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Robin Lodge, director of ILM training provider PDT

'Any colour you like - as long as it is black' is attributed to Henry Ford, but could as easily be applied to Train to Gain. Train to Gain is a demand-led initiative to encourage hard-to-reach employers and learners to take on board the concept of learning as essential to success. And it is demand led - so long as the as the employer is prepared to use NVQs as the qualification of choice, so 'any training you need - as long as it is NVQ! For those that say Train to Gain is a training initiative and not a funding initiative I agree, but funding has a strong attraction to many businesses - especially hard to reach ones. The opportunity to take 100% funding opposed to a self-financed option has massive appeal to those who do not know the potential benefits of other qualifications aside from the NVQ. Thus employers, in many cases, will see it as a funded initiative, supported by the Train to Gain publicity.

Surely a demand-led system should mean that the employer / learner can select the qualification that best suits their needs, if necessary supported by impartial but informed advice? The NVQ system does not suit everyone at all stages of their development. It is not the total solution – and as the recent White Paper talks of 'increasing capability' there not only should be but are more ways to develop people than just using NVQs. There does indeed have to be a way to measure 'value for money' and 'return on investment' but any well planned and executed training programme can provide that. The assess-train-assess model can be applied to any qualification if the provider carries out their role professionally and ethically – surely that is why all the control and audit processes are in place?

Looking at the latest ALI report on brokerage activity it appears that brokers are able to penetrate business quite easily, however the referral and take up rates are extremely low – why? Well, it might be, as I’ve heard, that providers are slow in picking up the referrals (but based on the pressure that is brought to bear on profile performance, I doubt it) or perhaps the offering is not what many employers want or need! In other words, ‘Any colour you like – as long as it is black’ reigns – but the question is ‘Does everyone want a black car?’