Representatives from the six providers formed a delegation to put their case to the Dunedin City Council's at its public forum yesterday.
The six organisations were the Dunedin Community College, Salvation Army Employment Plus, Headquarters Hairdressing Academy, Kokiri Training Centre, the Methodist Mission and Agriculture New Zealand.
Group spokesman John Crawford-Smith, of the Methodist Mission, told councillors the six organisations together had lost 50% of their Government funding for training - distributed by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) - in the past two years.
The Government and TEC had reduced funding in their area, and reallocated in others, as it focused more on preventing young people joining the queue for unemployment benefits, he said.
However, there appeared to be less provision for organisations like those he represented, which were more focused on the long-term unemployed, Mr Crawford-Smith said.
As a result, training courses in Dunedin were being cut, the number of places available had already reduced by 40, and at least six job losses within the organisations were on the way, he told councillors.
"We are having to drop very highly-skilled and very capable tutors and teachers. These are people who will be out of work," he said.
The impact would be felt in Dunedin through a reduced skills base that hurt the city's economy, and a "probable" increase in social issues as more people were unable to find training places, he said.
The Salvation Army's young mothers programme would also cease to exist in Dunedin from next year as a result of TEC funding cuts, affecting about 20 young mothers, Salvation Army Employment Plus Otago-Southland programme manager Brian Lee told the forum.
Mr Crawford-Smith said the six organisations together offered NZQA qualifications and vocational and skills training, as well as literacy and numeracy skills, to hundreds of people each year, most aged 16-65.
They were generally referred to the training providers by government departments, and arrived with minimal skills and education qualifications.
Most were not suited to other education providers, and the training offered a "second chance" in a workplace environment, he said.
About 60% of the programmes' trainees moved into employment or further training once finished, he said.
Councillors at yesterday's forum agreed to investigate helping establish a new group, including education providers, the Ministry of Education and TEC, to discuss funding options and ways of maximising available training services.
TEC staff were not available for comment late yesterday.
