The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has announced the latest round of successful applicants for the Skills and Training Fund.

The fund is part of CITB’s ‘Flexible Fund’ and will grant up to £5000 for levy payers with less than 50 employers, to provide their workforce with training and skills. So far, over 100 applicants have been successful in securing £442,268 in funding between them.

In this round of successful applicants, all 60 of the small and micro construction companies who were eligible for funding had their bids approved.

Four of the bids that were granted in this round were previously rejected but the funding team at CITB gave these firms direct support to help them in building a stronger case for their bid.

Meanwhile, seven of the successful applicants were applying for funding for the first time having only recently registered with CITB. Newly registered firms can apply for apprenticeships and for the Skills and Training Fund as soon as they register with the group without any delay.

Despite being levy payers for a considerable amount of time, three firms claimed funding from CITB for the first time, these were: R J H Homes, R J Cadman and Skippy Construction.

Fourply Construction, a property maintenance company based in Glasgow, was one of the successful bidders and is now set to receive £5000 in funding from CITB which will be used as part of a business improvement training programme for 16 of its staff members.

Fourply Constructions Director, Alan Morris, said that his firm was extremely grateful to CITB for the simple application process along with the great support from its staff.

He added: “They helped me and updated me every step of the way. The money will make a huge difference to the business.”

Among the other successful companies was Northumberland based company, W L Straughan and Son, which will receive £4633.