Train to Gain delays thwart recovery
A gap in funding is hampering efforts to train workers for an economic upturn under the government’s biggest skills programme.
Despite the imminent prospects of a recovery, many employers have reported that they can’t start training any more staff on the Train to Gain programme until next April due to funding pressures.
The Association of Learning Providers (ALP), which represents the training providers that deliver the Learning and Skills Council’s programme, has revealed that it has received reports about employers becoming disillusioned about seeking government support for their training programmes. It follows a multi-million pound advertising campaign to promote the Train to Gain programme to employers.
Training bosses have warned that the funding gap will have a serious impact on the prospects for recovery, with workers who left school without basic literacy and numeracy skills unable to access vital training and education.
Sectors hit by the funding shortage include ones regarded as key to the anticipated upturn such as construction, engineering and childcare. Demand for vocational training for school teaching assistants, NHS hospital staff and charity workers is also not being met.
Training providers are now making staff redundant because of the absence of new starts.
Another significant impact of the funding shortage has been a major reduction in the training of firms’ adult apprentices, which has been supported by the Train to Gain programme.
The problems surrounding Train to Gain started earlier this year when employer demand for the programme exceeded the funds available with an estimated overspend of £50m for 2008-09.
Providers had been actively encouraged to generate more demand from employers following underspends in the two previous years.
When the total level of demand became apparent, the LSC instructed providers not to start training any new trainees after 1 April 2009. Employees already in the programme were allowed to complete their training and the £925m budget for 2009-10 was raided to enable this to happen.
This means that many providers have had to inform employers that they cannot take on trainees until spring 2010 because there is only enough money to cover the course completions of those who were in training before April.
ALP is calling for Train to Gain to be topped up with money from the mainstream further education budget. It also suggests allowing training providers access to all the allocated funds at the start of the year.
Graham Hoyle, ALP’s chief executive, said the situation need to be resolved urgently. ‘With businesses needing to be competitive to fight their way out of the recession, it seems strange, and potentially damaging to the economy, that many can go a whole year without being able to start workers on the government’s flagship training scheme,' he said.
'Proposed solutions, which don’t require extra money, are on the table and we urge the government to start implementing them immediately.’
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