Recently the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) published a report which states that workforce personal development and skills training are more important than ever. This is echoed by many other business organisations and business leaders who feel that skills and training development is the best way to remain competitive and push through this recession and out the other side.

The report (Reaching Further: Workforce development through employer-FE college partnership) was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, claims that British business’ productivity and prospects will be strengthened by an improvement in links between employers and further education colleges to plug future skills gaps.

As the CBI state in their press release:

“More than fifty per cent of employers lack confidence in there being enough skilled people to meet future demand. With the great majority of the workforce in 2020 having already left compulsory education, the importance of raising skill levels among those in work today becomes paramount”

Of course, business can also help themselves by developing their existing staff; investing in management training courses, sales training courses and other forms of personal development can only pay dividends in the future. Although it’s a time when everyone is looking at what areas to save money on, staff training and development shouldn’t be one of them.