A campaign to spare the axe on £24 million of government funding for employee training has been launched by Improve, the food and drink sector skills council.

The Learning and Skills Council is proposing to slash the money from its budgets in 2006-07 by no longer paying for training in food hygiene, health and safety, and first aid, where the cash is used to help employers meet their statutory responsibilities. In a draft policy statement, which has been published for consultation, the LSC says the plan is “part of the rebalancing of public funds to meet the government’s key priorities for adult learning”.

But the proposal has been fiercely condemned by Jack Matthews, chief executive of Improve, as flying in the face of another government priority of helping to boost the performance and profitability of UK businesses through improving skills. He is going to press the case on behalf of food and drink manufacturers at a meeting with David Way, the LSC’s national director of skills, on February 23.

“This proposal threatens the food and drink industry more than any other,” he said. “At a time when we, and everyone else engaged in the promotion and delivery of skills, are working so hard to ensure that employers get a better deal for every training pound they spend, the last thing we need is the LSC pulling the rug from under employers’ feet as regards the most fundamental and essential training of all.

“For a lot of employers, if they are forced to fork out for training in areas like food hygiene, they will have no choice but to sacrifice something else in their training budgets, effectively cutting the overall investment in skills. Ultimately we need to encourage employers to commit more to training, not less. The government is sending out mixed messages here. Employers are going to become very confused and cynical about its intentions.”

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