Paid For Training

[Guest]

Hi, I know that I have brought this subject up before but it is a bug bear (sp) of mine!!

 

I work in a sessional pre-school and pre Sept we were not paid for any traning, however the committee did agree that one session (not day) would be paid per staff member per year IF the traning course fell on a day that the staff member worked.

 

Obviously funds are a big factor in this but we received a cheque for £700 this week from the local LEA. This was basically for the setting to use to pay for cover for me, (as I had been doing a Level 4, which I have now completed and passed) or expenses etc. I did pay £200 towards the course myself as the bursary didnt cover it and I did take time off to complete assisments etc etc but I completed the course in October so feel that the payment has come too late to be of any use to me but would like to pay staff more for training.

 

BUT how do other settings manage this. We have half the staff willingingly going on lots of training and other refusing to do any (all have NVQ's but are not willing ot undertake training in their spare time or loose money by doing it in work time)

 

Do you pay staff only if the training course falls on a day they work or do you give time in lieu? Any help would be much appreciated as I really would like to reward those that train but obviously we cant afford to pay for every training course staff go on. Perhaps other settings only pay staff for the complusary courses, such as first aid? Again this is tricky because Myself and one other staff member are going on a course taking up 2 saturdays and another member of staff has chosen to go over 2 full days that she works, so one looses 2 full days pay and another looses their free time?

 

Sorry if I have waffled but I really would like to have some sort of idea to go to the commitee with before this money is allocated to something else.

 

thanks for reading

 

jenni

[Guest MaryEMac]

If we undertake training on one of our work days ie Senco, Child Protection, EYFS etc we get our normal sessions wage because usually you can claim for staff cover at the session. If we go on a course in our own time we get paid a flat amount of £7.50 plus petrol money. Committee suggested a fiver, we asked for a tenner so they split the difference. Hope this is of some help.

 

Mary

[Inge]

we pay staff for training that is essential such as first aid and any that would mean we could not operate if the staff did not have the training required, which in our case includes some refresher courses and updated courses during the year, also for things like our Cluster meetings with LEA which are a condition of our funding in our area,

 

payment is not dependent on if it is our usual day of work, we get paid if we attend, many of them turn out to be evenings which is often the only time they are available.

 

In case of weekend first aid courses.. we get paid for those and if it is a weekday they still get paid. So for your example all staff would get paid to attend the training and the training paid for by the setting as without the staff trained we would close, you would be in breach of standards. (A bargaining tool which we used a while ago)

 

that said if it is a poor year for income we all know that we will not get paid for it, but the fact that they are willing to pay if money is available makes staff more willing to go.

 

Some courses are done by the staff for their own personal development, so many of those are unpaid and done in own time.

 

Longer term courses are negotiable depending on what they are.. but we do ask for a contract with the staff that they will not leave within a set time (depending on costs) and if they do they will repay the cost of the training provided.. this has been discussed in another thread somewhere!

 

All very complicated but we got together with committee -set out a list of training which would be paid for and gave a maximum number of hours we could claim for each one. this is reviewed each year and adjusted if needed. staff are aware of what they are or can be paid for, and have to show some kind of proof of attendance, there is usually a certificate or proof of attendance at all our meetings etc.

 

Inge

[SazzJ]

We get paid for all training including evenings and weekends.

 

It is also the PVI sector that i work for too.

[Guest]

We are a sessional preschool also and until recently training was often done in your own time and for no pay. We used to insist that staff undertook core training (1st Aid, child protection, etc) but other than that it was often manager and deputy only who gave up their time. Our LA recently started to allocate a Training Allowance for every PVI setting and we now pay staff for their time attending courses from that. However we rarely manage to release staff from their timetabled session to train as we do not have the flexibility of numbers. Often training is in an evening and we are lucky that most of the training we attend is FOC from the LA. However I think we might chose the FOC courses! We do still have to pay for 1st Aid, etc.

 

To help our staff feel less put upon, we have tried to arrange for training to be held within our building in an afternoon so staff could get there quickly and get away quickly at the end. This has worked well especially as we have been able to train as a team which has had lots of benefits.

 

We have been very open with our staff about the Training Allowance and have also paid them their hourly rate for attending staff meetings from it (rather than a nominal sum as in the past). However we have also told them that we can only afford to do this as long as the LA is supplying the money, and for as long as it lasts each year. The allowance has been helpful but we never expect anything to continue until we are told it is doing.

[Shiny]

We get paid if we are supposed to be at work and time off in lieu if it is out of session. Since this has come in we have far more interest/willingness to take on training.

 

Also PVI sector

[Guest]

I get paid for any training I attend, and I get petrol money as well, I work in a small committee run pre-school.

Sal