Administrators appointed to skills charity

ADMINISTRATORS have been appointed to a skills, training  and employment charity.

BoltonWISE Limited, which traded as Mojo Trust and helped more than 16,000 people last year, has appointed Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery after running into financial difficulties.

The administrators said 22 of its 50 staff had been made redundant on their appointment on Tuesday.

The charity had more than  50 staff, as well as volunteers and partners supporting the local communities with advice, training and skills.

In 2013 the registered charity rebranded as Mojo Trust, although its is still formally known as BoltonWISE.

The administrators said: “Mojo Trust has for some time faced a challenging financial environment and at the end of July it lost its apprenticeship scheme status, which accounted for a significant portion of the charity’s turnover.

“Once it became apparent they would be unable to regain this aspect of the business, the board took the difficult decision to seek professional assistance.

Jason Elliott, joint administrator and head of Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery said: “Our immediate priority was to safeguard as many of the excellent services that Mojo Trust provides as possible.

“To date we have saved 28 jobs and retained a further two staff, pending ongoing negotiations. We have also managed to secure the continuity of the critical services that Mojo Trust provides including; Welfare to Work, Foundation Learning, Energy Advice and Apprenticeship Support.

“Following our engagement, we have worked with the board to achieve the best possible results and after a detailed review of each of the services it became apparent that not all would be salvageable. Consequently, it was with regret that we made 22 redundancies upon our appointment as Administrators. However, as a direct result of the strategy implemented we have managed to preserve employment for over half the workforce.”

Elliott said after “intense discussions” with outside contractors, approximately 150 apprenticeships which the charity had already placed, will continue uninterrupted.

He added: “We are working closely with the Redundancy Payments Office to support the staff impacted by the administration.”