The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was brought in by the UK Government to protect the income of workers temporarily laid off by their employer as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Importantly, one of its primary purposes was to encourage businesses to use this down time to train their employees. David Sharp explains more.

Announcing the original Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on 20 March 2019, Chancellor Rishi Sunak introduced a rarely used term this side of the Atlantic to describe support the Government was making available for UK employers. Known as furloughing, it allows employers to temporarily lay off workers while having 80% of their wages paid by Government.

While the primary aim of the initiative was to protect organisations and employees from the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government also made clear that furloughed employees should be encouraged to use this down time to train their workers.

If fact, the official guidance first published on 23 March was very specific:

"Furloughed employees can engage in training, as long as in undertaking the training the employee does not provide services to, or generate revenue for, or on behalf of their organisation or a linked or associated organisation. Furloughed employees should be encouraged to undertake training*."*

If you currently have furloughed employees on your books, you are not only quite within your rights to train them, but you are actively encouraged to do so. Some questions have been asked around what sort of training might be constituted as 'not providing services to, or generating revenues for' their employer, but unless the training you are providing constitutes part of a support service or revenue generating stream you are offering to clients, you will not be in breach of the Government guidelines under the CJRS.

The only rule for employers to be aware of relates to workers whose furlough payments might make them fall below the national minimum wage, in which case employers will need to top them up for this level. The guidance states:

"Where training is undertaken by furloughed employees, at the request of their employer, they are entitled to be paid at least their appropriate national minimum wage for this time. In most cases, the furlough payment of 80% of an employee’s regular wage, up to the value of £2,500, will provide sufficient monies to cover these training hours. However, where the time spent training attracts a minimum wage entitlement in excess of the furlough payment, employers will need to pay the additional wages."

If you're an employee or an employer not currently taking this opportunity to top up on personal or professional development, this means you may be missing a trick. As an employer, you don't necessarily have to make any fresh financial commitment to training: the Department for Education has today announced the launch of a collection of free online business courses teaching numeracy, coding and internet skills. Or you could simply ask your workers to revisit training they've already had, or set them topics for them to undertake their own learning, for example using Google.

Equally, many companies such as our own are making online learning available at special rates, to make this potentially an ideal time for workers who are normally too busy to reinforce knowledge or gain new skills. For front line workers, supervisors or managers interested in health and safety, our online IOSH certificate course programme could be ideal for this purpose - or if people prefer to study remotely in groups, our virtual classroom courses might be more suitable. More information on all of these options here.

Whatever you choose, we wish you well during what is a difficult and disruptive time for many.