The survey highlighted that a massive 92% of businesses identified a skills shortage in their workforce in at least one key competency. Other research by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) tells us that 30% of vacancies are hard to fill, with a lack of suitably skilled workers identified as the main reason for this. In their words, skills shortages really are potholes in the road to growth.

So, if you are experiencing skills shortages in your business and want to fill some of your potholes, what options are available to you to fix them? First and foremost is training and developing your own future workforce.

We know that training can be expensive but there are some Government subsidised programmes that you can take advantage of to train your workforce at reduced, or in some cases no cost.

• Leadership and management were identified in the BCC survey as the most commonly reported skills shortage. Through the Growth Accelerator programme you can access up to £2,000 of match funding for every eligible senior manager to undertake training that will drive business growth.
• Fully funded vocational skills training is available for your employees who have few qualifications to develop their skills in areas such as administration, customer service, retail, team leading and a range of other skill areas.
• Fully funded English and maths training is available to any of your workforce who don’t have a GCSE at grade C or above in either of these subjects.

Apprenticeships provide a route for you to bring new talent in to your business and develop your own skilled workforce. In 2012/13 1,800 local businesses took on over 3,000 apprentices between them and it is estimated that apprentices deliver £1.8 billion of benefits to business across the country.

Apprenticeships are available across a wide range of job roles and through current grant programmes you could receive up to £4,000 towards the cost of recruiting an apprentice, so now is a great time to consider developing your own skilled workforce.

If you would like to know more about what training is available locally and how to access available funding then take a look on our ‘Develop your people’ web pages or contact us on 01296 568944.