The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is enhancing its CPD-certified training offer to help increase skills in small businesses.
The FSB Training service has been offering 700 online courses to its members at a discounted rate for the past year and on 9 November will now launch in-person training courses, aimed at small businesses’ employees.
By its training offer, FSB is playing its part in helping to create a skilled small business workforce as its recent research found that almost half (48%) of small business owners say that technical skills are important to achieving future growth.
Investment in training is the second most common response to recruitment challenges by small firms. A third (32%) say they have increased training of existing staff, with small business employers in construction (41%) more likely to say they have done so than any other sector. Over a quarter (27%) are also planning on increasing their investment in training in the next 12 months.
From 9 November, a new option of in-person training will be introduced by FSB Training, alongside the existing online courses. On offer are over 700 courses in every sector, spanning everything from food safety to finance. The service has been developed in partnership with Staff Skills Training, a leading provider used by SMEs, blue chip companies and government departments.
FSB Chief Executive Julie Lilley said: “Small businesses are essential to the UK’s economic success. Only when business owners and their staff are equipped with the right skills can their enterprise grow. I’m incredibly proud that at FSB, we’re now able to offer relevant and affordable training to our members, and their staff.
“To build a highly skilled economy, it’s essential that opportunities to learn, develop and train are available to smaller businesses. We’re thrilled to now be expanding our offer on its one-year anniversary to help up-skill more small businesses and their staff.
“Education and training can no longer be just for the first 20 or so years of life. With the country needing to respond to climate change, undergoing shifts in demographics, changing regulatory landscapes, new global markets and with the ongoing automation and digitisation of work, lifelong skills development must be more widely adopted.”
To benefit from FSB Training, users pay a one-off fee of £80 + VAT which allows them access to all 700+ online training courses for a 12-month period, making FSB Training extremely competitive and accessible. The new in-person training options start at £695 + VAT depending upon the location of delivery.
