News on 06 December 2000
The majority of employers do not use vocational training
such as Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) or National Vocational Qualifications
(NVQs) to train their employees, according to a survey of the Institute
of Directors’ members.
Those who did provide training leading to vocational qualifications believed
they equipped their employees with the skills they need to do their jobs.
22% of respondents used the system of MAs as a way of training their employees
and 65% of these indicated that the training programme had been beneficial
to their business.
Richard Wilson, business policy executive at the IoD and author of the
report, said: "There is an urgent need to take action and increase
the proportion of vocationally trained people in the UK. Only 14% of British
employees have intermediate level vocational qualifications compared to
46% of German employees.
"Unfortunately, small firms often lack the resources to invest in
training programmes and provide off the job training. Our survey revealed
that only 8% of firms employing between one and 20 people used MAs as
a way of training their employees, compared to 33% of respondents from
companies with over 200 employees.
"To surmount this problem, the Government, via the new Learning and
Skills Council, should be prepared to finance 50% of the costs of training
individuals who take MAs in small enterprises. In the absence of significant
public support, small firms are unlikely to change their training strategies
and so it will be difficult to increase the proportion of individuals
holding intermediate level vocational qualifications, with the result
that skill shortages will be worse than they need to be."
