STAFF at Fife College will be facing redundancies following talks with management.

Employees told the Press that half of the lecturers from the college's beauty department would be made redundant following an emergency meeting last Tuesday.

Fife College has now confirmed that they will be reducing the number of staff in that department, following plans to reduce the number of beauty programmes on offer. 

However, the number of staff who teach hairdressing will remain the same.

The husband of one of those affected, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Press: "My wife is very upset. She's been up all night with worry and hasn't slept.

"The Scottish Government say they care about education but all I've seen is Fife College get slashed with cuts over the past couple of years.

"Some people have been working in that department for 20 years."

Dorothée Leslie, vice-principal for curriculum at Fife College, said: "A recent review of our Hair and Beauty programme has shown that some adjustments are required to ensure we balance the demand of people who wish to study these courses with the amount of jobs available now and in the future. 

"After careful consideration, we therefore plan to reduce some of our Hair and Beauty programmes currently on offer and increase capacity in other areas of our curriculum which have been identified as areas of growth.

"These changes will not disadvantage any current students studying with us or any who have applied for courses in the new academic year as we will work with them to look at alternatives in the same curriculum area or provide guidance on other suitable areas of study.

"It does mean, however, that we have had to take the difficult decision to reduce our staff numbers in Beauty. Reducing numbers of staff is always a last resort and not something we take lightly. 

"We have been in dialogue with our Beauty staff to review options and these discussions are still taking place. The number of staff who teach Hairdressing will remain the same."

Redundancies have led to fears that Fife College would not be able to to commit to the recently-agreed pay rise following a strike by lecturers.

However, the education provider said it was confident they could honour it with the support of the Scottish Government. 

Lecturers at Halbeath and Rosyth have been striking in recent months as part of a campaign for fair pay and equality in Scotland's colleges.

The industrial action caused several days of disruption for students and some even missed exams.

The Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) union suspended further action last month when an agreement was reached with Colleges Scotland that would lead to the first payment of a new salary scale.

It is now believed that some colleges cannot afford the increases after College Scotland said that many institutions would struggle to honour the deal. 

Anyone with concerns regarding these changes should contact Fife College directly on 0344 248 0115