Angry families and students are protesting against closure of a college after it was announced it has gone into administration immediately after an ongoing dispute with the government.

LifeSkills, located in Town Square, Basildon, has today informed staff and learners that the business will be placed into administration.

The social enterprise was formed in 2002 in Bethnal Green with training centres subsequently set up in Basildon, Lowestoft, and Rotherham.

Families, students and teachers have rallied this afternoon in the town centre with placards and megaphones demanding the college is kept open.

Mandy Balding, 54, from Basildon whose son Harry goes to the college, said: “It’s made a tremendous difference to his life, he suffers with autism, epilepsy and also social communication disorder, where he doesn’t mix with people.

"This college has been his lifeline and this is the only thing that gets him out of the house. Without this college he would just sit indoors and not do anything. The closure will have a terrible impact because he’s losing his life basically.

"Since coming to the college he’s a lot more positive and confident but as soon as this stops he’s going to take three steps back.”

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Amy McManus, 32, from Wickford a former teacher at the college said: “I taught at the college for a little over six years. Each of the children that comes here goes into small class sizes that they need to be able to success in education.

"Every teacher gets to know the children they work with and the staff go above and beyond for them and have always offered that pastoral care as well as the education so for everyone at the college it’s a devastating blow.

"In Basildon there is nothing else like this and other colleges are too big for these young people, they need the smaller classes and less students per staff so these classes are so important to these young people.”

They provide post-16 education and training programmes and aimed to equip learners with the skills they need in the modern world in order to get the jobs they want.

It currently works with more than 470 students.