Greater opportunity for young people and adults
Legislative programme promises a better trained workforce
Radical moves to increase the number of people who can gain new skills, become more productive and develop better careers were announced today in the Government’s draft legislative programme. For the first time, employees will be given the legal right to request time to train from their employers, and apprenticeships will receive a boost under new legislation to unlock the potential of individuals and businesses.
The Government will consult on how workers can be legally empowered to request time to undertake training that will benefit them and their employer. The practical arrangements which employers would follow would be modelled on the existing right to request flexible working.
Time to Train
The proposed legislation would work so that:
- Employees can ask their employer for time to train, where the training will benefit both them and the employer;
- Requests do not have to be about accredited programmes, but might simply be for short, unaccredited training;
- The employer must consider a request carefully, but could decline it for a good business reason; and there will be no requirements on employers where an employee was recruited less than 26 weeks previously;
- Employers agreeing a request can agree to meet the employee’s salary during training if they wish, but are not obliged to do so if it is ‘off-the-job’ training;
- Employers agreeing a request can organise the training if they wish, and indeed pay for it, but there is no obligation to do so. Work-based training would naturally count as ‘time to train’;
- Alternatively the employee may need to arrange their own training, perhaps through a local college, but will benefit from being released from work. The employer would not be expected to pay towards this if they did not wish to do so; and
- The practical arrangements which employers would follow would be modelled on the existing right to request flexible working, with which many employers are by now familiar. Appeals to employers, and tribunal arrangements, would also follow that system.
The plans, announced by the Prime Minister, will apply to 22 million employees in England.
By introducing a new right to ask for time for training, employees will be able to talk to employers about their training needs, and employers will become more aware of the public funds available to support training.
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