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Short course grants

We have doubled the grant rates for short course tiers 1 – 3. To help support with rising costs of training you can now receive £60, £140 or £240 for short course achievements from 1 April 2023.

We pay grants for the completion of short courses focused on skills which are seen as core to the needs of the construction industry.

On this page:

Overview

We pay grants for the achievement of approved short courses, which last from 3 hours to 29 days and are focused on the core construction skills needed across the industry.

Short course grants are paid for the successful completion of courses which align to approved construction-related standards, or to approved standard titles where the standards are undergoing development.

This includes plant training linked to any card scheme courses, and the theory and practical elements of the Construction Plant Competency Scheme (CPCS) technical tests.

Who can apply for this grant?

You can apply if you’re a CITB Registered employer and up to date with your Levy Returns, as well as adhering to the Grants Scheme policy and specific requirements for this grant.

You can apply for this grant for all directly employed staff on the payroll, business owners and partners, and all subcontractors.

Withdrawn standards

Over time, certain short course standards will be withdrawn or replaced to align with industry requirements. Occupational working groups representing different sectors of the industry have agreed that these short course standards are no longer relevant or needed by the sector, we will give notice if we are withdrawing a standard; if you have completed the training before the withdrawal date you can still apply for grant for that course.

• Search for standards and find which ones have been withdrawn

Which courses are covered for grant

We pay grants for courses that align to approved industry agreed standards.

See a full list of short course standards we pay grant for.

You can download a list by clicking on the link above, searching with the box left empty and then clicking on the download as CSV box which appears.

Please note that we are still developing a full standard for some of these courses on behalf of the construction industry. We have listed the course titles according to the titles of the training standards which are being developed.

In some cases, the training standard title includes several individual course titles under a common title. If at first you can't locate a specific course title, please search for key terms.

We use specific criteria to judge which courses can be supported by grants. To see how we decide which courses are covered, click here.

If you know of a construction-related course that you believe is not already identified on the list of short course standards we pay grant for, you can submit a suggest a course form for it to be considered.

How can courses be delivered?

Approved courses are provided by CITB Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) who will be listed in the Construction Training Directory.

Courses can be delivered in a number of ways and the industry-accepted methods of delivery are defined within the published course standard, including:

  • classroom, where the course is the full duration
  • e-learning, where the course is at least 50% of the published duration*
  • a blend of classroom and e-learning, where the course is at least 75% of the published duration in the standard

For example, where a published standard defines the duration as 1 day, a classroom-based course must be a full day to align to the standard, whilst an e-learning course must be at least half a day (3 hours) to align to the standard.

*E-learning is not an acceptable form of training for courses when a standard is in development. It is only acceptable when the full standard has been developed and e-learning is stated as a delivery method that may be used.

How much is it?

We pay grants for short courses at three different rates:

Achievement date before 1 April 2023

  • Grant Tier 1: £30 
  • Grant Tier 2: £70
  • Grant Tier 3: £120

Achievement date on or after 1 April 2023

  • Grant Tier 1: £60
  • Grant Tier 2: £140
  • Grant Tier 3: £240

The rate is determined by the duration and content of the course.

You can search the short course standards page to find out how much grant is payable for each course.

We only pay grant once for each individual per course, unless a standard specifies a renewal or refresher is required. 

Grant for courses where the standard is in development are only paid once per individual per lifetime as the requirement for a renewal or refresher has not yet been determined.

Renewal courses

Renewals involve the repetition of a full course.

If the standard requires training to be renewed after a specified time, you can apply grant each time you renew the standard, if it’s completed within the relevant time period defined in the standard details.

You can only apply for grant once for renewal training within the required time period.

Refresher courses

Refresher courses update knowledge and understanding over a shorter period than the original training course.

The grant available for refresher training is 50% of the grant for the original full-length course.

We only support refresher courses where a full training standard has been developed and is in place and specifies a refresher is required.

Plant tests grant rates

We pay grant for passing the theory and practical elements of CPCS technical tests only.

Grants for CPCS Theory test achievements are £60 each.

Grants for CPCS Practical test achievements are paid at the following rates depending on the category of plant.

  • £190
  • £240
  • £410 

We only pay grant for CPCS tests once per lifetime for each individual. This grant is not available for renewal/refresher tests, on site assessments, shortened tests or transition assessments.

How many applications are allowed?

There is a cap on how many short course grants can be paid each year which is reset from 1 April.

We work out your cap by using the most recent Levy Return, based on how many employees you have on the payroll and your subcontractor wage bill.

We add:

  • the number of employees on the payroll
  • the number of Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) subcontractors who you make CIS tax deductions from (Net CIS subcontractors). (We calculate this figure by dividing your total Net CIS wage figure by £36,000 which is the average subcontractor wage based on earnings of £750 per week over 48 weeks.)

If your Net CIS wage figure is less than £3 million, we’ll use your total CIS (gross and net) wage figure instead, up to a maximum of £3 million.

We then take the sum of the two figures and multiply it by 5 to get the total cap figure for your entire workforce for the year.

Note: if your cap works out to be less than 35 achievements in a grant year, it will be adjusted up to 35.

How to apply

If you used an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) 

You should make your application through the ATO in the Construction Training Directory, supplying them with the relevant details of the person attending the course and your 7-digit CITB registration number.

When an individual has completed the course, the provider will update the Construction Training Register and you should automatically receive the grant payment. 

Please contact our Customer Services team on 0344 994 4455 if your payment is not received within one month of completing the course. 

If you used a different training provider 

If your training provider has not yet completed the CITB ATO approval process, you must apply for grant through CITB Online within 52 weeks of completing the course.  

You can submit either individual or bulk grant applications by using the online portal.  

Find out more about how to apply for short course grants. 

Have you sent us your bank details?

Grants are paid by bank transfer. If we do not hold your current bank details, please complete and submit the secure online Bacs Direct Credit Authorisation Form to receive grant payments