Springfield Training owner explains sudden closure

A Leeds-based training provider that recently celebrated its tenth year in business has abruptly closed, with its owner blaming theft of employer contact data and a backlog of unfunded apprentices passed their end dates for running out of cash. 

Around 30 staff at Springfield Training were told on Friday morning that the provider would cease trading with immediate effect. Around 750 learners were on programme at the time of the closure. 

CEO and owner Noel Johnson told FE Week his company “ran out of road” after personally propping up payroll “for some time”, despite being “months” away from completing outstanding assessments and being “within sight of being back on track”.

Springfield’s closure comes months after it was the only apprenticeship training provider to have had its 2023-24 qualification achievement rates (QAR) redacted from publication. 

Department for Education guidance states this occurs when the data it holds “does not allow us to calculate a reliable estimate and therefore provides an unfair measure of performance”.

Johnson said the redaction was the result of a rapid improvement in the provider’s achievement rates, which was a “pants” 37.5 per cent in 2022-23 and would have been 60.1 per cent in 2023-24. This prompted Springfield to commission a controls and processes audit, but that wasn’t the cause of the closure of the business.

“I can say quite honestly that the DfE haven’t closed us and weren’t looking to close us. But they weren’t looking to support us financially either. But, I get that they can’t,” he told FE Week.

Johnson said the financial burden of ongoing costs for apprentices that were passed their planned end dates that ultimately proved unsustainable for Springfield. He described a cascade of backlogs going back to the pandemic which he believes would have been manageable by September. 

“We made a conscious decision to reduce recruitment so we could focus on getting those learners through. But I think I was over-ambitious on the number I thought we could get through.

“With each cohort, you’ve got to support them with revision, check-ins, and motivation – and it all comes at a cost.”

Apprenticeship starts

Springfield Training has been listed on the government’s apprenticeship provider and assessment register as “not currently starting new apprentices” since around March this year, but Johnson claimed the company has been able to take learners on, only pausing in May because “we just don’t have space for them”.

The most up-to-date available DfE apprenticeship starts data shows 104 starts at Springfield Training between August 2024 and January 2025 on standards ranging from level 2 engineering operative to level 5 leader in adult care. 

Springfield was last inspected in August 2022 and achieved ‘good’ grades throughout. 

Johnson described his relationship with DfE as “quite positive, albeit frustrating at times”. He kept in regular contact with Springfield’s contract manager and highlighted scoring well on the apprenticeship accountability framework measures “except for out of funding learners”.

“Three or four years ago, we had to pay some additional learning support money back at the time when most people did. We had all the evidence there and thought it met the funding rules. They disagreed. 

“We have paid some back since then, but that’s not what this is about.”

Data theft

Springfield’s income took a surprising hit earlier this year. 

In March, Johnson discovered that two former employees had “unlawfully” accessed and shared Springfield’s employer database with staff at their new training provider. 

Johnson claims the rival provider then use the data to approach Springfield’s clients, causing reputational damage and an immediate £400,000 drop in revenue. 

Springfield started receiving phone calls from its employer clients who said they were being told by this other provider “we know you work with Springfield Training – don’t work with them, come to us’”.

Johnson’s team was quickly able to identify the leakers. One of them had forwarded the database to their own personal email address and access logs showed it had been widely shared.

“They admitted to unlawful access,” Johnson said. “There were 15,000 individual accesses to our systems. It wasn’t just the individuals – it was the company they went to. The managing director, the business development director – they all had their fingers in it.”

The incident was reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office and Johnson has initiated proceedings for damages after the police advised it was a civil matter.

Team Springfield

While Johnson was in regular contact with the DfE and had spoken to officials just one day before the closure, no financial support was forthcoming. “They just said, ‘if you were a college, we would – but we can’t,’” he said.

Despite being on the cusp of recovery, Johnson decided against going to the banks for help. 

“Although I could see an end to it, I’d already committed our savings,” he said. “If I was going to commit to taking out a loan as well, my exposure was increasing… We’ve never taken debt. We live within our means. We live quite modestly. And I didn’t want to expose my partner to the risk.”

Johnson is uncertain over whether he will re-enter the education or training sector in the future and will now focus on his other businesses, one of which is a Yorkshire-based spirits company he says he can now work to make “viable”. 

In his email to staff on Friday, Johnson said he “was fighting until the last possible opportunity to try and find a solution”.

He told FE Week: “I can’t speak highly enough of the Springfield teachers and support staff. They busted a gut, they worked like trojans to get this stuff done. It’s sad. It’s heartbreaking.”

Springfield Training was founded in 2015 and celebrated 10 years of delivery last week before closure was announced.