For businesses, getting the right skills advice is essential to choosing the best and most appropriate training. Train to Gain helps you to do this by using experienced Skills Brokers who can:

• offer free impartial and independent advice to businesses
• match any training needs identified with training providers
• ensure that training is delivered to meet business needs.

One of the key goals of the service is to make sure that both the training and the skills advice are impartial, flexible, responsive, and offered at a time and place to suit businesses. This marks a cultural shift in how skills training will be delivered, and will ensure that the delivery of training is much more responsive to the needs of every business.

Train to Gain and the Learning and Skills Council

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is the organisation responsible for making England better skilled and more competitive. We are responsible for planning and funding high–quality vocational education and training for everyone and work closely with businesses to ensure this training meets their needs effectively.

Research shows that 1.3 million people go to work every day without the skills they require to do their job proficiently. Employers are increasingly investing in staff development and reaping benefits that include improved staff confidence and motivation, higher retention rates and increased productivity.

The LSC’s vision is that by 2010, young people and adults in England have the knowledge and skills matching the best in the world and are part of a truly competitive workforce. It is only by working in partnership with employers that we will be able to achieve this.

How it works: five simple steps to great training

By ensuring your employees have the right skills to do the best job, Train to Gain can help boost productivity and keep you ahead of the competition.

Working closely with a highly experienced Train to Gain Skills Broker, you can provide quality, affordable training for your employees. Together you can:

1. Identify the skills your business needs
2. Pinpoint the right training
3. Agree a tailored training package
4. Find available funding
5. Review the progress you are making

Step 1: Identify the skills your business needs

Based on a clear understanding of your business goals, your Train to Gain Skills Broker works with you to carry out a free review and analysis of your business to assess what skills your business has right now, and what it might need in the future.

All Train to Gain Skills Brokers are trained by the Learning and Skills Council. They are all specialists in training and have a proven track record of providing effective advice to business. If you need it, they can also provide access to a wider network of business support services.

Step 2: Pinpoint the right training

Your Skills Broker makes training recommendations based on their skills analysis explained in Step 1. The recommendation will help you:

• pinpoint the type of training that best suits your needs
• select the most appropriate training providers (all Train to Gain training providers meet national quality standards)
• choose how and when the training is delivered
• determine which qualifications your employees will benefit most from.

Step 3: Agree a tailored training package

Together with your Skills Broker and the training provider that you select, you agree a training package.

Step 4: Find available funding

Your Skills Broker can recommend the best ways of funding your training, explaining all the funding options available to you. Train to Gain provides some funding itself. This might include:

• Free training to help employees gain their first full Level 2 qualification and Skills for Life first numeracy and literacy qualification. This includes all training towards 5 GCSEs at Grade C or above, NVQ Level 2 or equivalent (such as Skills for Life programmes) and a wide range of other training for low–skilled staff.
• Wage compensation for companies with less than 50 employees.
• Funded programmes, including for Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships, NVQ Level 3 and above, such as higher education.

Step 5: Review the progress you are making

Your Skills Broker provides continual support and works with you to review how your training is progressing.