On the 6th
April 2010, if you employ 250 people or
greater, new rules were implemented giving
employees right to ask for time to train.
These rules will apply to all businesses from
April 2011. There are a few exceptions and rules,
including, employees will have had to have worked
for the company for at least 26 weeks.
The request (in writing or via email) for
training has to meet some specific
requirements and include the following
information:-
the subject matter of the study or training,
where and when the study or training would
take place,
who would provide or supervise the study or
training (for example, training
provider, or someone at work supervising
on-the-job training),
the name of the qualification the training
will lead to (if any),
an explanation of how this study or
training would make
the employee
more effective at work and improve the performance
of the business.
Do you have to say
yes?
There may be cases where you are content to
accept the request, but think the training need
can be met in a different way to the request
proposal. For example, you may prefer to deliver
training in-house rather than using an external
training provider, or you may be aware of
different courses or qualifications that you
believe would better meet the training need the
employee has highlighted.
You do not have to fund the costs
You may say no
because
the proposed study or training would not
improve the employee's effectiveness in your
business,
the proposed study or training would not
improve the performance of your business,
the burden of additional costs,
agreeing to the request would have
a detrimental effect on your ability to meet
customer demand,
you would be unable to reorganise work among
existing staff,
you would be unable to recruit
additional staff,
agreeing to the request would have a
detrimental impact on quality,
agreeing to the request would have a
detrimental impact on performance,
there would be an insufficiency of work
during the periods the employee proposes to
work,
there are planned structural changes during
the proposed study or training period.
It is
very important you consider 'time to
train' requests carefully. For a more
comprehensive overview of this
legislation please visit
Business
Link 
recruitment for all
senior and executive roles across the
UK
0844 736 2886
