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RTITB cuts 1985/86 training grants

27th December 1986
Page 8
Page 8, 27th December 1986 — RTITB cuts 1985/86 training grants
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• Training grants in most sectors of the transport industry will drop considerably this year. Road haulage grants are going down five pence a point to 23.33, the Road Transport Industry Training Board has announced, and furniture removal grants are being slashed from 210 a point last year to £5.20 a point this year — a drop of £4.80.

Elsewhere in the industry, grants for the bodybuilding sector are going down from 27.45 a point last year to 26.58 a point in this year; and from 23.78 to 23.36 a point in the motor vehicle rental and repair sector.

The RTITB says it would like to think that the lower payouts are due to the fact that more people are being trained in the industry and that the pool of money raised through training levies has got to go further. Other factors which could have influenced the figures are, however, self-employment and a fall in the number of companies from which the board can raise levies. The grant payments are worked out on a retrospective basis. The RTITB assesses claims made by employers for training they have carried out in the previous year, most recently August 1, 1985, to July 31, 1986. Different training courses, if completed, are worth a set number of points and the employer claims payment for the total of training points he has accrued during the course of the training year. The board gets its funds by levying a 0.8% bill from all those firms which have an annual payroll over 224,500. The system is becoming cum bersome, and the board has issued a consultative document seeking to radically alter it.

The board has proposed that levies should be paid directly to the industry's training facilities. Training at these centres could then be provided free of charge or at considerably lower rates. Specific grants would then be phased out. The board said earlier this year that it wanted to "significantly reduce costs," It sees the administration of the current system as "costly".

Responses are expected on the consultative document by mid-January next year.


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