Train to Gain
Train to Gain
Train to Gain is the name of a new national skills programme that will be introduced across England during 2006. It will be closely based on the Employer Training Pilots (ETP) which currently cover around a third of all LSC areas in England and which come to an end in March 2006. The Government announced its intention to roll out the pilots across England some time ago and the national programme was originally being referred to as the National Employer Training Programme (NETP). However, at the end of 2005 the Government decided to brand the new national programme as Train to Gain (some of the pilots had already been using this brand name at a local level).
Train to Gain will be at the very heart of the implementation of the Skills Strategy over the coming years and it will build on the achievements of the pilots. Like ETP it will offer employers free training for employees to achieve a Level 2 qualification (or a Skills for Life qualification) if they do not already have academic or vocational qualifications equivalent to level 2 (e.g. 5 GCSEs at grade A-C or NVQ level 2).
Like ETP, Train to Gain offers opportunities for trade unions to get involved at the workplace level to promote and support a training initiative that offers paid time off for employees to achieve qualifications. In many cases employees participating in the programme will have few, or no qualifications, and this means that unions can in particular further build the role of Union Learning Reps around engagement in this training provision.
When will it be available?
The Government had originally committed to rolling out Train to Gain during 2006/07 and 2007/08 and in Budget 2005 the Chancellor committed an additional £200 million for this purpose. He also committed an additional £65m to enable the existing 18 pilots to continue between the original planned end date (i.e. August 2005) and the start of the roll-out of Train to Gain in April 2006. In addition, during 2006/07 and 2007/08 another £40 million will be invested to test out extra support for level 3 training and an extra £76 million to test out wage subsidies for small firms (see below for more details)
However, it has now been decided to roll the programme out across England by the end of 2006 with the intention being to convert all the existing pilots to Train to Gain from April 2006 and to introduce the programme across the rest of England from August 2006. For a list of the location of the existing pilot areas which will convert to Train to Gain in April, go to: http://www.learningservices.org.uk/national/learning-3782-f0.cfm.
Paid time off
As well as free training up to Level 2, Train to Gain will also incorporate other key elements of the pilots, including providing employees with paid time off to train during their working time. ETP has been testing out the impact of giving employees either 35 or 70 hours paid time off and the 2005 Skills White Paper 2005 states that in order to qualify for Train to Gain the 'employer will need to agree with the broker the paid time which employees will be allowed to train, within normal working hours, to acquire their new skills and achieve their qualifications'.
However, the White Paper also states that the pilots show that employees are willing to do some training in their own time and that the Government does 'not expect that all the training must take place in normal working hours'. There is, however, a commitment to develop clear guidance on this crucial issue - the Government states that 'with the CBI, TUC and Small Business Council, we will develop guidance for brokers on the minimum amount of time to train in normal working hours which should apply for all employees as a condition of joining the programme'.
The new brokerage service
The TUC is currently consulting with the LSC about the guidance it is drawing up for the new brokerage service that will be the main interface with employers accessing the programme. In particular the TUC is currently commenting on the draft guidance relating to paid time off and also the draft guidance on how these brokers will work with trade unions and the union academy at the workplace level. The TUC will release more details about this guidance once it has been finalised by the LSC.
It is planned that the new national brokerage service that is being developed alongside Train to Gain and the brokers will use Train to Gain as a gateway to offer employers a much wider skills analysis directly linked to their business needs. As a result employers will be directed to free or partly subsidised training available in their locality and they will also be referred to providers that can best meet higher level training needs that employers would be expected to pay for on their own behalf.
Wage Subsidies
In the 2005 Pre-Budget Report the Government confirmed that it would be restricting the use of wage subsidies in Train to Gain (most employers engaged in ETP received a wage subsidy as financial compensation for giving employees paid time off). The evaluations of ETP had shown the impact of these wage subsidies had been mixed and that the main attractions for employers were the free training and flexible delivery in the workplace supported by brokers.
In the Pre-Budget Report 2005 the Government confirmed that a wage subsidy will only be available under Train to Gain for businesses with fewer than 50 employees who are giving employees the required amount of paid time off to achieve a Level 2 or Skills for Life qualification. However, this commitment (costing an extra £38m per year) is only for 2006-07 and 2007-08 with the idea being that the Government 'will continue testing its impact' during this period.
Level 3 training
Train to Gain will also differ from the pilots in that it will have a stronger emphasis on progression to, and investment in, skills at Level 3 and above. The Government is going to trial subsidising Level 3 training in two regions (£20m funding each year in 2006-07 and 2007-08) by giving brokers a budget to make a contribution towards the cost of Level 3 training delivered in the workplace with the proviso that this 'contribution should be at least matched by the employer'.
These two 'Level 3 Trials' will be based in the North West and West Midland regions and employers in these two regions that engage in Train to Gain will be offer part-subsidies for Level 3 training as well as free training for employees without Level 2 and/or Skills for Life qualifications. However, employers will not be allowed to participate in the Level 3 trials without taking up the main part of Train to Gain (i.e. offering training for employees without a Level 2 qualification)
The increased provision of training at Level 3 will also be achieved by some new flexibilities available in all regions. The main flexibility will allow employers to use the free funding for Level 2 training to enable some employees 'who want to progress direct to a first Level 3 and can do so (with their employer's support), rather than being limited to a Level 2' (2005 Skills White Paper). Obviously, this may entail additional costs for the employer, as training an employee up to Level 3 would normally cost more than a Level 2 qualification.
There is also a longer-term aspiration in the White Paper to route an increasing proportion of LSC funding for adult training via Train to Gain 'so that the broker can directly draw on these funds to provide an element of subsidy alongside a contribution from the employer' (Skills White Paper, 2005) . However, the Government emphasises that employers benefit much more directly from higher level training (e.g. because of productivity gains etc.) and that they themselves will therefore have to invest more in training at Level 3 and above.
With this in mind the 2005 White Paper says that the Government 'will look to employers to pay a fair contribution to the cost of this training, recognising that in return employers have a right to expect that the training will be high quality and delivered in a way that meets their needs.'
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