The UK has an estimated 4.3m businesses ranging from huge corporations and high-street chains to micro-businesses and sole traders. Each one has a different outlook on what training is and what it can do for their organisation. Some have formal systems based on qualifications and personal development plans; others favour a more hands-on approach to skills development. Then there’s the group we often forget: the companies that don’t train their staff at all.

When it comes to training, many businesses are stuck in a rut. It’s time to take a fresh look at the issue and re-think what training can do for you, your company, your sector and the UK as a whole.

Training does more than just bring benefits to business; it’s also a personal journey. Learning new skills and ways of working can enrich your life and take you and your career into exciting directions.

The first obstacle that many individuals face is getting the practical help they need to get started. There are issues around finding the time and money to train, and in finding the right course to meet their needs. You can get more advice on these practical aspects from Business Link at www.businesslink.gov.uk or by contacting your Sector Skills Council at www.skillsforskills.biz

As well as being able to do your current job more effectively, skills development has also been proven to benefit individuals in the longer term. There’s a strong relationship between qualifications and employability: 3% of those holding post-graduate qualifications are unemployed, rising to 11% for those with no qualifications. It can be argued that by continually developing your own skills, you’re also safeguarding your career prospects.

A survey of 13,000 employers earlier this year identified three common barriers to training:

  • financial cost: almost 50% of employers questioned are put off training because of fears of costs;
  • worries about demands for higher wages: a third think that training could mean their staff will ask for higher salaries;
  • work disruption: more than half of employers believe that training would disrupt day-to-day work

While these arguments are based on the real fears of employers, there is a simple rebuttal. Training not only works but has been proven to work:

  • When staff receive training, the benefits to the firm exceed not only the cost of the training but also the wage costs of the individual
  • Two-thirds of employers that provided any training over the previous 12 months reported an increase in productivity. Nearly half (47%) of employers in the private sector that provided any training also reported that it had increased profits

Working with the ‘enemy’
It’s not often that businesses work together with their rivals but collaborating is an effective way to get meaningful changes made. If a single company approached a local training provider with a particular training need, the best they can hope for is a small tailor-made course. However, if several businesses in the same industry express the same skills gap, it’s no longer an issue for a single business but the beginning of a trend.

By coming together, employers should have the power to get changes made that affect not only their own business but others in their sector. Rather than just setting up one course with a local training provider, this collaborative working can help to shape the bigger picture. For example, employers can help to make existing qualifications more relevant to day-to-day work or create new qualifications and schemes to meet a particular need. Instead of seeing training as a fix for a short-term solution, businesses can operate on a strategic level to ensure their current and future workforce have the skills they need.

Getting UK PLC into shape
Across the UK, the current skills picture still looks fairly bleak with 60% of employers reporting problems with recruiting staff with the right skills. Amazingly, only 7% of employers have hired someone who is fully equipped with all the necessary skills to do their job, leaving 93% of staff needing further training and development to get them up to scratch.

Then there’s the companies that don’t provide any staff training at all. More than a third of small and medium-sized enterprises admitted they don’t train, rising to 40% for the smallest employers. While finding the time and money for training is particularly difficult for these types of businesses, a lack of training will only stifle the ability for such companies to survive and grow.

The Leitch Review, which the Treasury will be publishing in December 2006, will look at what skills are needed in the UK in 2020 so there’s never been a better time for you to address the same issue closer to home.

Improving the skills of your workforce – whatever its size – can help your business to run efficiently, keep your customer base satisfied and help you to win new orders, create new products and services. What could be more vital to your business than that?

The Skills for Business network aims to improve the UK’s productivity and profitability through skills. To find out more about the network, visit www.skillsforbusiness.org.uk