British Computer Society welcomes training boost

The British Computer Society has welcomed Chancellor Gordon Brown's Budget announcement to give a £30 million boost to small firms training provision.

The Professional Association, which administers the popular European Computer Driving Licence¨ (ECDL) in the UK, has long called for the government to take a firm stance on the burgeoning skills gap impacting on the productivity and effectiveness of business.

With the Chancellor's budget confirming that free access will be given to training courses, pilot schemes will also be launched in some of Britain's most deprived areas. Participating employers will also receive subsidies from local learning and skills councils if they offer all their low skilled staff paid time off to train and brush up on their skills.

The extra money will help at least 10,000 firms to take up the Investors in People standard, which aims to improve staff training.

Pete Bayley, Deputy Director ECDL Business Unit said: "Training is the key to building Britain's skills base and improving worker's output. As the government itself has pointed out, research consistently shows that low productivity levels among UK employees are linked to poor skills and qualifications. In fact, output per worker is 38 per cent below the USA and 15 per cent below that of France.

"These days computer usage is universal, however, many firms do not require their staff to gain qualifications such as ECDL, to improve their PC skills. As a result, time is wasted and ultimately, a company's bottom line affected.

"We estimate that up to an hour a day can be wasted by each employee on computer queries and problems. The European Computer Driving Licence can help employees brush up their IT skills, improve their productivity and ultimately, improve their firm's profitability."

For more information and examples of organisations currently implementing the European Computer Driving Licence Tel: 01793 417530.

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