The Construction Industry Training Board is to give a £4.5m grant to contractors in a bid to increase the number of apprentices they take on.

At a CITB meeting last week it was agreed that the grant would be used to increase the money paid to apprentices 15% over a three-year period.

The funding provisions will be as follows:

  • For their first year of training: £377.50 a quarter, maximum £1510
  • For their second year of training: £407.50 a quarter, maximum £1630
  • For their third year of training: £227.00 a quarter, maximum £908 – but this only applies to those who have completed two years of a new entrant training programme.

Eddie Ruthven, the CITB’s director of training centre services, said the grant increases included a travel allowance of £80 in the first year, and £50 in the second and third.

The grants apply to the 2002/3 grant scheme, which starts on 1 August.