The publishing industry is to lose the body which oversees its training and development, as part of a Government shake-up.

The Publishing National Training Organisation represents the interests and helps meet the training needs of national and regional newspapers, magazines, books, journals, directory, database and electronic publishing.

The decision means that the sector, which employs more than 280,000 people, will be left without an overall industry and government-accredited training organisation.

Launched in March 2001, the Publishing National Training Organisation is a casualty of a Government move to abolish more than 70 national training organisations and replace them with a smaller number of Sector Skills Councils.

But the Department for Education and Skills has said the industry "is not of sufficient economic or strategic significance" to warrant its own skills council and should join a broader grouping of sectors - an idea being rejected by trade organisations and leading employers.

The Society of Editors has condemned the move as a gross error of bureaucracy.

Society president Jonathan Grun, who is the editor of PA, said: "A powerful initiative has been put at risk by the demands of bureaucracy. Strategies for training can only be determined and delivered if they reflect the needs and cultures of the constituent parts of the industry. Changes required by the Government when the Publishing NTO had hardly had a chance to find its feet show that the DfES seems to think size is more important than relevance to the industry.

"In a very short period the NTO had helped to bring training back up the agenda. It brought together regional and national publishers and for the first time there was an opportunity to develop a clear vision.

"Despite this gross error it is vital that all parts of the industry keep working together to invest in the future."

The Society will be writing to the Dfes and the Department of Culture Media and Sport and to the CMS select committee.

PNTO chairman Bob Phillis, who is also chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, said: "We have achieved a great deal in a very short time, bringing together a number of previously disparate interests and improving publishing's training arrangements.

"It is a great shame that a change in Government policy has halted our progress and that no acceptable alternative arrangements have yet been found."

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