As part of its review of legislation, in a bid to reduce the burdens on business, the Government is carrying out a consultation on the right of employees to request time to undergo training.
The right was included in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. It is currently available to employees in organisations with 250 or more employees but is due to be extended to all employees from April 2011.
Employees’ requests can be to undertake accredited training programmes that will lead to a qualification or for unaccredited training that will assist them to develop specific skills relevant to their job, workplace or business.
Employers are required to consider any requests and respond within a set timeframe. A request may be turned down if there is a good business reason for doing so, which includes where the employer does not believe the training will help improve business performance.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills wishes to hear the views of employees, businesses and other interested parties on whether the right is improving training opportunities for employees.
This consultation will be shorter than the normal 12 weeks and will close on September 15. The shorter consultation period will allow all representations to be made before the September 17, which is the deadline for submissions to the next meeting of the Reducing Regulation Committee.