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Preliminary consultation on the Government's proposed right to request additional skills training

Could a request for Time to Train help skills development in your organisation?

Any good employer will be aware of the skills and experience requirements that it needs its workforce to have in order to fulfil current and planned activities. It will therefore understand what skills and experience it needs new recruits to have before they start work and what new skills and experience it would be a good idea for them to acquire if those staff members are to become more productive and if the business is to benefit as a result. Good employers will also know that staff morale and commitment to the employer's aims is likely to be enhanced if they, the employers, seek to meet individual employees' training aspirations. While it is quite conceivable that a good employer will be receptive to initiatives from members of staff to undertake training, we would say hat it is, primarily, the role of the responsible employer to identify skill gaps and to consider how best to fill them, rather than something which should happen in response to a personal request from a member of staff.

Do you think that the right to request Time to Train should cover

• any training that both sides agree would help employees improve their effectiveness at work
• only training that is nationally recognised and accredited

Training needs will differ from organisation to organisation depending on the sector in which they operate and the size of the business. We think it is conceivable that specific types of training could benefit an employee (and his business) even if it is not of an accredited type or standard.

On what grounds should an employer be able to reject a request for Time to Train?

We appreciate that the great majority of requests for flexible working arrangements from eligible employees are now accepted. We think that flexible practices are potentially beneficial for both sides, in the right circumstances, and the potential benefits of staff training should be promoted by Government and others representing business and employers. But we would suggest that the trend to allow flexible working practices was well under way before the statutory rights were introduced, and the trend would have been widespread even without the change in the law. There also remains a suspicion that some employers feel obliged to accede to requests for flexible working because they fear the legal consequences of a refusal. If a statutory right to request training is to be introduced, the key should be that the training is likely, in the opinion of the employer, to be of benefit to his business, and not for the personal benefit of the staff member concerned. The right to refuse should therefore be a real one.

Are there any other reasons you think employers should be able to cite in rejecting a request for Time to Train?

As previously pointed out, the employee should have a general right to refuse if he thinks that the proposed training is not likely to benefit the business.

Are there any circumstances in which an employer should be able to withdraw their support for an individual's Time to Train where they had previously granted a request?

Ideally the answer to this question should be 'no', but there may be situations where the employer discovers that the training that he has agreed to is not what it had been presented to him as comprising. If the approval was given on the basis of incorrect or incomplete information, the employer should be allowed to reverse his approval.

Additional comments

Employment law continues to be one of the biggest causes of concern and grievance for UK employers. These concerns relate not only to individual measures but to the scale and pace of regulatory change. We would point out that, in the World Bank/IFC's study Doing Business 2009, while the UK is generally seen as being one of the most favourable places to do business in, in one respect the UK is one of the countries where recent reforms have made it more difficult to do business - that respect concerns employment matters. In the current economic climate, we would caution against the introduction of yet more changes in employment rights. We would suggest that, instead, progress could be made by promoting the cause of staff training - on both sides - and by encouraging employers to adopt constructive attitudes to training and to staff requests. As was the case with flexible working practices, we consider that progress could be made without without resorting to legislation.

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