WhatisFairTrain
What is FairTrain?
Fairtrain is a brand and the name for the Group Training Association of the Third Sector. Rather than being a training provider in its own right, Fairtrain is a group of third sector employers and providers of training that will act as a broker for employers in the sector, promoting the benefits of apprenticeships and pointing employers in the direction of training providers who have signed up to Fairtrain. Only providers who have been accepted into Fairtrain will be recommended and each must agree to put the interests of the Third Sector first. As most training providers signed up are themselves in the Third Sector, this means that Fairtrain providers are “of the sector and for the sector”.
Research has shown that employers who have to date not agreed to access public funding for training, particularly Third Sector employers, are suspicious of colleges and training providers. As the result bad experiences, often through franchise agreements, many believe that the money made available by the government has been used to create profit or to support high salaries for staff and salaries and bureaucratic processes that don’t benefit them. Further, they are concerned that colleges and training providers often do not put the needs of the employer first, instead looking for short term income rather than working with the employer in a planned way to make a real difference to the skills and performance of that business. Fairtrain is a response to these views.
All Fairtrain endorsed training providers must demonstrate that they work to principles designed to put the needs of third sector employers first.
These principles are:
- To operate as a charity or not for profit business and not to pay profit to shareholders
- To place the long term training needs of every employer they work with at the heart of their organisation
- To be open and transparent with every employer about the government funding that is drawn down on behalf of that employer.
- To devote as much of the government funding to training as is possible and to minimise the administrative requirements required to enabling training to take place.
- [To pay reasonable salaries to staff and managers, in line with sector norms and to publish senior managers salaries in Annual Accounts.]
- To nominate to Fairtrain a named senior manager who will act and report upon any complaint received by Fairtrain from an employer.
“Fairtrain and its providers believe that the funding provided by the government for training should be spent on training not on profit for individuals or shareholders, expensive marketing materials or high salaries for senior managers.”
Download a "FairTrain" Employer Pack.
Company no 6074763 , Registered Charity no 1119172, Telephone: 08453 580372