Government should provide tax relief on train to gain

As the Chancellor Alistair Darling delivered his first Budget, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) welcomed the government's renewed calls to expand apprenticeships in the UK, but says it is concerned that small and medium enterprises which provide the majority of apprenticeships lack the financial support they need.

The CIPD believes the government should re-examine the tax agenda, especially capital gains tax, with a view to offering tax relief on train to gain schemes. It costs an employer thousands of pounds to take on an apprentice. The CIPD also welcomed the government's announcement for companies such as McDonalds, Network Rail and Flybe to deliver in-house training programmes equivalent to A Levels.

At the same time large companies are adding over 4,000 apprenticeship places. The news came during Apprenticeships Week and was welcomed by Skills Secretary John Denham.

Vodafone has committed to 2,000 apprenticeship starts in 2008-09, Superdrug to 1,000, Sainsbury's to 400, Barchester Healthcare to 350 and Veolia to 250. Denham said: "We must work closely with employers to make it easier for them to improve the range of high-quality apprenticeships on offer so that more young people and adults get the skills and qualifications they need.Britain will only succeed in the global skills race if we develop the skills of our people to the fullest possible extent and apprenticeships have a key role to play."

The CIPD argues that with an increasing number of UK organisations facing acute recruitment and skills shortages, many employers see in-house training and apprenticeships as a better means of addressing these than externally provided courses.

John McGurk, CIPD's Learning, Training and Development adviser said: "Organisations must be aware skills training should be transferable to other roles and companies, allowing individuals to develop and contribute to the UK's knowledge economy."