Educating British Business
Raising the educational standard and skill-set of a workforce improves the competitiveness and profitability of a business.
Well-trained and professional employees are more flexible and can cope more adequately with work-level fluctuations and absences, as well as come up with inventive approaches to problem solving.
According to the 2004 National Employer Skills Survey, approximately 27% of the skills gap is thought by employers to be due to a lack of training and development.
Funding is available for businesses to produce superior education. This includes the Higher Education Innovation Fund which is a programme aimed at encouraging knowledge transfer in Universities and Higher Education institutions. The 2006 FE White Paper Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances, also sets out the Government’s commitment to develop a new approach to funding for 14-19 year-olds and to move to a position where more funding is driven directly by employer and learner choice.