Study Development policy

Crucial bits

Here at Co-op, you’ll receive training for your role in all sorts of different ways, from learning on-the-job, coaching, and mentoring, through to more formal routes such as Learning Groups. Upon occasion, we may need to use external suppliers to provide some of the training required, which incurs a cost to our Co-op.

There are several points we need to consider when agreeing how best to spend our Co-op’s money:

1. Is the training essential?

Any training that’s safe, legal, regulatory, or essential to continue delivering your role successfully is classed as ‘essential’ training. It’s training that without which, you wouldn’t be able to continue to do your role.

Some examples might be: • Safe, legal and regulatory e.g. Award for Personal Licence Holder (APLH) training for Retail store licence holders • Professional qualifications or training essential to role e.g. law qualifications for Lawyers or NEBOSH training for Property Compliance Managers • Training of new starters

The Talent Acquisition & Development Partner and the line manager will work together to agree if something is essential training or not for a particular role.

Learning to support you in your role takes place within working hours; any study time along with attending the training itself will form part of your ordinary working schedule.

2. Will this training help us to retain skills/talent at Co-op?

There may be other training and development requirements that are not covered by the above. If a learning requirement is essential to retaining skills or talent in our Co-op, we may be able to support the need, particularly if career development could be significantly disadvantaged by not having the investment.

It’s important to note that we must still forecast these needs ahead of time to secure budget. This activity is done in the second half of the calendar year; if you have any needs that fit in this category, make sure you’re actively discussing them with your line manager in your Colleague Conversations, and that your manager submits them to your leaders when the budgeting activity takes place (usually August-September).

The preferred route for the majority of training needs is through apprenticeships - we are able to satisfy many training needs through our existing Apprenticeship providers. Discussing your needs with your Talent Acquisition and Development Partner in the first instance will help you identify where this is the right route for you depending on the requirement.

There’s an expectation that colleagues who’re supported through learning share the skills they’ve developed. For example, if you were supported to complete a Project Management qualification you may be expected to lead on a project that required some support.

Training in this category requires the colleague to sign a Financially supported learning- Agreement form agreeing to Co-op recouping certain costs if the colleague leaves – you can see more about this below.

For information about Co-op Legal Services specific qualifications, please also read their study policy in the document below.

Legal Services Study Policy

Things to think about

Other training requests

If you have any other requests for training that don’t fit into either of the above two categories, you should discuss them with your line manager in your Colleague Conversations. It’s highly likely that we can support your requirements through our diverse set of apprenticeships or through our existing Development Offer.

If we cannot cover the requirement through something already in place, that doesn’t necessarily mean the answer will be no, we just need to fully understand the development needs so that we can find the best and most cost-effective solution.

As an alternative to full funding in situations where the training is deemed to be non-essential, we may also support study, through time off and a contribution towards the cost (see sections below) for courses or programmes that:

• lead to a certified qualification, membership of a professional body or a standard of achievement that’s recognised by Co-op
• are at a standard where there’s reasonable expectation that you’ll achieve success
• fit with our approved supplier and procurement approaches; and
• are relevant to your current or future position within our Co-op and in line with your agreed Personal Growth Plan

There’s a Financially supported learning agreement form (see links below) which you can use to make your request. Managers should use template letters SS1 or SS2 (see links below) as appropriate to confirm their decision.

If the qualification or course you want to do doesn’t qualify for support under this policy, talk to your manager to see if you can take some unpaid time off to attend and study. We’ll always agree to let you take a reasonable amount of unpaid leave to train or study if your manager believes that it would improve your performance at work and benefit our Co-op.

Financial Support

To apply for financial support, you’ll need to complete Financially supported learning agreement form and give this to your manager.

If your application is approved, your manager will sign the application form and give you a copy so you have a record of what’s been agreed. If they’re unable to approve your request, your manager will explain why and send you a letter to confirm their decision – managers should use template letter SS3 – link is above.

If it’s approved, Co-op will provide financial support in the following ways:

• pay up to the full amount of fees for the course/programme of study;
• pay the fees for any examination or certification award in full;
• contribute towards buying essential textbooks (subject to a maximum of £50 per year);
• pay any registration fees for the educational institution and any student subscription fees*;
• give paid study leave - up to 2 days per exam; and
• give paid leave to take the exam and approved revision courses

*Once you’ve completed your qualification, payment of professional membership and subscription fees may be able to be reclaimed under the Expenses Policy.

We’ll also pay normal business travel expenses for up to 20 miles for travel beyond your usual travel to work or for a residential programme.

If you need to re-sit any exams, we may provide support towards your first re-sit. This will depend on the commitment you’ve shown to your studies, how likely you are to be successful in the re-sit and your overall performance in the course so far.

If you need further support

If you have any questions about support for studying towards educational and vocational qualifications, please speak to your manager. If you are asked to approve a request, you can read more guidance about study support below.

Approving Study Support Guidance

Additional Considerations

Time for study

Unless you’re studying on an apprenticeship, where 20% of your working time will be dedicated to your study, ideally you should choose a method of study that impacts on your work as little as possible, such as courses that take place outside your working hours or online modules that you can complete in your own time. But we know that sometimes this won’t be possible or practical.

If you need to take time off work to study, talk to your manager about your needs and they’ll do their best to accommodate them. They’ll look at things such as your personal growth needs, the likely impact on the business and how this can be managed, the amount of time you’ll need to study and the availability of other options.

If you need to change your working pattern so you can study, talk to your manager and we’ll do our best to accommodate the change. See the Flexible Working Policy for details of how to request a change to your working pattern.

If you’re doing a course with online content, your manager will look at the internet resources you have available outside of work. They may give you a reasonable amount of time to do some study within work time – for example, if you’re recommended to do four hours online study each week, your manager may let you do two hours of study on our network within working time.

Financially supported learning

When Co-op invests in you with external, "non-essential" training (see explanations above), that incurs a cost, you'll be asked to sign a Financially supported learning agreement form. This means agreeing to the recouping of costs should you leave our Co-op.

Reimbursement of costs

If you leave the Co-op for any reason other than redundancy or ill-health before you’ve completed the course or programme, or you drop out of the course before you’ve finished it (unless there are exceptional circumstances), you must repay the full costs incurred by Co-op.

If you resign, or are dismissed for reasons of conduct or performance, within two years of completing your study, you must repay the costs for your last two years of study as follows:

• Within 12 months - 50% of total costs
• Within 18 months - 25% of total costs
• Within 24 months - 10% of total costs

For clarity, when you sign the application form, you’re giving your consent for Co-op to make the appropriate deductions from your wages during any notice period and from your final wages/or outstanding holiday pay.

Manager guidance for processing a colleague whom is leaving the business and who has received financial support for learning

When a colleague decides to leave our Co-op who has signed a financially supported learning agreement form, it’s the line manager’s responsibility to instigate the process with Payroll to recoup the costs owed.

The amount they owe will depend on how long it’s been since they completed their study, so first of all you should confirm the amount owed with the colleague, as detailed on their agreement. Discuss with the colleague whether the full amount is affordable for them to pay in one (taken from their final payment from Co-op), or whether it would be more affordable for them to pay it back throughout their notice period. Ensure they know that any outstanding amount will come from their final payment.

In some cases the colleague’s new employer may agree to buy-out the remainder owed, but this is the colleague’s responsibility to enquire and agree with their new employer. Co-op will only deal with the colleague directly and will only recoup the costs from them.

You should then reach out to the Payroll team via the Ask HR contact us form to let them know the date that your colleague is leaving, confirm the amount that they owe, and detail whether this is to be taken from their final payment, or whether arrangements need to be made to spread this cost over the colleague’s notice period. Remember that payroll cut-off dates will affect whether this can be processed in time, so you should check the payroll cut-off dates before submitting the form and confirming back to the colleague.

Payroll will then make the arrangements to recoup the costs from the colleague’s final payment(s) as agreed. Remember if the colleague’s leave date changes you will need to inform Payroll of this change.

If you need further support

If you need further support please log into MyHR to ask Bobbi and if you still can't resolve your query please raise a Contact HR Form