Toko Training, based at Milton and governed by the Tokomairiro High School Board of Trustees, was partly funded by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to provide a programme helping unemployed young people in the area gain experience and training for the workforce.
It provided the programme for three years, but failed to secure a new contract in a tender process introduced this year.
The organisers of the course were told they were not successful in securing funding two days prior to the contract renewal date in early July.
A Dunedin service now provided the up to 17 placements on the 13-week course.
Mr Cadogan said the loss of the course was a body blow to the district.
"[It] leaves our entire district with nothing, absolutely bloody nothing. I’m absolutely gutted."
He was at a loss as to how young people in the district would now get the necessary training and experience to find work.
He said the dynamics were all there for "young, vulnerable people with time on their hands" to be "prospected" by gangs, whose presence was growing in the Milton area.
"The No1 question is what is to become of our young people now?"
Tokomairiro High School principal Glenis Sim said there had now been no work training courses for young unemployed people in the district for two months.
"It’s removing the opportunity within our rural district for our young people to be trained."
Programme manager Lynda Allan said losing the funding came as a "complete surprise".
"It was quite devastating because we’ve had some excellent outcomes from our courses in the past."
She admitted there were issues with the application for the tender, which was part of the reason why it was rejected, but said having to lodged a tender had been a "completely foreign" process to those running the course.
"We assumed MSD would take into account our record from the past three years, which was very successful."
She felt bad for people who continued to ask about doing the programme.
"There’s nothing I can do for them."
MSD deputy chief executive Ruth Bound said it received 10 tenders for providing Training for Work programmes in the Southern region.
Each application was assessed against a common set of criteria and the top six providers were selected.
Out of the 10, Tokomairiro’s application was ranked 10th, she said.
Tokomairiro High School asked MSD to review the outcome, but MSD’s position was that its process was "carried out fairly and consistently."
Work and Income was refocusing its employment training and placement services to get better results for people who found it most difficult to get work.
There were several other training programmes in the Clutha community, Ms Bound said.
