Small firms respond to the ‘skills gap’

More than 15,000 employers are now using the Train to Gain scheme, a government-funded service - an eight-fold increase since August.

The figures show that the size of the businesses using the service are generally small, with 95% of firms involved in Train to Gain having fewer than 50 employees.

Also, over half of these employers have never invested in staff training before.

The nation’s skills crisis has led to employers across the sectors reporting difficulties in finding suitably skilled staff.

Currently, more than a third of adults in the UK do not have a basic school qualification and five million adults do not have any qualifications at all.

Illiteracy and innumeracy cost the nation £10bn in lost revenue, the LSC say.

However, the increase in the number businesses joining Train to Gain suggests that smaller firms are responding to the problems highlighted by the Leitch report.

David Way, national director of skills at the LSC, said: “Train to Gain is providing employers with expert advice on how and where to train staff to increase productivity.

“Employers told us this is what they need to succeed and Train to Gain is now helping more than 50,000 employees to get qualifications.”

The LSC predicts that the number of employers using the service, which has £1bn of government funding committed to it, is predicted to increase to 33,000 in 2007 and 53,000 by 2008.

© Crimson Business Ltd. 2006