PRODUCTIVITY growth will continue to stall without Government and industry action to tackle a digital skills deficit in small businesses, according to new research from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).
The FSB’s latest report, Learning the Ropes: Skills and Training in Small Businesses shows that almost a quarter (24 per cent) of East Midlands business owners lack confidence in their basic digital skills and a fifth (20 per cent) believe a lack of basic digital skills among their staff is holding them back from increasing their digital and online presence.
FSB warns that small firms will be left behind unless the National Retraining Scheme, announced in the Budget to boost digital capability, is designed with them in mind. The digital skills gap is part of a wider skills challenge hitting small firms.
The research finds a quarter (25 per cent) of small businesses which have tried to recruit in the year since the Brexit vote have struggled to find workers to fill roles because of acute skills shortages. Skilled trade jobs, including electricians, IT engineers and construction workers are most affected as the labour market remains tightly squeezed.
Even within the workplace, there is a persistent skills gap problem, with four in ten (41 per cent) of small firms lacking full know-how among their staff.
Despite most small business owners providing some kind of skills training for themselves and their staff over the 12 month period, four in ten firms in the region (43 per cent) do not have a formal training plan or budget. In addition, three quarters of self-employed have no plan or budget to support training.
FSB believes a strategic approach to training is essential to support small business growth aspirations, so small businesses must know where to turn for help on this. Small firms say the main barriers to training are the fact that their staff are too busy (28 per cent), the type of training desired is not available locally (21 per cent) and the quality of courses available are not satisfactory (15 per cent).
