Axe for staff training scheme

Chancellor George Osborne yesterday announced that "lower priority" schemes, including Train to Gain, would be abolished as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Train to Gain was set up in 2006 as a national service, funding free and subsidised adult education in the workplace so employers got a better-qualified workforce. As a result, the company's financial performance was more likely to improve.

However, the National Audit Office concluded that it had not provided good value for money and Business Minister John Hayes recently branded it a "deadweight cost".

The most damning charge by the NAO was that half the employers whose workers benefited would have arranged similar training without public subsidy.

Anne McIntosh, the Tory MP for Thirsk and Malton recently told the Yorkshire Post: "At a time of austerity and recession, I got the impression that Train to Gain was a colossal waste of taxpayers' money."

Supporters said the scheme had been largely successful, achieving a success rate of 71 per cent.

Between 2006 and 2010, 175.94m has been spent in Yorkshire and the Humber paying 64 companies to provide training. Some 91,400 people employed by 21,249 companies have received help.