On July 31st 2023, CITB released their new Plant Standards for 8 categories of plant machinery:
- 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 do these CITB plant standards mean?
This means that training centres have had to adjust the delivery of their courses to meet the new plant standards – so that companies that book are eligible to claim back grants.
No need to panic, we’re still keeping our open courses available to clients.
Instead, we’re offering additional ‘Grant Eligible’ courses that comply with these new plant standards.
What makes the ‘Grant Eligible’ courses different?
For the most part, these changes mean that courses are longer and therefore higher in cost.
These ‘Grant Eligible’ options are bespoke courses, booked at dates that are convenient for you. The courses are charged at a set fee and assume that you will take advantage of the maximum capacity.
These differ from our open courses, which are charged per person and employees are allocated to an upcoming course date that we have predetermined.
What are the costs for the ‘Grant Eligible’ courses?
The costs for our new ‘Grant Eligible’ courses are outlined below:
Dump Truck (Articulated)
Experienced: £3600+VAT (3 people, 3 days)
- Averaging £1200+VAT per person
Novice: £5175+VAT (3 people, 5 days)
- Averaging £1725+VAT per person
Excavator 360 (Above 10 Tonnes)
Experienced: £3225+VAT (3 people, 4 days)
- Averaging £1075+VAT per person
Novice: £82455+VAT (2 people, 11 days)
- Averaging £4122.50+VAT per person
Forward Tipping Dumper
Experienced: £2625+VAT (3 people, 3 days)
- Averaging £875+VAT per person
Novice: £4275+VAT (3 people, 5 days)
- Averaging £1425+VAT per person
Industrial Counterbalance Forklift
Experienced: £2475+VAT (3 people, 3 days)
- Averaging £825+VAT per person
Novice: £3975+VAT (3 people, 5 days)
- Averaging £1325+VAT per person
Plant and Vehicle Marshaller
Experienced: £3000+VAT (3 people, 2 days)
- Averaging £1000+VAT per person
Novice: £3495+VAT (3 people, 3 days)
- Averaging £1165+VAT per person
Ride on Roller
Experienced: £2325+VAT (3 people, 3 days,)
- Averaging £775+VAT per person
Novice: £3975+VAT (3 people, 5 days)
- Averaging £1325+VAT per person
Slinger/Signaller
Experienced: £3525+VAT (2 people, 3 days)
- Averaging £1762.50+VAT per person
Novice: £5025+VAT (3 people, 4 days)
- Averaging £1675+VAT per person
Telescopic Handler
Experienced: £3525+VAT (3 people, 3 days)
- Averaging £1175+VAT per person
Novice: £5325+VAT (3 people, 6 days)
- Averaging £1775+VAT per person
Are the ‘Grant Eligible’ courses worth it?
Some of these courses benefit from the new plant standards, assuming that companies take advantage of the maximum capacity. However, many of these ‘Grant Eligible’ courses are not commercially advisable.
Whilst the increased course duration may improve individuals’ operating ability, some will cost more than our current offering – even when factoring in the grant that you could claim back on completion.
If companies are prepared to sacrifice the grant, we would recommend booking onto one of our open courses – which will be delivered quicker, cheaper and will achieve the same result.
To highlight potential savings, we have created a Financial Comparison Table to compare our open courses with our new ‘Grant Eligible’ courses.
Comments from our Managing Director
“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 grants for these categories is reducing, acknowledge that there is an increase in unclaimed grants and look at reviewing the standards.
We hope that this update helps employers and other training providers alike.”
Matt Durant, Managing Director
