Angry staff at South & City College Birmingham announced a mass walkout in protest at plans to axe 34 jobs as cuts escalate across the West Midlands higher education sector.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) were planning to man picket lines outside campuses in Digbeth, Bordesley Green, Hall Green and Handsworth from 7.30am tomorrow with a rally later at the Irish Centre in Digbeth.

The jobs are in various departments including construction, student services and supported learning which focuses on students with learning difficulties.

The college will also cease to run courses for offenders at Swinfen Hall and Winson Green prisons.

Staff are angry at the college's proposals to make more people redundant after 13 per cent of the payroll, 146 employees, agreed redundancy packages and will leave at the end of the month.

Three-quarters of UCU members who took part in the strike ballot voted in favour of strike action over the compulsory redundancies.

The South & City College dispute comes as Birmingham Metropolitan College announced 50 staff would be made compulsorily redundant, and up to 250 in total, while the UCU at the University of Birmingham is balloting for potential action over plans to cut 49 neuroscience staff and 59 in engineering.

UCU regional official Teresa Corr said: "South & City College Birmingham has already lost more than ten per cent of its staff and we don't believe it is necessary to axe another 34 jobs.

"We are talking about potential students with learning difficulties, prisoners and people who need that second chance at education missing out because of these cuts.

"We do not believe the college has sufficiently explored alternatives to these extra job losses and believe the money could be saved in other ways.

"Once they are gone, they are gone for good and some of the most disadvantaged areas of Birmingham will suffer for it."

South & City College's principal Mike Hopkins said: "The action being taken by UCU is in response to the recent cuts in the funding the college receives for adult training and the requirement for cuts imposed on us.

"We have been in close ongoing consultations with staff and the trade unions and as a college we are doing everything possible to avoid staff redundancies and have provided the most generous voluntary severance package in the region.

"We have never previously made any compulsory redundancies and I hope that we will still be able to safeguard jobs and continue to provide the best possible opportunities for our students."

The UCU says the Government wants to slash 24 per cent from adult education budgets - a move described by the union as "an act of wilful vandalism" which would lead to around 400,000 people losing out on opportunities to improve their skills.

The union has been part of a cross-sector campaign calling for greater investment in further education and a petition with more than 42,000 signatures was delivered to Downing Street last week.

MP for Birmingham Perry Barr Khalid Mahmood spoke out about the funding cuts in the House of Commons earlier this month.

He warned that without additional funding all the talk about manufacturing and engineering recoveries would amount to very little.

He said: "It is important for us to provide the right sort of support in areas such as Birmingham and my constituency if we are to move forward and allow people to get back into employment and into apprenticeships."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Birmingham Metropolitan College said: "We have had a positive response to our voluntary severance programme which includes a mixture of full- and part-time employees, the impact of which is that staff equating to approximately 200 full-time roles have opted to leave voluntarily.

"This means we will deliver most of our targeted savings through this scheme.

"Unfortunately, but in line with our plans, we will need to make around 50 people redundant across the college and we are consulting further with staff to minimise the impact wherever possible.

"We are still in the consultation phase, so we are finalising arrangements with affected staff and working constructively to reduce the impact wherever possible.

"Staff who have opted to leave voluntarily will finish at the end of July although, depending on business needs, some will stay for an agreed period of time up until the start of the new academic year in September."