3.13 The best small firms in Britain lead their European equivalents in training and development, but there is a long tail of small businesses which do little or no training at all. A recent study of small and medium size firms found that 20 per cent of the firms surveyed in the UK saw no need to raise their level of training compared with just four per cent in France and six per cent in Germany.

3.14 There are a number of reasons for this. Small firms say they cannot readily find cover to release people for learning off-the-job in working hours. They lack the time and expertise to organise the right opportunities. Individually they cannot influence private or further education sector providers to offer the right education and training. They do not have the purchasing power to keep down the costs of training. Too often training and development take second place to short-term survival, and yet the business benefits to small firms are tangible.

3.15 We want to help change the culture in small firms by linking learning more closely with business performance and by lifting obstacles to learning. This will be a major role for the University for Industry. The UfI will be able to deliver custom-made learning to the enterprise, and employees will be able to use individual learning accounts to support their own career development. As one way of making Investors in People more accessible to small firms, Investors in People UK is working with selected firms to demonstrate the business benefits of involving their suppliers in the Standard. TECs will focus on small and medium size businesses in their workforce development plans and encourage the take up of Modern Apprenticeships and National Traineeships.