I thought about this a while ago. I already have a limited company that I could use which is VAT registered and trades in the IT sector.
If you did pay for training through a company, you could offset the whole training cost against tax and claim back the VAT. You could even claim reasonable expenses during the training against tax.
I spoke at great length to my accountant about this, and his advice was not to go ahead: he said he would be very surprised if the Inland Revenue would allow the training to be tax-free, as it was obviously training in a different sector to that which the company is trading. Even though any training which 'enhances the earnings potential of the company' is tax-deductable, the Revenue have seen most tricks before, and if they don't like it, it's up to you to prove at a tax tribunal that it is genuine.
If you did go ahead and do this, and the Revenue didn't like it, they would judge that you personally had a 'benefit-in-kind' from the training, and tax you as if that money had been paid direct to you. Customs and Excise would also want their VAT back as well. Net result: no gain. The Revenue is also getting tougher with people who they think are really trying it on, and might want to bring charges against you: the law was made tougher recently regarding tax-evasion.
If you don't already have a company that is trading, you can't just set up a company to pay for your training, as this is a 'Sham Company' and that's illegal.
Anyway, in the end I decided not to go ahead with this: my personal tax situation is in enough of a mess with this whole IR35 fiasco, basically allowing the Revenue to turn round at any time in the next seven years and say I owe them a sh!tload more tax: adding extra indecision from expensive training sat on the company's books that may or may not end up a benefit in kind would be too much for me.