The demand for training professionals has plunged as training budgets have been slashed, according to HR recruiters.

Michael Bolger, managing director at Badger Associates, told Recruiter: “The side that has taken the biggest knock is without a doubt training. In a recession, training is always the first thing to go and it is no different this time.

“Training was affected at the back end of last year. We do not have a single vacancy at the moment to do with training.”

Caroline Foote, managing director at HR Moves, says: “A number of clients are cutting budgets. The ones that have made redundancies have made redundancies around the training budget or they have heavily streamlined it.

“It has become a transactional training function, instead of it being exciting, interesting training, it is the skills you need to do your job and not a lot more.”