Govt announces skills training for small firms

Date: 21st October 2008

The government has today (October 21st) announced a £350 million fund to help the small business sector with skills training.

Skills secretary John Denham revealed that the money will be used to deliver better training in business improvement, leadership and management for small business start-ups.

All private sector firms with 250 employees or less will be granted access to the fund, which will be provided by Whitehall's Train to Gain programme.

Mr Denham said: "We've got to make sure that small businesses have cash flow … [it] will help hundreds of thousands of people to get skills which are proved to pay back companies they work for."

He added that the training system was also being overhauled so that small firms could access assistance with the minimum bureaucratic interference.

Conservative leader David Cameron yesterday (October 20th) called for a 1p cut in national insurance, a plan that was derided by the Director of Finance Online for being "headline grabbing".