Now a personal view from me.
It only seems a few months ago that I’d be settling back to watch another episode of ‘Corrie’ , tea and biscuit in hand and watch a succession of adverts tempting adults back into education and Upskilling through Train to Gain (TTG). I thought, wow, there must be some money behind this to advertise at peak time. Now less than a couple of seasons later can you find the money, the answer in our case is no!
The Outsourced Training Company as a managed training service provider works with a number of organisations to deliver a wide range of vocational qualifications aimed at Upskilling in the manufacturing and engineering sectors. At the beginning of 2009 we had lots of people on a level 2 (the same as 5 good GCSE’s) and Level 3 qualifications (the same as A levels) funded by Train to Gain. Then like a proverbial drought the money just simply dried up. It’s frustrating for us as we have had to disappoint a number of people that through a poor school education ended up in their working life with no qualifications on paper but are now very able individuals. We had promises from Government that special cases would be made for some sectors such as Automotive … we still can’t find the money!
If you read the National Audit Office report the whole Train to Gain scene became a bit of a gravy train that needed controlling but not to the extent that there’s now no cash !
Longer term it’s going to hurt the UK because it’s a sure bet that Germany and France are still investing in their engineering and manufacturing skills.
It’s not all bad news as there is still money around for apprenticeships … maybe I shouldn’t have said that!
So an appeal to those of you out there that either know where the money is or how to get it, please give me a call
