LOCAL TRAINING GRANTS
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With the local training grants to employers two types of grants are available. These are training grants which offset the cost of training existi: employees or new recruits and consultancy grants. These offset the a of purchasing specialist advice to anal) training needs.
The MSC has three aims in providit grants to part-fund employers' traininl initiatives: • to improve the business performance of firms by helping them create a workforce with the competern and flexibility they need.
• to help firms manage changes brought about by the introduction of new technology, or the need to expani into new and changing markets.
• to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of training by enabling at encourgaing more employers to provic appropriate training.
The overriding objective of grants is to encourage employers to manage change more effectively by providing training which will upgrade or broado the skills of their existing employers, s that more or better training is done, ot done sooner, to meet the skill needs of the local labour market.
All private sector employers and nationalised industries are eligible to apply for training grants. The grants are for adult training: therefore young people under 17 or who are receiving training under the Youth Training Scheme are excluded.
To satisfy the training grant criteria the employer must show that the training must be the most appropriate means of meeting the company's objectives. He needs also to convince tl MSC that the company is unable to undertake training successfully without financial assistance and that any traininl programmes have been properly considered and planned.
In the case of training new recruits, the vacancies must be hard-to-fill as a result of local skill shortages and there must be people in the local labour market who, with some training, could fill the vacancies.
Grants paid to employers will be calculated at a fixed rate of £25 for each full day's training provided for an individual employee. The total amount of each training grant is limited to £1,(X() per employee — 40 days training — and 00,000 per employer in any one year period. Training must be done during periods of paid employment, no in the employee's own time.
If your company is applying for, or has already been offered assistance towards, the cost of a training programme from another source, the