Wellington, March 24 NZPA - The retail industry training organisation is slashing the costs of its qualifications to help retailers improve their skills and those of their staff in the current tough economic times.

The Retail Institute said today it was offering all its qualifications for $50, while training resources would also be offered at $50.

Courses now ranged in cost between $150 and $650.

The $50 charge would be used to cover administration costs, and would be available for all of this year. It would be reassessed next year.

Small businesses could now afford to put people into training, the institute said.

Bigger organisations could use their training budgets to cover more people, or help to cope with training budgets that had been slashed.

The institute offered customer service qualifications, and national certificates in retail from shop floor to management level.

Two new qualifications in loss prevention were being developed as an outcome of the economic crisis.

The $50 offer was not available to retailers using customised training material developed by the institute.