action to break even quickly, then the whole organisation could be threatened. We have been forced into this by the cuts.

'The whole purpose of Pathfinder is to deliver these training skills to rural areas, but one by one our rural centres are falling by the wayside, and it is very sad and not what we want to do. We have been very reluctant to make this decision. Hopefully, we can find some funding to help keep the job club open.'

Central Devon?MP?Mel Stride said he was obviously concerned with anything that impacted on the ability of local people to find new employment in the area.

'It is an issue that I am now looking at very closely and I will do what I can to help,' he added.

Westward Pathfinder is a charity set up to assist individuals and communities within the South West to participate in their own economic and social development through the use of computers and information and communication technologies.

Westward Pathfinder is hoping to continue to deliver IT training at the Ockment Centre, but this will have to be through group delivery rather than the current open access to ensure sufficient numbers to cover costs. The current system allows people to learn at their own pace, arranging appointments when they are available to visit.

These courses would be delivered three days a week for four weeks, aimed at the unemployed and enable learners to gain an IT qualification within a month.