The Learning and Skills Council (LSC), which manages the scheme, is limiting its funding as it struggles to get to grips with the fallout caused by the recession.

Providers were told to stop taking on new trainees from the beginning of April this year, meaning beleaguered employers will be unable to access the training provision for an entire 12 months.

The Association of Training Providers (ALP), which represents providers delivering Train to Gain, warns the immediate impact on economic recovery could be far more serious than the recent college building programme debacle.

"After months of talking, the situation now needs resolving urgently. With businesses needing to be competitive to fight their way out of the recession, it seems strange, and potentially damaging to the economy, that many can go a whole year without being able to start workers on the government’s flagship training scheme," says ALP chief executive Graham Hoyle.

"Proposed solutions, which don’t require extra money, are on the table and we urge the government to start implementing them immediately."

(Pictured: ALP chief executive Graham Hoyle)