£170 MILLION AVAILABLE TO HELP IMPROVE BUSINESS
Construction employers able to access a record £170million in CITB-ConstructionSkills Grants for training.
Construction employers can apply from August 1 this year for their slice of £170m in CITB-ConstructionSkills Grants for training.
Training is the best way to improve any size of business, and CITB-ConstructionSkills Grants make it affordable for all employers.
Last year alone some £138m was paid out to employers to support staff training. An independent survey showed that 84% of employers felt CITB-ConstructionSkills grant helped them train new starters.
You can now also claim CITB-ConstructionSkills Grant for adult training courses and courses in sustainability and innovative methods of construction, as well as for traditional construction, health and safety or apprenticeship training.
The CITB-ConstructionSkills Grants Scheme is constantly reviewed for improvements, and the process is currently being simplified even further. Already, employers can access grant statements online and have visits from Company Development Advisors who give face-to-face guidance how to plan training for their business, and the funding available.
Head of Finance at ConstructionSkills, Douglas Matthew, said:
“Smaller businesses lose thousands of pounds per year just through materials errors, skills shortages and on-site accidents – that’s why training is a must for employers of any size.”
Debbie Saunders, senior training co-ordinator at Tamdown Ltd of Braintree, Essex, says: “Applying for CITB-ConstructionSkills Grants is very easy. It covers a good deal of the cost, which certainly helps us, and makes us feel even more enthusiastic about sending our staff on training courses.
“In addition, our ConstructionSkills Company Development Advisor handles a lot of the paper work involved which is really useful. We would not be able to carry out the amount of training we do if it were not for this financial support.”
“We claim CITB-ConstructionSkills Grant to help fund training, and as a result, we get well-trained highly able staff - and we retain them too, as they are happy that we are investing in their skills and their careers.”
A booklet summarising this year’s grants has been mailed to all construction employers registered with CITB-ConstructionSkills, along with information on the benefits of training and the types of support on offer.