‘Where has £50m training fund gone?’

London – Doubt has been raised over the very existence of a £50-million fund to support training in the process industries, which the government announced in January. The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) had apparently agreed to provide the support ­– via Train to Gain, Cogent Sector Skills Council, the National Skills Academy Process Industries and the National Skills Academy for Nuclear – but a senior industry figure is now asking “where has the money gone?”

As announced by Cogent, the LSC was to make the money available for employers in science-related sectors. The “ring-fenced” support package was aimed at training workers within the Cogent footprint and would cover fully-funded or low-cost training for a number of process industries, including oil & gas, chemicals, nuclear, pharmaceuticals.

However, the LSC has apparently been taken by surprise by the uptake of its overall funding, which has already led to a shortfall in the current financial year and to severe restrictions on the level of support for training courses started after 1 April. Many employers have apparently taken up the government’s offer of free training – and heeded its advice to choose upskilling ahead of making people redundant, in the current recession.

According to the LSC, there were 386,200 qualifications in all professions started through Train to Gain in the first six months of the 2008/09 academic year, an increase from 253,600 in the same period in 2007/08.

"The LSC has always had to manage within the budget laid out in its grant from the Government, and continues, as ever, to remain within the funding set for all adult learner and employer programmes and agree contracts with providers accordingly,” said its spokeswoman. The budget, she noted, will rise to £925 million in 2009-10 from £797 million in 2008-09 and to over £1 billion in 2010-11 .

The problem is that Train to Gain has been a resounding success and the unprecedented demand has led to budget constraints, and in turn restrictions on funding new places for training from 1 April of this year, said a Cogent spokesman. More of the funding for 2009/10 has to be allocated to pay for training for those already enrolled, leaving less money for new starts, he explained.

However, the loss of Government funding for the forthcoming year is threatening the continuation of NVQ training in at least some areas of the process sector - as highlighted by the situation at Telford-based Polymer Training Limited (PTL), the UK’s leading body for plastics process training.

PTL managing director Mark Smith says he has been officially informed that there is no further money for any of PTL’s plastics vocational training courses at NVQ level. Moreover, PTL’s funding for the plastics sector’s vocational NVQ training has been frozen with a shortfall of £28,000 for training programmes already started for the year 2008/09 and with none provided for the year 2010/11.

This loss of funding, effectively finishes Train to Gain activity at the polymer training organisation and bring much of the government-funded NVQ training activities in the sector to an end, said Smith, who noted: “Some months ago, the UK Government announced a £50-million training fund which was set to provide ‘ring-fenced’ skills funding for science and technology based businesses – including plastics. The campaign promised to “help beat skills shortages and build a world-class workforce.

“Given what has just happened to PTL I would like to know what ‘ring fenced’ means?– and where the money has gone to? With the best will in the world I find it hard to see where any of this training promise has actually been delivered in the UK to those who need it; manufacturers, process industries and particularly those in plastics manufacture and plastics processing.”

Under revised rules for Train to Gain, PTL can apply to local colleges to channel funding. But, according to the polymer training boss: “Firstly, we have to take our chances along with all other courses – from hairdressing to pop music.

“Secondly, since our own funding is no longer provided for, the colleges know that they can charge whatever percentage mark-up they can in order to give us some kind of throughput. And we are not equipped or prepared to accept terms when available – for example administration charges as high as 50% of the funding pot to provide access to Train2Gain funding streams - and run vastly reduced training opportunities at a loss.”

For the coming training year, PTL has 181 people from the plastics processing industries on its books waiting for Train to Gain places. But, said Smith, over the next few weeks, instead of filling places and arranging start dates for these people we are having to turn down all of the interest; make several of our training and administrative staff redundant and also gear ourselves to lose one third of sales volume turnover for the next year.

“Without any special pleading at all, this decision [to cease funding for polymer training] seems fundamentally wrong in a number of ways,” concluded Smith. “We at PTL shall continue to cut our cloth to whatever business conditions prevail and we expect no favours or preferential treatment from the Governments agencies or their various quangos. However, it must be of general concern to the plastics industry that for all the promises given and for all the real demand on our order books, our funded NVQ training is simply being turned off.”

However, Cogent insists that Train to Gain still remains more flexible for its footprint industries and that its negotiated agreement means Train to Gain is more tailored for companies in the process industries. This, it said means funding for additional value-adding qualifications Levels 2 and 3 - Additional Level 2 qualifications can now be funded

"For those who already possess a Level 2 qualification or above there is now potentially funding available for additional value-adding Level 2 qualifications which meet sector skills needs," said the Cogent spokesman. "For those who already possess a Level 3 qualification or above there is potentially funding available for additional value-adding Level 3 qualifications which meet sector skills needs.

"An employer contribution is expected for the additional Level 3 qualification. However, this needs to be secured on a provider by provider basis and is not guaranteed due to the reasons outlined above. In addition, Train to Gain is not just about the funding, but also free advice and guidance on training and development."