Cambridge Policy Consultants (CPC) were commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to undertake an evaluation of the Small Firm Development Account (SFDA) pilot programme. This report presents findings from research undertaken between June 2002 and March 2003.
Further to 2001 Performance and Innovation Unit report “In Demand: Adult Skills in the 21st Century”, the Small Firm Development Account pilot programme was set up in “an attempt to stimulate demand from small businesses and empower them as purchasers” (ITT Annex 1).
Broad aims of the pilot are to:
- Increase the number of small businesses actively engaged in developing their workforce, particularly at basic and intermediate levels, to improve business performance; and,
- Develop an internal resource for small businesses able to identify workforce development opportunities and engage with diverse training provision to identify the most effective solution.
The pilot has taken place in four counties: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. It is funded by DfES except in Derbyshire which funding has been provided by the local LSC. The pilot was designed and managed by the Centre for Enterprise (CfE), an independent not for profit company based in Leicester which researches, develops and delivers innovative approaches to workforce and management development.
The evaluation has sought to explore the following issues:
- To gain an understanding of why companies engage with SFDA (and to consider why other companies do not get involved);
- To understand how the various elements of SFDA support have led to changes in company practices and procedures and whether they have also drawn down other business support services;
- To assess the extent of any changes in the way their business is run, specifically those relating to workforce development which occur as a result and whether this is sustainable in the longer term;
- To review the extent to which SFDA has achieved its objectives and targets and the degree to which these would have been achieved in the absence of the programme;
- To identify the potential for improvements in the process, being careful to draw distinctions between the quality of support provided by SFDA and the need for strategic support and commitment at a senior level within the business.
The SFDA pilot programme started in April 2002 and was planned to be completed in April 2003. The evaluation was commissioned in May 2002 and was planned to be completed twelve months later. Whilst a deadline had been imposed on companies to submit their training plans, a number of them submitted it and started training quite late in the process. A grace period of one month was offered to enable late companies to send their invoices to the CfE. Requirement to inform policy developments meant that some of the fieldwork in case-studies had to be undertaken at an early stage in the process and relatively few companies had completed all their training activity by the time of the survey. We do not think this has changed our principal findings but in some cases respondents were not always in a position to respond to questions concerning the benefits arising from the training.
CONTENTS
Executive Summary
1. Introduction
2. Design and Delivery Issues
3. Participants’ Perceptions of SFDA
- 3.1. Introduction
3.2. What type of companies engaged with SFDA?
3.3. Perceptions of the SFDA Process
3.4. Satisfaction with SFDA Support
4. Benefits of Participating in SFDA
- 4.1. Perceptions of Immediate Benefits
4.2. Barriers to the Completion of SFDA
4.3. Additionality of SFDA Support
4.4. Longer-Term Impact on Company Practices
5. Postal Survey of Learners
- 5.1. Background
5.2. Survey Responses
6. Perceptions of Withdrawn Companies
7. Conclusions and Recommendations
ANNEX A Broad Sector Classification
ANNEX B Comparison of Learner Survey Companies to All SFDA
ANNEX C Equal Opportunities Monitoring Forms
Download
PDF Ebook Evaluation of the Pilot Small Firm Development Account
