The CITB-Construction Skills Board has approved a continuation of the Natural Stone Industry Training Group (NSITG) initiative to incentivise training.

Following on from two grants of £10,000 during 2012, a further £25,000 will be available for distribution from now until the end of 2013.

This funding can be claimed to provide fully funded training to members' employees in a wide variety of areas including Prefabricated Access Scaffold Manufacturers Association (PASMA) mobile scaffold tower training and International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) training on the use of scissor and boom lifts, First Aid, Site Sustainability, Waste Management, Marketing, Financial, Management and Leadership topics.

Stone Federation Great Britain is the secretariat of NSITG and will be making announcements about the training on offer as the year progresses. In the meantime, it asks stone companies to consider how this funding might assist in the delivery of their training needs in 2013.

And the Federation asks companies thinking of training this year to think of the Federation’s training arm, StoneTrain. Stone Federation Chief Executive Jane Buxey says: “This is the only training endorsed by Stone Federation and we are able to source funding not available elsewhere. And remember: if there’s a course you want that is not there, contact us because we may be able to provide it for you.”