The DfEE has chosen professional and educational services provider the Capita Group as the their preferred partner for administering the Individual Learning Accounts scheme.

Capita expect to handle over 10 million enquiries about the accounts in the first year, either through their call centres or through web-based interactive services.

The initial plan was for the scheme to be run by financial institutions, but this has been quietly dropped due to the failure to attract any interest in the scheme from the financial services industry. Speaking to the IPD, Brian Stevens, director and chairman of consultancy Finance and Education Services said that “It became fairly clear fairly soon that ILAs were not going to be a business proposition”.

As a consequence of this change, rather than create a 'bank account' for money to be invested in training, paying for training will work on a 'pay as you go' basis, although the failiure to set up a system backed by the financial services must be a disappointment for the DfEE, whose research shows that most people want to be able to pay for learning in stages rather than up front.

Tax incentives will be offered to employers who contribute to their employees accounts, provided the contribution is offered to every employee.

The government will launch the national framework for individual learning accounts (ILAs) next month.