Employee's Right to Request Training

The Government has now published guidance informing employees of their new right to request time for training, and this guidance is available through Business Link, and is also available on the DirectGov website.

The right to request time for training was incorporated into the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. Organisations with more than 250 employees will need to comply with this legislation from April 2010, with all other organisations to comply from April 2011.

So far, in my experience, companies that provide training also provide the time for the employee to be trained. I have never come accross an employer that insists on training being carried out outside normal working hours. I wonder, therefore, if the employee knows it can get time off for training, it will insist on the employer providing the training. The employee may also use the Act to "train" inappropriately in subjects irrelevant to their job. Again, this can only be controlled by the employer providing the training.

Whatever the ability to abuse the use of the Act, I consider it is always beneficial to the employer to keep its staff fully trained and developed, so that the employer can gain the maximum benefit from the employee, and the employee can get the greatest job satisfaction from its position.

From my own experience, development of an employee can only take place when the employer has a complete understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the employee. To achieve this, there has to be a base from which development takes place, and as far as I can see, Staff Resource Pro from Pari is the best tool to construct this base.