Will a franchisor pay for staff training?

What a franchisor will or will not pay for is set out in the franchise agreement. Most franchise agreements divide training into two. First there is the initial training, which is usually extensive so as to enable a franchisee to start operating its franchise business, and then there is continuing training, dealing with updates and improvements to the system, as well as training replacement staff.  You would certainly expect the initial training to be provided at no additional cost to the franchisee (and sometimes one or two members of staff ) because it is included in the initial fee payment, although franchisees are usually required to pay for accommodation and living expenses incurred during the initial training.  In relation to continuing training, most, but by no means all, franchisors require payment. Some ‘enlightened’ franchisors argue that it is in their best interests to ensure franchisees continue to be fully trained and, therefore, provide training free of charge, but that is unusual. In an ideal world franchisors would provide training at cost because it should not amount to a profit stream for franchisors. In practice, however, relatively few franchisors agree to this. Most franchise agreements simply say that franchisors will provide continuing training subject to the franchisor’s standard charges which, of course, doesn’t take franchisees much further because standard charges could vary and could be high.