As you may or may not know, as of 31st of July, CITB have introduced updates to their Plant Standards and Grants for 8 categories of plant:
Dump Truck (Articulated)
- Excavator 360 (Above 10 Tonnes)
- Forward Tipping Dumper
- Industrial Counterbalance Forklift
- Plant and Vehicle Marshaller
- Ride on Roller
- Slinger/Signaller
- Telescopic Handler
What does this mean?
This means that, in order to claim any grant back for the above categories, training centres must deliver these courses to the new standards. What this means is that training centres will need to adjust the delivery of their ‘Novice’ and ‘Experienced’ versions of these courses in order to achieve the new criteria.
No need to panic – we are still keeping our current offering available to clients.
This just means that, in addition to our open courses, we will now be offering Levy compliant courses for larger companies looking to claim back fees for training.
How will the new courses differ from the old ones?
For the most part these changes mean that courses will need to be longer, meaning that the cost will increase. On top of that, employers will face additional wage costs to complete training and potential delays to their programme.
As these ‘Grant Eligible’ options are to be closed courses, we will charge out at a set fee, assuming you will take advantage of the maximum number of delegates, for a bespoke course at dates that are convenient for the booker. This differs to our ‘open courses’ where costs are charged per person, and you can allocate employees to an upcoming course date that we have predetermined.
What are the costs for the new ‘Grant Eligible’ courses?
The costs for these new ‘Grant Eligible’ courses are outlined below:
Dump Truck (Articulated)
Experienced: £3600+VAT (3 people, 3 days, AVG £1200+VAT per person)
Novice: £5175+VAT (3 people, 5 days, AVG £1725+VAT per person)
Excavator 360 (Above 10 Tonnes)
Experienced: £3225+VAT (3 people, 4 days, AVG £1075+VAT per person)
Novice: £82455+VAT (2 people, 11 days, AVG £4122.50+VAT per person)
Forward Tipping Dumper
Experienced: £2625+VAT (3 people, 3 days, AVG £875+VAT per person)
Novice: £4275+VAT (3 people, 5 days, AVG £1425+VAT per person)
Industrial Counterbalance Forklift
Experienced: £2475+VAT (3 people, 3 days, AVG £825+VAT)
Novice: £3975+VAT (3 people, 5 days, AVG £1325+VAT)
Plant and Vehicle Marshaller
Experienced: £3000+VAT (3 people, 2 days, AVG £1000+VAT)
Novice: £3495+VAT (3 people, 3 days, AVG £1165+VAT)
Ride on Roller
Experienced: £2325+VAT (3 people, 3 days, AVG £775+VAT)
Novice: £3975+VAT (3 people, 5 days, AVG £1325+VAT)
Slinger/Signaller
Experienced: £3525+VAT (2 people, 3 days, AVG £1762.50+VAT)
Novice: £5025+VAT (3 people, 4 days, AVG £1675+VAT)
Telescopic Handler
Experienced: £3525+VAT (3 people, 3 days, AVG £1175+VAT)
Novice: £5325+VAT (3 people, 6 days, AVG 1775+VAT)
Cost analysis – is it worth it?
There are some courses that benefit from these changes, largely due to the increased economies of scale, assuming that the maximum number of delegates are being booked on. However, there are also some ‘Grant Eligible’ courses which are not commercially advisable.
Whilst the increased duration of the course may improve the individuals operating ability, some will cost more than our current offering – even when factoring in the grant money that you could claim back on completion. In the case where an organisation decides that they are prepared to sacrifice the grant, we would recommend booking them onto an Open CPCS Course which will be delivered quicker, cheaper and will achieve the same result.
To highlight the potential savings in no uncertain terms, we have created a table comparing our current offering with the new ‘Grant Eligible’ courses.
View our Financial Comparison Table here.
Green points out positive aspects financially or positive comments.
Red points out negative aspects financially or negative comments.
Comments from our founder
These changes have finally been released after a lot of back and forth with industry. There is clearly some good intention here, attempting to standardise training and holding providers accountable for the way that they deliver these courses. However they have not run these proposed changes through a commercial training provider to assess the financial viability.
We are happy to deliver the new ‘Grant Eligible’ courses and set up bespoke courses, but we anticipate that uptake will be minimal, with only the largest employers considering it worthwhile. Over the next 6-12 month period CITB will review this closely. My prediction is that CITB will realise that the number of companies claiming grant for these categories is reducing, acknowledge that there is increase in unclaimed grant and look at reviewing the standards – hopefully with involvement from commercial training providers this time.
We hope that this update helps employers and other training providers alike.
Matt Durant, Managing Director
Matt Durant, Managing Director
