67% of Scotland’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners and managers have reported that skills shortages are impacting their business growth and profitability.
New research by Censuswide on behalf of The Open University in Scotland also revealed that for businesses with between 10 and 49 employees, this rose to 83%.
The survey, completed by 200 owners and senior managers of Scottish SMEs, identified people management (25%), finance (24%), digital technologies (22%) and project management (20%) as the top areas in which they were experiencing skills shortages.
Environmental concerns and their impact on business growth are also front and centre for Scottish SMEs, with 85% of organisations planning to invest in ‘green’ staff training.
Priority training areas included developing innovative and sustainable ways of doing things (37%), making their business more sustainable (36%) and renewable energy (32%).
The survey also highlighted a lack of awareness among SMEs of the access they have to Scottish Government-funded employee training support. Less than a third of businesses had heard of the Scottish Funding Council Upskilling Fund (31%) and the Part-Time Fee Grant (29%).
Almost a third (32%) of businesses surveyed also knew about the Flexible Workforce Development Fund, which offers SMEs access to £5,000 of free and flexible online training with the Open University in Scotland, supported by the Scottish Funding Council.
However, more positively, 75% of respondents would be likely to consider accessing funds in the next 12 months.
David Allen, senior partnerships manager for the Open University in Scotland, said: “Despite two thirds of businesses overwhelmingly reporting skill shortages, current financial and economic pressures mean training budgets are often squeezed at the expense of skills development.
“This does not need to be the case, through the Flexible Workforce Development Fund, SMEs can access fully funded high quality, flexible online training that addresses many of the core skills shortages facing them.”
“Two-thirds of SMEs surveyed were unfamiliar with the available Scottish Government funded support,“ he continued, adding: “This is a core reason why the Open University in Scotland is determined to raise awareness of initiatives such as FWDF.“
The survey findings also align with the experience of the Scottish charity Health in Mind, which recently undertook a training programme in partnership with the Open University, using FWDF support.
Flora Henderson, alliance manager at Health in Mind, commented: “The cost-of-living crisis, as well as the ongoing impact of the pandemic, has resulted in a tremendous increase in demand for our services.
“At the same time, staff are affected by workload and a continued impact on staff absence levels.
“It was a priority to continue to offer genuinely valuable development opportunities, intended to help staff feel supported to grow and develop in their role,“ she continued. “The FWDF has allowed scarce resources to have more impact and encouraged wider participation than would otherwise be possible.”
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