From April 6, 2010, businesses with 250 or more employees will have to seriously consider an eligible employee's formal request for time away from their core duties to undertake training.

This equates to approximately 11 million employees in Great Britain and will be extended to cover employees in all businesses from April 6, 2011.

Employees' requests can be to undertake accredited programmes leading to a qualification, or for unaccredited training to help them develop specific skills relevant to their job, workplace or business. While employee requests may involve agreeing time away from their duties, the primary focus of the new right is about agreeing relevant training with your staff.

As an employer, you are required to consider any requests and respond within a set timeframe. You can turn down requests when you have a good business reason to do so, including where you do not believe the training will help improve business performance. The new right closely follows the model used for agreeing requests under the flexible working arrangements.

Business Link is providing a free guide designed to help employers, human resources managers and others with responsibility for dealing with requests to understand their responsibilities under the new right, and the responsibilities of your employees.

This is only applicable to England, Scotland and Wales. The information is not relevant to businesses in Northern Ireland.

Call Business Link on 0845-600-9006 for more information or visit: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/southeast/timetotrain