Guide to CITB grants and funding
Many decorators will decide to upskill themselves or their employees by completing training, like airless spraying courses, to improve the profitability and range of what they can offer to customers. However, training comes at a cost that self-employed tradespeople and smaller businesses might struggle to cover. Thankfully, CITB grants are available to help cover the costs of training.
Despite the availability of CITB funding, a lot of companies and micro businesses choose to self fund, usually because they don’t know how to claim the grants available through the CITB or don’t know about CITB at all.
Here, we’ll explain what CITB grants are, the different CITB skills and training funds that are available, who is eligible for them, and how to apply.
Article contents
- CITB explained
- What is CITB funding?
- Eligibility for CITB training
- What is the CITB levy?
- Types of CITB courses
CITB explained
The CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) offers a comprehensive range of short courses for the construction industry, including decorators. As an organisation, the CITB has been around for a long time, and its primary role is to ensure that the people working in the construction industry are appropriately trained. The short term CITB training courses on offer are designed to be done over one or two days so that it is easy for decorators to fit around their busy schedules.
The CITB realise that decorators who have years of experience in one style of decorating, say, with a roller and paintbrush, tend to put learning new skills on the back burner, creating a skills gap. Also, apprentices often follow the style set out by their employers. Their training is to watch and learn, creating a greater skills gap in the newer generation of recruits.
The CITB is keen for decorators to take professional courses delivered to CITB’s syllabus. The primary way that they do this is with the use of “ATOs” (Approved Training Organisations).
What is CITB funding?
CITB funding is available to help tradespeople to pay for industry recognised training courses and qualifications. It is essentially a free source of money that is to be used for training.There is a wide range of training available andyou can train yourself, your staff or your subcontractors. This means that the funding is very flexible.
The funding is awarded for the year. If you apply for it in May, you have until the following May to complete the training you have selected. There are two main sources of CITB funding.
1) CITB skills and training fund
This is money that is available every year for your workforce to do short courses in various disciplines. The fund is in 4 bands.
| Band | Funding that can be claimed twice in the funding year |
| Employers registered for CIS | up to £2,500 twice a year (totalling £5,000) |
| between 1 and 49 employees | up to £5,000 twice a year (totalling £10,000) |
| between 50 and 74 employees | Up to £7,500 twice a year (totalling £15,000) |
| between 75 and 99 employees | up to £10,000 |
2) Employer Networks
The CITB set up Employer Networks in 2022 as an initiative to simplify access to training, support, and funding. The scheme was being piloted until 2024, but it can now be accessed by employers across dozens of locations in the UK.
The purpose of Employer Networks is to:
- Give construction employers easier access to funding and training for their employees
- Provide better support by organising training for employees, meaning employers have less paperwork to fill in
- Connect local employers, giving them a platform to voice their training needs to the CITB. This will ultimately help the organisation to decide how funding should be allocated
Employer Networks are free to join for CITB-registered employers who are up to date with their levy. Training can be provided either in person or via online courses, and there are no limits on how many employers can join an Employer Network.
3) CITB apprenticeship funding
Another primary funding source is for apprentices. The CITB has a large pot of money for any construction employer who takes on an apprentice. This money can also be used to subsidise the apprentice’s wages.
Apprenticeship CITB grants consist of 2 parts.
- Part one of the funding is for attending college and doing a course
- Part two is released to the employer upon the apprentice passing their course
The total amount available tends to go up each year, but is currently* over £11,000 per apprentice.
*as of October 2024
Eligibility for CITB training grants
CITB is set up to support the construction industry, so you need to work in construction to claim any money. If you are, for example, a car sprayer, you will not be eligible. If you are an ex-car sprayer who has set up as a decorator, then you would be eligible.
Decorators are often put off applying for training grants because they don’t think they’ll be eligible for them, but most people are eligible for CITB funds. The CITB grants have been primarily set up to benefit small businesses and micro businesses, however, it is often larger businesses that are more likely to take advantage of the apprenticeship funding.
All you need to do is register with the CITB, which can be done by using the forms found online here.
FREE DOWNLOAD: FIND OUT HOW TO ACCESS FREE FUNDING FOR TRAINING
What is the CITB levy?
The CITB imposes a levy on the construction trade in the UK that entails taking money from bigger companies and giving it to smaller, micro companies to fund training. Simply put, large companies pay a levy, and small companies don’t.
The benefits of this are:
- Bigger companies have a trained pool of skilled workers to employ from
- Smaller companies can access professional training for their employees at minimal, or no cost
The table below shows the amount of funding delivered to companies via CITB from 2021 to 2022.
| Category | Total |
| Levy funds from employers | £108.3m |
| CITB grants and support for training | £101.7m |
| Number of employers claiming grant and other support | 16,151 |
Source: About the CITB Levy – citb.co.uk
Do you have to pay back CITB funding?
The simple answer to this is no. It is not a loan; it is a grant to use towards training.
The only circumstances that will require you to pay it back are:
- If you don’t do the training that you’ve applied for within the year. In this case, you will have to give the grant back. It can only be used for the courses specified on that year’s CITB grant application form.
- If you are an employee who pays wages that equate to more than £120,000 a year. In this case, you will pay a 0.05% levy.
If your wage bill is never in excess of £120,000, you will never need to pay anything while continuing to get a yearly grant of £2500 or £5000. The only thing CITB expects of you is to file annual paperwork confirming your yearly company wage.
Even if you begin to pay above £120,000 in wages and are required to pay something back to CITB, it is very unlikely to be anywhere near the grants you have received over the previous years.
Find out whether you have to pay back your CITB levy
ACCESS OUR ONLINE LEVY CALCULATOR
Types of CITB courses for decorators
There are a number of CITB courses available for decorators, including:
| Course type | Length | Accreditation | Link |
| Painting using airless spray equipment | 2 days | City and Guilds assured certificate | Learn more |
| Painting using HVLP equipment | 2 days | City and Guilds assured certificate | Learn more |
| Fitted furniture renovation | 2 days | City and Guilds assured certificate | Learn more |
| Airless spray plaster | 2 days | City and Guilds assured certificate | Learn more |
| Estimating for Painting and decorating | 2 days | PaintTech Academy Certificate | Learn more |
| Hanging mural wallcoverings | 1 day | City and Guilds assured certificate | Learn more |
| Paperhanging introduction | 2 days | PaintTech Academy Certificate | Learn more |
| Paperhanging intermediate | 2 days | PaintTech Academy Certificate | Learn more |
| Hanging wallcoverings to complex surfaces | 2 days | PaintTech Academy Certificate | Learn more |
| Hanging specialist wallcoverings | 2 days | PaintTech Academy Certificate | Learn more |
| Hanging wide width vinyl | 2 days | PaintTech Academy Certificate |
CITB grants can transform businesses and careers
CITB have over 1500 different courses on their approved training list that people can undertake. At PaintTech Training Academy, we have worked closely with CITB to ensure that our course offering aligns with the grant-aided courses that CITB have agreed to fund, meaning if you want to do one of our courses, you can get it paid for by CITB.
If you’re interested in applying for funding to take a course but you have questions, get in touch with the PaintTech team.
