LONDON - Fewer businesses in Britain are increasing investment in skills this year and a majority have never heard of key government programmes to boost training, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conducted in 2022.

The proportion of companies planning to raise the amount they spend on training in the following year has dropped from 53 per cent in 2021 to 38 per cent in 2022, said the 2022 CBI Education and Skills Survey.

Despite fewer companies than before saying they will increase skills spending, 47 per cent said they will maintain investment at existing 2022 levels in 2023, compared with 43 per cent that said they will maintain investment at 2021 levels for 2022.  

A large majority of the 273 businesses surveyed in 2022 reported that they do not know about flagship government programmes to increase skills. Four out of five have not heard of the planned Lifelong Loan Entitlement scheme, which will offer funding for four years of higher education at either universities or technical colleges, taken any time in life.

Around two-thirds of firms are at most “slightly” aware of T levels, a keystone government programme that offers technical skills training as an alternative to the A levels, the academic qualifications typically achieved by students prior to attending university.

Mr Robert West, head of education and skills at the CBI, said the results show “concerningly low levels of awareness for key aspects of the government’s skills agenda”. BLOOMBERG