Small employers making less use of government training

Smaller firms are more reluctant to sign up to the government’s Train to Gain programme than their larger counterparts.

The Learning and Skills Council’s National Employer Skills Survey for 2007 found that businesses with fewer than 10 employees were least likely to take advantage of the Train to Gain scheme.

The survey questioned 4,000 firms involved in Train to Gain.

While the majority expressed themselves satisfied with the service and training they received and some 77 per cent said they would be likely to use the scheme again, smaller firms expressed the greatest scepticism about the programme’s usefulness.

Respondents blamed a “lack of effective communication from the skills broker, the irrelevance of training, or the lack of benefit gained from this training”.

Jaine Clarke, director of communications at the Learning and Skills Council, admitted that greater efforts were required to ensure that training is better suited to the specific needs of smaller enterprises.

One area of improvement at which the LSC is looking is to offer training brokers more funding with which to tailor services to smaller businesses.