The intention of Train to Gain is to ensure the availability of a skilled work force. The crucial question is, therefore, whether this has the effect of advancing education for the public benefit. If it does, it is likely that any private benefit to an individual employer or employee will be incidental to that purpose. While there is emphasis on the skills to be acquired by employees being relevant to the employer's business, presumably this is the incentive for employers to release their employees for training.

The training provided by colleges under Train to Gain can cover a wide spectrum ranging from an employer sending a few employees on an existing course; to the college putting together a bespoke training programme solely for the particular employer. From a tax perspective basic principles suggest that where an employer sends a number of employees on the college's existing courses (which are open to all) then this will be primary purpose trading even if the employer buys so many places that the college puts on additional classes solely for that business's employees. At the other extreme a bespoke training programme put together for the employer would seem to be a 'private class' lacking the necessary public benefit and so amount to non primary purpose (taxable) trading. In between these two extremes will be the situation where a college takes an existing course and makes some changes in emphasis, although not in the fundamental scope or content, to make it more relevant to an employer's staff. It is, though, not clear at what point these changes would become so significant that the course becomes a private class.