A guide to training agreements (+ free template & small business tips)

To attract and retain the best employees you need to invest in learning and development. That can get expensive though — especially if your employee decides to leave straight after they’ve gained a shiny new qualification. It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to stay with you for the long haul, but it’s useful to have a way to recoup your time and investment if they don’t. Enter the training agreement.

In this guide, we’ll explain what a training agreement is, why you should have them, and what they should include — plus our free, expertly crafted training agreement template.

What is a training agreement?

A training agreement is a legally enforceable agreement between an employer and their employee that sets out expectations and conditions around training and learning opportunities.

While many companies call this type of document a training agreement form or contract, you might also hear them referred to as an employee training contract, learning contract, training bond, or training costs agreement.

Most training agreements cover essential information like:

Details about the specific training course or programme
How much the training costs or what the course fees are
Who the training provider is
Where, when, or how the training happens
Who is responsible for paying for the training initially, and how
What the repayment terms are should the employee leave the company

Having any of this information confirmed in a training agreement contract is helpful, but it’s the repayment aspect that’s especially valuable to employers. Training people takes time, energy, and money. Knowing you can recoup some of those costs if an employee leaves abruptly or before they (and you) can benefit from their new skills gives employers peace of mind that their investment isn’t wasted.

Why training agreements make sense for employers and employees

A written agreement makes the arrangement clear for both parties, so everyone knows exactly what’s expected in terms of learning, outcomes, and repayment. These contracts offer security for both employers and employees.

As well as security, the benefits for employers include:

Clearer route for learning and development for your employees
Easier way to manage skill development and promote learning across your company
Opportunity to encourage employees to stay at the company longer, to make better use of their newfound skills and talents
Increased employee retention and lower hiring costs
Easier way to track training investment and return on investment over the long term.
Repeatable process that you can design once and use for future training requests

Training agreements aren’t just great for employers. They’re also useful for employees too. Here are some of the main pros for employees:

Confirmation in writing of an agreement that the employer will pay the training fees
Investment in their learning, development, and future career
Sense of mutual respect and loyalty
Opportunity to learn new skills and increase their earning potential

When you consider the benefits for everyone involved, introducing training agreements simply makes sense. Both parties gain a clear understanding of what’s expected of them, what they should do to uphold the agreement, and what happens if they don’t.

Once the agreement has been signed, it becomes a formal record and contract. Keep your training agreements and all your other employee files — like a contract of employment — safe by storing them in Charlie. With your HR contract templates stored in the same place as your employee details and other essentials, it’s easier to track commitments, monitor ROI, and make sure that nothing gets missed. You can also save your training agreement as a template and update it for future employees — saving you valuable time.

What to include in your small business training agreement

Recording exactly what you’ve agreed to makes sense, but what’s the best way to do this? Here’s what we think you should include within your employee training template.

Your commitment agreement template should include:

The date of the agreement
Name of employee and job title
Company name
Details about the training course or professional qualification. This could include the course title, qualification type, place of study, and any other information that you feel is relevant.
Declaration of who will meet the costs of the course
Statement that sets out any repayment of training costs to employer, if relevant
How any repayment due will be calculated. For some companies, this is based on a sliding scale from the training date. For others, there will be a period of time after which the employee is no longer required to pay back the training costs. Sometimes, if the cost is small, both parties might agree to deduct it from the employee’s final salary payment instead.
Legal statements that ensure your training agreement does not infringe on the employee’s rights — more on this below
Signatures, named and dated

You might also want to include:

Your overall training goal or objective
Specific metrics or milestones that the employee should reach, with deadlines or timeframes
Specific dates or times that the training will take place on
How to handle miscellaneous costs relating to the course or learning in general
What constitutes completion of the course
What happens in the event of different situations, for example if you need to dismiss the employee for gross misconduct

Training repayment agreements and UK employment law: What you need to know

When they’re correctly written, training agreements offer employers protection. However, you do need to be mindful that the proposed contract is fair and doesn’t overstep any legal boundaries. Here’s what you need to consider when drafting your employee training agreements to make them legally compliant.

Training agreements cannot constitute a ‘penalty clause’

Employers can use training agreements to try and protect themselves from losing out when investing in their team, but you need to be careful that any request for cost reimbursement is reasonable.

Let's take a look at a training agreement example in action. If a company spends £1,000 on a training course but the employee resigned the day after the course finished, the company has had no benefit from it. It’s therefore fair and reasonable to include a clause in your training agreements that asks for full reimbursement in a situation like this.

If that employee instead stayed on for two years after completing the course, making use of that training every day, then £2,000 is not a reasonable estimate of the money the company has lost. In this case, using a contract to try and recoup the full amount wouldn’t be reasonable – and most likely wouldn’t be legal.

Training agreements cannot constitute ‘restraint of trade’

The second thing to think about when using training agreements is the idea of ‘restraint of trade’. This means your contract can’t be used to (or be seen to be used to) prevent someone from changing jobs.

If your agreement looks like it ‘traps’ someone in their current role, it might be found to be unenforceable. Your employee should feel like the agreement is fair and balanced, and not unreasonably favored towards the business.

Download your free training agreement template

The best way to make sure you’ve covered all the legal requirements and have a fit-for-purpose document is to use our free training contract template.

Our team of HR experts has crafted this training agreement sample to be easy to use and balanced, making it a great foundation for you to customise to match your approach to training and development.

Support learning and protect your investment with a training agreement

Training agreements can be a useful way to encourage employee retention and a return on your learning and development spend. They also show your employees that you’re committed to investing in them, and what they can expect from you when it comes to career development.

Use this guide to help you put together your own training agreement, or use our free learning contract template to get a head start on the process. Make the whole experience even smoother by using Charlie as your go-to HR tool for storing not only your agreement documents but as the central place for HR operations within your company.

With time off management, onboarding, performance reviews and more, Charlie helps you automate processes and take back some of your valuable time to use in the areas where you can make the biggest impact. Take a free trial of Charlie today to experience it for yourself.