Banner Image
logo image

ATD Blog

England: Training scheme was 'mismanaged'

By

Thu Jan 21 2010

Bookmark

A 1.5bn government initiative to improve the skill levels of employees has been heavily criticised by MPs.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee said England's Train to Gain scheme was "mismanaged" since its launch in 2006.

The MPs said the targets set were "unrealistically ambitious", leading to a 150m under-spend in the first two years and then an over-spend of 50m.

The Learning and Skills Council who ran the scheme denied any over-spend, saying budgets had been re-prioritised.

But in a report published on Thursday, the committee said there had been "serious weaknesses" in the way the LSC had managed the scheme, which comes under Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The report acknowledged that the programme had helped 1.4 million learners - about 5% of the workforce - by the summer of last year summer.

But unrealistic targets led to an under-spend of 150m (out of a budget of 747m) in the first two years; the following year, a failure to anticipate increased demand because of the recession led to an overspend of 50m.

Read the full article.

About the Author
ATD Staff

The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is a professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees in organizations around the world. The ATD Staff, along with a worldwide network of volunteers work to empower professionals to develop talent in the workplace.