This article was published on 22 July 2020 in Corriere di Malta newspaper
Grants for businesses to provide training
Enabling business training processes means investing in its people to increase the skills of both the individual employee and the work group. The result is not only the professional development of people, but also the growth of the business. In addition, by motivating and rewarding human resources, training has the advantage of acquiring knowledge and new skills filling some internal gaps, enhancing and discovering talents.
But training has a cost that needs to be assessed before setting up a plan. And it must be absolutely checked whether there are grants or incentives, even non repayable investments, that can facilitate this path and in some way reduce programming costs.
In Malta, entrepreneurs and public authorities are fully aware of the important value of human resources and employee training is a priority for both manufacturing companies and service providers. For this reason, the Government takes this issue in high regard and has studied some measures that help the entrepreneur to reduce the costs.
One of these measures provides a specific incentive for small and medium-sized enterprises, but also for large ones, those outside the European definition, and also for self-employed people.
The assumption is that they are carrying out an economic activity.
The incentive is directed to training and knowledge transfer initiatives that will support employees to acquire skills, know how and knowledge, provided that these skills are not mandatory for the exercise of a given activity.
In principle, the grant is made in the form of the tax credit, but the competent authority may also decide to grant the relief in the form of a non repayable contribution and a mix can also be decided, a part non refundable and the rest in the form of the tax credit.
The amount of the aid varies depending on the size of the applicant. This ranges from a maximum of 70% in the case of small business to a percentage of 50% in the case of large enterprises.
Contributions provided by this measure are directed to the support of the training provided to one or more employees of the company through:
(a) other employees of the company itself (e.g. a senior who trains junior staff);
(b) employees of companies linked to the beneficiary company;
(c) external experts;
(d) private training companies (with an NCFHE license).
The costs eligible for training projects are as follows:
(a) consulting costs for the development of the training programme;
(b) wage costs of those involved in the training activity, calculated on the basis of the actual hours of training;
(c) wage of trainers, covering the hours directly devoted to the provision of training;
(d) hourly costs covering direct hours of training service providers engaged to deliver training;
(e) air travel expenses incurred for participation in training courses abroad, if the training is not available locally and it is more economically feasible than holding the training locally;
(f) air travel expenses incurred to bring trainers to Malta;
(g) costs of renting training rooms, tools and equipment, to the extent that they are used exclusively for the training project.
It is necessary to apply for the grant before 30 November 2022 and a cost plan must be prepared for a training programme which can only start after the application for the grant is submitted.
If you need advice to understand what expenses to bring in, in which category your company is classified and you need to be assisted in the preparation of the application, remember that we can assist you.
Just contact us at the email provided below.
Stefano De Stalis
European Affairs and State Aid Manager
Sheltons Malta
S.Destalis@SheltonsGroup.com