National training awards sees continued training commitment from UK business

The National Training Awards today announces strong entry figures for 2004 and reports a significant increase in entries from key industry sectors, showing that companies want to demonstrate they are investing in training, one of the keys to recruiting and retaining staff.

With 22% of all UK businesses reporting a skills gap*, there is a real business need for companies to ensure they recruit and retain the best staff by boosting skills levels in order to remain competitive. The industry sectors embracing this need include IT and telecoms, with a 36% increase in entries, transport and distribution (48%), food and drink, retail (36%), and local authorities (83%).

The National Training Awards, run by UK Skills on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), are universally recognised as the number one training award for UK organisations and individuals. They recognise and reward those who have developed new skills and achieved lasting excellence and success through training and work-place development.

Entries have come from companies and individuals from all over the UK, with Scotland seeing a 26% increases in entries and Northern Ireland achieving a 10% rise on 2003. England provided 79% of all entries, with the largest rises coming from London (12%), the South East (16%) and South West (9%).

The number of entries from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) has risen by 2% in 2004, with 53% of entries from businesses with under 250 employees.

Entries have come from all sectors, with 58% from the private sector, 35% from the public sector and 8% from the not for profit sector.

The announcement of entry figures comes just after the National Learning at Work Day, which took place on 20 May 2004 to encourage learning as a normal part of working life. This year over one million employees took part across the UK.

The National Training Awards are supported by Henley Management College, Learning and Skills Council, Skills for Business and Learndirect.

Dr Graeme Hall, Acting Chief Executive at UK Skills, said: The continued high levels of National Training Awards entries shows that organisations and individuals are taking skills development more and more seriously. We are particularly pleased to see large numbers of entries across all regions and sectors, with the strong SME and public sector entries showing that it is not just large blue chip companies that have realised that a commitment to training can grow their business.

The UK is seeing growth in employment levels, giving employees greater choice when looking for the right job. Workplace learning gives organisations a competitive advantage, helping to boost both staff retention and company productivity.