ED Balls today seeks to ease the fears of North-East principals by pledging that Labour will “protect” funding of beleaguered further education colleges.

The Shadow Chancellor promised 80,000 extra apprenticeship places for school leavers, saying: “That’s a very clear difference with the Tories.”

However, speaking with The Northern Echo, Mr Balls hinted that his guarantee covers courses for young people only, rather than adult learning programmes.

The interview took place a day after the region’s principals joined forces to raise the alarm over a 24 per cent post-election funding cut for adult learning planned by the Government.

They warned that thousands of people will lose the chance of retraining for new jobs because of reductions earmarked by the Skills Funding Agency, a Whitehall quango.

The £460m cut - on top of five years of shrinking budgets for the further education sector - will result in many adult education courses being removed, the principals said.

East Durham College will lose £805,000 from its adult learning budget for next year while Darlington College will lose £755,000 and Bishop Auckland College will lose £650,000.

Vocational courses that develop the practical skills demanded by employers will be hit, in sectors such as engineering, manufacturing, health and social care and construction, the protest said.

Asked about the threat, Mr Balls said: “David Cameron has made a commitment on schools – but we have made our commitment on funding from nought to 19.

“That’s because we think what happens in further education colleges, Sure Start centres and nurseries are very important educationally, as well as what happens in schools

“More than that, we have made a funded commitment to 80,000 more apprenticeship places – an apprenticeship guarantee for every school leader who gets the grade.”

Mr Balls said a “substantial number” of those apprenticeship courses would take place in FE colleges – with numbers for under-25s falling, under the Coalition.

And he said: “We are going to protect education in real terms up to 19 – including further education for young people – and fund an apprenticeship guarantee. That’s a very clear difference with the Tories.”

The North-East principals have joined forces with union leaders and urged students and business leaders to support the campaign.

The colleges involved are: Bishop Auckland, City of Sunderland, Cleveland College of Art and Design, Darlington, Derwentside, East Durham, Gateshead, Hartlepool College of Further Education, Middlesbrough, New College Durham; Newcastle, Northumberland, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside, Stockton Riverside and Tyne Metropolitan.

The department of business, innovation and skills (BIS), which oversees the Skills Funding Agency, has acknowledged the funding cut, but argued: “Priority has been given the areas where the most impact can be made - apprenticeships, traineeships and support with English and maths.”