Over 20 companies and banks in the top 300 have taken EU funds for training

At least 21 companies among the top 300 by turnover have submitted and won projects worth a total of nearly 15 million euros to train employees at a time when most employers have frozen their training budgets out of a need to cut costs.

Big companies are thus an example of good practice as far as HR policies are concerned, being among the first in the private sector to think of an alternative way to supplement the employee training budgets.
Although none of the non-repayable EU funding obtained by companies exceeds one million euros, a few thousand employees in Romania's biggest companies will, this year and the next, go "to school".
Companies come up with nearly 40% of the money necessary to train their employees. The overall value of the non-repayable funding for projects won by the 21 companies is 7.8 million euros, with the companies investing an overall 14.7 million euros in their employees.
The top 300 "champion" is Distrigaz Sud Reţele, specialising in gas distribution, which managed to get nearly 715,000 euros' worth of non-repayable funds. The company intends to send 350 employees on training programmes, where they will be trained in communication, negotiation, customer relationship, and management.
Four big banks have won projects worth a total of 4.3 million euros for employee training, making banks some of the most "cautious" employers, who realised that internal HR budgets could not cover employee training programmes.