Election fever is upon us, and has been for quite time now, so what are the main political parties planning with regards to training and skills? Here's my mini round-up of training on the political agenda.

Here are the key proposals from the main parties:

Conservatives

• Business training: use funding that currently supports Labour’s ineffective employment and training schemes, such as Train2Gain, to help people improve their skills.
• Create 400,000 work pairing, apprenticeship, college and training places over two years.
• Give SMEs a £2,000 bonus for every apprentice they hire.
• Establish a Community Learning Fund to help people restart their careers and create a new all-age careers service.

Labour

• £2bn Future Jobs Fund will create 200,000 jobs/triainging places, of which at least 120,000 will be targeted at 18-24 year olds and 50,000 jobs will be targeted at unemployment hotspots.
• New Skills Accounts will enable every worker to make choices that drive improvement and quality in the skills system
• Raising the education and training leaving age to 18.
  

Greens

• £5bn would be invested in 350,000 workforce training places for jobs in energy conservation and renewable energy
• Grant-funded conversion courses for skilled engineers from other industries

Liberal Democrats

• Reforming Train to Gain
• Implementing the '90 day promise,' whereby a young person will not spend more than three months unemployed without getting financial support to access training, education, work experience or specialist professional help or under 25s will receive financial support to get their level two or three qualifications, vocational qualifications, complete a Foundation Degree, take part in an internship or work experience or enter into the Flexible New Deal nine months early.
• Paid internships - those undertaking an internship a training allowance of £55 a week.
• Apprenticeships will be fully-funded so that employers aren’t left out of pocket and are more willing to take on new apprentices.
• Foundation degrees for those more suited to a vocational style of learning.

So who's going to get the trainer's vote? If you would take a moment to participate in our short poll, we might find out.