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4. Chapter Four BLA Outcomes

TNAs undertaken and BLA accounts opened

4.1. Overall, 570 small businesses had participated in the BLA programme by the end of December 2005 in the sense that they had at least undertaken a TNA. The majority of these companies (344 or 60%) had gone on to open a BLA account. The number of BLA accounts opened in the HIE pilot (77 accounts) was higher than the average number of BLA accounts opened in each of the SE pilots (64 accounts). The SE pilots have a higher conversion rate (65% of TNA companies going on to open a BLA account) than the HIE pilot (54%).

Table 4.1: Number of TNAs and BLA accounts per pilot

Source: Scottish Executive Monitoring Data (December 2005)

4.2. The telephone survey sheds some light on the TNA- BLA conversion rate. Some 60% of survey companies had opened a BLA account at the time of the interview, 38% for all the training in their plan and a further 22% for part of the training in the plan. Altogether, around two-thirds of firms said they would take up a BLA account, although almost one in five said they did not know whether they had opened an account or not. Manufacturing pilot companies appear to be most likely to open an account for the full amount (48%) while HIE and tourism pilot companies are most likely to set up an account to undertake a part of the training identified (33% and 30% respectively). This seems to be an issue for larger companies (41% of over 21 employees) and very small firms (21% of under 10 employees). Mid-sized companies (10-20 employees) were most likely to take up an account for the whole of their training plan (53%).

Table 4.2: Opening a BLA Account

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)

4.3. Those who had not yet opened a BLA account were asked to give reasons for not taking up the financial support. Most said that they had not needed to (n.b. these are a small group of just seven companies). In fact, all but one of this group have either done all or part of the training in their training plan (or expect to) without the support of a BLA account. A third of companies said that they did not have time at present (too busy or not important at the moment) but they expected to undertake the training later. When asked how they would fund the training, two-thirds said they would use their own funds to undertake the training and a quarter said they would use other government funding.

Table 4.3: Reasons for not opening an account

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: The percentages do not add up to 100% because of averaging.

4.4. Those who had not yet opened a BLA account were also asked whether they had gone ahead with the training in their training plan. The vast majority of companies had done all (26%) or part (57%) of their training. Only 4% of companies had not undertaken any training nor intended to.

Table 4.4: Completion of the training plan

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)

Tourism pilot case study

A tourism company that decided not to open a BLA account had not done any of the training identified in its training plan. The reason for this was that their training needs (in IT and retail) had decreased substantially. They had recently recruited a couple of new staff with IT skills, which meant that the business needs were better covered: the business no longer depended upon the IT skills of just 2 or 3 staff. In retail there is a similar situation, as they recently hired a new employee with a retail background who brought in new ideas to improve sales. If the company was to go through the BLA process again, they would need to identify new training needs.

Manufacturing pilot case study

A manufacturing company withdrew from the BLA programme because they had to pre-finance 50% of their training: as a small business they were in no position to pre-finance training. There were no other issues; they would have continued with the BLA process had the 50% been paid upfront. The company went on to do all the training and paid for the training itself, but the training was done in-house with senior staff training the employees.

4.5. The telephone survey does not offer an explanation for the differences between the HIE and SE pilot in the TNA- BLA conversion rate. One possible explanation is a stricter HIE attitude with regard to the BLA eligibility criteria. Little or no evidence was found of companies or training activities being refused access to BLA money in the SE area because of the eligibility criteria; SE stakeholders throughout the process continued to seek guidance from the Scottish Executive regarding cases arising which were business development led. HIE stakeholders commented that at least 15 companies who had started the BLA process and undertaken a TNA received a Company Training Grant instead because they did not fit the BLA criteria; other companies were awarded no funding. It is not unlikely that additional elements influenced the TNA- BLA conversion rate, but it has not been possible to detect other patterns in the evidence available.

Analysis of companies by company sector

4.6. When examining the kind of companies the BLA programme engaged with, it becomes apparent that one third of all companies in the geographic SE pilot are companies in just two sectors: the beauty & health sector and the retail sector. This can be explained to a large extent by the lack of other funding opportunities for these sectors. Thus, at first glance, the BLA programme appears to have achieved its objective of acting as a funder of last resort and reaching out to companies not yet supported by agencies. However, when looking at the main reason for these companies' exclusion, one cannot but wonder about the BLAs' effectiveness: companies in the beauty and health sector especially are unlikely to exhibit strong growth potential and one LEC employee pointed out that they had recently decided to no longer provide funding for training in the beauty industry, because the only outcome of this kind of funding was displacement rather than additional growth.

Table 4.5: Companies according to sector in geographic SE pilot

Source: SE Monitoring Information (July 2005)
Note: The percentages do not add up to 100% because of averaging.

4.7. In the HIE pilot a similar pattern arises, with more than 40% of BLA companies operating in the wider services sector (25%) or offering training and consultancy services (16%). It can also be argued that small (micro) companies offering training and consultancy services are not the most likely candidates for strong growth potential. The company case studies included 2 training consultancies in the HIE area: both indicated that the main impact of their BLA involvement had been that they were now able to offer a wider range of courses to their clients.

Table 4.6: Companies according to sector in geographic HIE pilot

Source: LDS Monitoring Information (January 2006)
Note: Percentages do not add too 100% because of averaging.

Analysis of companies by company size

4.8. Both sectoral pilots have a 40/60 split between micro companies (less than 10 employees) and other small companies (between 10 and 49 employees). The manufacturing companies tend to be bigger, with an average of 16 employees and a maximum of 49 employees, compared to an average of 12 employees and a maximum of 27 employees for the tourism companies.

Table 4.7: Companies by size in manufacturing pilot

Source: SE Monitoring Information (July 2005)

Table 4.8: Companies by size in tourism pilot

Source: SE Monitoring Information (July 2005)

4.9. The companies in both geographic pilots tend to be smaller than the companies in the sectoral pilots, with 67% of companies in the geographic SE pilot employing less than 10 employees. In the HIE pilot there is an even higher proportion of micro companies (73%) including a large proportion of sole traders (31%).

Table 4.9: Companies by size in geographic SE pilot

Source: SE Monitoring Information (July 2005)

Table 4.10: Companies by size in geographic HIE pilot

Source: LDS Monitoring Data (January 2006)

BLA targets

4.10. The BLA pilot's objective was to provide BLA support to 300 companies, 75 in each pilot. The BLA targets were initially interpreted in terms of BLA accounts opened - a BLA account is opened after a company has completed its TNA (and, in the SE area, its BHC) and training plan and after the lead LEC has decided on the BLA budget available to implement this training plan. However, after discussion in the BLA delivery group, the BLA targets were redefined in terms of TNAs undertaken. The rationale behind this decision was that BLA benefits do not just arise after companies have opened their BLA account; the TNA exercise already has the potential to create substantial company benefits. Also, the change reflected stakeholder recognition that some companies (further to the TNA) would invest in training without further public intervention. 4.11. All 4 pilots reached the BLA target of undertaking 75 TNAs but in particular the tourism and manufacturing pilots struggled to reach their targets, as explained in chapter 3. It is important to remember that, at the start, there were no targets for the BLA programme, as this went against its status as a pilot programme and its rationale - the BLA programme was supposed to be used only for a very specific group of companies (who had not previously engaged in learning and who had not previously been in touch with the business support agencies for workforce development) and only when no other sources of funding were available. As such the BLA programme was fairly prescriptive and restrictive in its target group and targeted activities. The inclusion of targets put pressure on the BLA pilot managers, especially in the SE area, forcing them to be flexible about what constituted an eligible company and an eligible training activity.

4.12. The situation was different in the HIE pilot. The different stakeholders in the HIE area welcomed the BLA targets as an incentive to achieve the best possible outcomes for the BLA programme, pointing out that 75 is a small enough number considering that there are several hundred thousand small companies in Scotland.

4.13. Perhaps the difficulties of the tourism and manufacturing pilots in reaching the target of 75 companies are somehow related to the choice of sectors. There are definitely issues related to delivery of the programme, as mentioned in the previous chapter; limited involvement from some of the other LECs in the SE area, resource constraints and the 'ban' on marketing. Still, both geographic pilots appear to have had a slightly easier ride and when the manufacturing pilot started engaging with construction companies they achieved considerably more success. Especially for the tourism pilot, some of the stakeholders expressed serious doubts about the need for the BLA programme, with the tourism sector already serviced by a wide range of other and often better funding sources. Also, the tourism sector has only a small window of opportunity for training, considering the 'off-limits' holiday periods and summer months.

4.14. The relative ease of the geographic pilots might have less to do with the absence of a sectoral focus and more with the fact that the lead LECs depended to a far lesser extent on the other LECs for referrals. However, one has the impression that for both geographic pilots there appears to have been a clear readily available audience:

• For the HIE pilot those companies that were interested in training but not necessarily in the certified training courses that could be accessed through RACE's existing Company Training Scheme;
• For the SE Geographic pilot companies from the beauty and retail industry other actors did not want to invest in (any longer).

The BLA target group

4.15. As mentioned earlier, the main objective of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of BLAs in stimulating demand for training amongst small businesses that traditionally have not trained their workforce. The BLA programme targets companies that:

• Have less than 50 employees;
• Have no identified training budget;
• Are unlikely to have had contact with their LEC for training support;
• Will not have regularly taken part in government initiatives;
• Do not practice a strategic approach to training, i.e. no training plan linked to business growth.

The employer and learner surveys shed light on the following key evaluation questions:

• Has the BLA programme succeeded in reaching out to companies that have not previously engaged with business support agencies for workforce development support and that have not regularly taken part in government initiatives; and,
• Has the BLA programme succeeded in reaching out to companies that have not previously engaged in training or at least not in a systematic way?

Previous engagement with business support agencies - employer survey

4.16. Awareness of different support mechanisms among BLA companies before they joined the programme was relatively high:

• In the SE area pilots, awareness of the Business Gateway and Chamber of Commerce is higher than that of LECs; and,
• In HIE (where business support is delivered directly by the LEC network) the position is reversed.

Table 4.11: Company awareness of support mechanisms pre- BLA

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because of multiple answers.

4.17. Companies' actual contact with support organisations was somewhat lower pre- BLA.

Table 4.12: Contact with support mechanisms pre- BLA

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because of multiple answers.

4.18. The types of assistance received by the companies was predominately advice and financial support not related to workforce development issues - this was particularly the case for the HIEBLA pilot area (sample sizes are relatively small in this analysis and need to be treated with some caution). The pattern of assistance between LEC and Business Gateway is remarkably similar. Only 32 companies gave responses to questions about both LEC and Business Gateway involvement, resulting in a fairly small sample to base statements on about types of advice and support received overall. However, a clear picture emerges from this sample, with 60% of companies reporting that they had previously received financial support for training from their local LEC or Business Gateway; 72% had received advice on workforce development.

Table 4.13: Types of advice/support received from LEC and Business Gateway

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because of multiple answers.

4.19. Companies who have had previous involvement in Investors in People (IiP) were explicitly ruled out of eligibility for BLAs in the original programme design. In practice, just under 1 in 5 companies in BLAs have either already achieved IiP recognition (10%) or had been working towards recognition (9%) prior to starting BLAs. Almost 70% of companies had had no involvement in IiP at all. The telephone survey includes examples of BLA companies involved in IiP in all four pilots. Although sample numbers are very small, the manufacturing pilot has a relatively high proportion of IiP recognised companies, while the SE geographic pilot has proportionately more companies who were in the process of working towards IiP.

4.20. LEC managers and BLA delivery agents have argued that the blanket exclusion of companies 'working towards' IiP recognition is too stringent as many have all but ceased to do anything about securing recognition and BLAs could be used to re-invigorate their IiP work. Over 10% of BLA companies in the SE area had started working towards IiP recognition since they joined the BLA pilots. None of the HIE pilot companies reported this.

4.21. Overall, the employer survey confirms the earlier findings on the company case studies: the BLA programme does not appear to have succeeded in reaching out to companies that had not previously engaged with the support agencies for workforce development.

• Only 14% of BLA companies had not previously had any contact with a support agency;
• 72% of BLA companies had previously received advice on workforce development;
• 60% of BLA companies had previously received financial support for workforce development,
• Just under 1 in 5 BLA companies were either IiP recognised or working towards IiP recognition pre- BLA.

Companies' previous approach to training - Employer survey

4.22. The telephone survey company responses accord with those of many case study companies - training was important to most of them (only 10% had not undertaken any training in recent years) but structured formal training did not always figure in their human resource development activities (only 14% had a written training policy).

Table 4.14: Companies' approach to training pre- BLAs

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)

Table 4.15: Staff training over the 12 months prior to BLAs

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because of multiple answers.

4.23. Most BLA companies had undertaken some form of staff training in the previous 12 months. In the HIE pilot much of the training activity was focused on senior management but this has probably as much to do with the smaller average company size as location per se.

4.24. Overall, less than 5% of companies had not undertaken any form of training in the past 12 months. On the job training was most often used (80% on the job training by another member of staff), although external providers were used in delivering both on-the-job (68%) and external training (74% and 69% for one-day and short training courses respectively) for between two-thirds and three-quarters of companies. There is very little variation across the BLA pilots (especially when considering the sample sizes).

Table 4.16: Types of training undertaken pre- BLA

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because of multiple answers.

4.25. Involvement in IiP appears to make little difference to the companies stated attitude towards undertaking training and whether or not they had a specific budget for training (although in each case the sample numbers are particularly small).

4.26. Overall, a quarter of BLA companies possessed a training budget prior to participating in BLAs. Companies in the tourism pilot are much more likely to have had a training budget. There is no evidence of why this might be the case, but both case study companies and local delivery agents suggested that the general level of support for training in tourism businesses was having some impact on the sector's involvement in training in general. Fewer HIE pilot companies had a training budget - although size of company does play a part in this, with larger companies (over 20 employees) being twice as likely to have a training budget as micro companies (less than 10 employees).

Table 4.17: Company training budget pre- BLAs

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)

4.27. More than half the tourism BLA companies reported that they had previously carried out reviews of staff training needs (training needs across the business, not just individual reviews). Other pilot BLA companies were less likely to report such reviews; nevertheless, two in five companies had previously undertaken company-wide reviews of training needs. Most of the companies who had such procedures in place had had some involvement in IiP. Relatively few companies who had had no contact with IiP were undertaking company-wide staff training needs assessments.

Table 4.18: Company review of staff training needs

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: Percentages do not necessarily add to 100% because of averaging.

4.28. On the basis of the employer survey evidence it does appear that the BLA programme has not succeeded in engaging with companies not previously engaged in training: only 5% of the survey companies had not undertaken any training in the past 12 months. The picture is more positive when looking at the presence of a systematic approach to training: only a quarter of companies had a training budget prior to their involvement in the BLA programme and only 14% of companies had a written training policy.

Companies' previous approach to training - Learner survey ³

4.29. Broadly speaking, the learner survey confirms the conclusions of the employer survey with regard to training activity: prior to the BLA training over 60% of respondents had taken part in training from their current employer within the last 12 months, 32% even within the last three months. However, 10% had not received any training from their current employer prior to participating in BLA and further 7% had not received any training within the last three years.

Table 4.19: Participation in training prior to BLA

Source: CPC Postal Survey (Learners)

4.30. A great majority of learners also felt that their employers had a positive attitude towards training: 86% felt that the company they were working for was encouraging all staff to go on a course. A further 4% felt that, although the employers' attitude towards training was positive, they only encouraged managers and senior staff to on courses. The remainder of respondents felt their employer's attitude towards training was 'indifferent' with just 1% stating that their employer expected staff to do training outside working hours.

Table 4.20: Learner perceptions of employer attitudes towards training

Source: CPC Postal Survey (Learners)

4.31. Just over three quarters responded that the company they were working for had someone in charge of training for the company and over half confirmed that there was a procedure in place for staff to ask for more training. Nearly two thirds of respondents stated the company had regular staff reviews that included training issues. Over half (55%) of the respondents had an individual training plan.

Table 4.21: Structures in place for training %

Source: CPC Postal Survey (Learners)
Note: Respondents were asked to tick yes, no or don't know boxes for each of the possible answers. Some respondents left a number of lines empty (i.e. ticked no box) which explains why the total number of respondents varies.

4.32. Overall, the learner survey gives an even more positive view than the employer survey of BLA companies' attitudes to training: the high proportion of companies with clear structures in place for training creates the impression of a more systematic approach to training than might have been expected on the basis of the employer survey. However, since the learner survey was distributed by the employers rather than sent directly to individual learners, it is possible that the number of positive employee responses about training structures relate to a smaller number of companies than could statistically have been expected.

The BLA Target Group - conclusion

4.33. The BLA programme does not appear to have succeeded to any great extent in engaging with companies that had not previously engaged with support agencies for workforce development. Despite the small sample sizes, the picture that arises is clear: 72% of the survey companies had previously received advice on training; 60% had previously received funding for training. Discussions with the different BLA stakeholders indicate that no systematic targeting of companies took place. With the exception of one LEC area during the roll-out of the HIE area (where LEC staff knew all companies in their own small area, simply sat down together to go over company characteristics and then contacted those companies they believed fitted the BLA programme best) there was no evidence of any active targeting of specific companies. Companies were referred to the BLA programme as and when SE account managers and Business Gateway client managers came across them. The main elements limiting the opportunities for active targeting included the fact that active marketing was discouraged and resource constraints.

4.34. Likewise, the BLA programme does not seem to have reached out substantially to companies that had not previously been involved in training (less than 5%). It is possible that some companies' training activities in the previous 12 months were not directly related to business development, but the evidence available does not allow for a clear evaluation. It is true that the majority of companies had no systematic approach to training, but that appears to reflect the tendency of small companies to approach training ad hoc - rather than the result of a specific targeted approach.

BLA training activities

Content of training plans

4.35. The LDS database provides information about the activities in the training plans of 315 companies. Four training categories stand out as the most common company training needs: both IT and management training activities appear in more than 50% of the training plans; two fifths of the plans include health and safety training and sales or marketing training appears in one third of the training plans. These findings echo the results of the case study analysis in the May 2005 progress report.

Table 4.22: Content of training plans - categories of training activities

Source: LDS Monitoring Database (January 2006)

4.36. The employer survey provides information about the proportion and kind of employees included in the training plans. The vast majority of companies said that their training plan covered all members of staff. Just under 7% of companies only trained senior managers and a similar proportion trained only production, administration and sales staff.

Table 4.23: Staff grades included in the training plan

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)

Training activities actually undertaken

4.37. Unfortunately, the monitoring information currently available does not allow a clear view of how much training is actually taking place. The contents of the training plans only provide an indication of companies' training intentions. Whereas this offers an interesting overview of company training needs, it does not necessarily reflect training actually undertaken.

HIE pilot case study

A micro company in the HIE area had already identified the need for transport training prior to the TNA. However, at the local delivery agent's suggestion, a Sage course for the lady doing the company accounts was also included in the training plan. The company manager pointed out that it was very unlikely that this lady would ever get round to doing the Sage training, because of time constraints (she works full-time during the week and does the company accounts in the evening or during the weekend) and because there was no real need (she can contact accountants whenever she has a specific question).

4.38. Stakeholders agree that trying to get the companies to undertake the training is a problem. The main barrier appears to be the opportunity cost of having staff locked away in training. In the HIE area, a lot of the companies are asking whether there is any financial support for the 'down-time'. Also, once the training plan has been completed, it is no longer the local delivery agent who drives forward the BLA process: it is up to the company to get the training organised and, importantly, commit the company's money to the BLA training.

4.39. The different SE and HIE databases indicate when companies have drawn down money but this only gives a signal that at least some training has taken place: companies can only claim money after they have pre-financed and undertaken the training. For example, in the HIE pilot only half of the 77 companies had drawn down funding at the time of the evaluation. This does not necessarily mean that only half have done any training: some companies are not certain about claiming procedures, e.g. they do not realise they do not have to wait until all training is finished to draw down money. Also, since this evaluation takes place before the end of the BLA programme, it is simply not possible to conclude that half of the companies will not undertake any training.

4.40. The employer survey shows that only 12% of companies who had opened an account said they had completed all their training but a further 68% said that they had started. One in five had not yet started. Overall, including those who have funded some or all of their training themselves or through other funding it is estimated that two-thirds of companies had undertaken some part of their training at the time of survey.

4.41. The survey further shows that the expected start dates for implementing the plan run beyond the formal end of the BLA pilots - 28% of companies who had completed a plan expected their training to start in the period October 2005 to June 2006 and 40% of companies gave completion dates from April 2006 to September 2007. Interestingly, the HIE pilot manager RACE have decided to use discretionary funding if necessary to honour all BLA commitments post March 2006.

Circumstances in which learning took place

4.42. The learner survey provides information about the circumstances in which learning took place. More than three quarters of respondents participated in BLA training because their skills needed updating. Over half of the learners stated that their job had not changed but that their employer had asked them to do some training and a similar proportion of the learners felt that although their job had not changed they wanted to do some training on their own initiative. One quarter of respondents participated in learning because their job role had changed, 14% had been promoted and 16% had only just been hired to the company. 8% of respondents continued their ongoing training course as part of the BLA programme.

Table 4.24: Circumstances in which training took place %

Source: CPC Postal Survey (Learners)
Note: Respondents were asked to tick yes or no boxes for each of the possible answers. Some respondents left a number of lines empty (i.e. ticked neither box) which explains why the total number of respondents varies.

4.43. Respondents were asked whether they had a choice in the BLA training, and two thirds stated they volunteered to participate in the scheme whereas one third stated they were told to participate by their employer. One in ten learners also did some of their training/learning in their own time and 8% also contributed to the costs of training. Those learners who contributed towards the cost of training were in senior roles within the BLA company.

4.44. The learner survey shows that learners were generally happy about the quality of the training/learning they participated in. 90% of respondents felt the relevance of learning to their job and skills needs was good, and 80% rated the quality of the course as good. However, over 30% of respondents rated getting information about further training as average and further 8% rated this as poor.

Figure 4.1: Assessment of the training activity

4.45. Around half of all learners participated in specific professional training, and around one quarter participated in certificated or lower level (Level 1 or 2) training. Around one third participated in a non-certificated type of learning such as seminars or mentoring. This 'other', non-certificated training includes a wide variety of activities and learning such as team building exercises, study visits and trips and appraisal training. In general, more male learners participated in higher level certificated training than females as well as specific professional training (often IT related), but this could be because women tended to participate more in non-certificated learning (e.g. mentoring).

Table 4.25: Level of the course

Source: CPC Postal Survey (Learners)

4.46. Most of learning (84%) took place at the premises of the training provider and 27% of training was in-house. 17% of respondents participated in training/learning outside working hours.

Eligibility of training activities

4.47. In the BLA scheme eligible training activities are limited to training that will improve business growth and that cannot be funded through other sources of financial support. The first eligibility criteria will be dealt with in the next chapter, in the section on the benefits of the BLA pilot for companies. The second key eligibility criteria is that BLA money can only be used for training that cannot be funded through any other channels. The key problem here is that no overview of funding sources is available. This hampered the development and implementation of the BLA pilot and makes it difficult for this evaluation to assess to what extent the BLA pilot has indeed acted as funder of last resort.

4.48. Most LECs in the SE area confirm that prior to the BLA programme they were able to offer the BLA service to their clients: all seem to have already used some kind of TNA, if not on its own as part of the Business Development Review they undertake, and most provided some form of financial support for training. What was new about the BLA programme in the SE area was its focus on small companies, but this is rarely mentioned as a specific positive element by the SELECs - who operate in a corporate environment which selects companies for support on the basis of their growth potential rather than their size in terms of employment levels. A review of SE support products aimed at bringing the range of products down from 100s to just 100, is currently ongoing and several LECs in the SE area were not willing to bet on survival of the BLA product as part of this wider review, considering SE's focus on growth.

4.49. Moreover, there are also funding streams available to companies outside the SE Network. The tourism pilot, for example, had to deal with the availability of other (better) sources of funding for training for tourism companies. Glasgow City Council offers 100% funding for a number of training activities in the tourism sector. In principle, this should not have caused any problems: following the rationale of the BLA programme as funder of last resort, BLA money could have been used in a flexible way to offer a way out for those companies and those training activities not covered by the City Council funding. Problems arose because BLA targets put pressure on lead LECs to focus on numbers rather than eligibility and the programme's rationale.

4.50. The situation was different in the HIE area, where local authorities see skills and learning for business as the proper role for the HIE network and so have no competing similar programmes. Like most SELECs, RACE already ran a support programme which provided funding for training activities: the Company Training Grant ( CTG) scheme. However, the BLA programme differs from the CTG scheme in a number of important ways:

• CTG funding is used to respond to very specific training requests from companies. In the BLA programme an advisor sits down with the company - even if the company thinks it already knows its training needs - to proactively discuss current and future training needs;
• The CTG scheme is mostly about certified training courses. The BLA programme tries to encourage learning in a much wider sense - the next section deals with this aspect of the BLA programme in more detail; and,
• The maximum amount of funding available under the CTG scheme is 30-40% of training costs; the maximum amount of the subsidy is discretionary. The BLA programme covers up to 50% of training costs, up to a maximum amount of £7,500 (for the HIE pilot).

As such, in the HIE area there was no lack of clarity on the different funding sources available or on the role of BLAs within this wider training support infrastructure.

Learning vs. training

4.51. The BLA programme specifically aimed to also encourage learning as opposed to just training. The BLA funding was not only to be used for the more traditional classroom courses but also for alternative learning opportunities such as online learning, training courses offered in the workplace, learning trips, participation in conferences. More often than not, small companies benefit from this type of bespoke training more than from college courses. The BLA pilot wanted to offer a flexible product, providing small companies with funding for those learning activities that could really add value to the company but could not otherwise be funded.

4.52. In the SE area, the case studies provide some evidence that alternative forms of learning have taken place, including learning trips abroad, online learning, participation in conferences, etc. However, neither the case studies nor the stakeholder interviews gave any indication of a systematic push away from the more traditional forms of learning. Most of the local delivery agents themselves seem to have remained focused on training (as opposed to learning), with one agent admitting that he only rarely suggested alternative forms of learning to employers, not wanting to confuse them with too wide a choice. Interestingly, at least one of the case study employers who had withdrawn from the BLA process indicated that she would have been more interested to continue as BLA company had the local delivery agent mentioned one-on-one business support and other alternative learning forms to her.

Tourism pilot case study

A tourism company that had started small but was growing saw the BLA process as a way to formalise training needs. However, they just looked at a series of college courses which were not relevant to the business. The manager would have preferred looking at learning rather than training: learning was more relevant than training for her business. For example, she and her employees regularly go to trade shows. In the context of the BLA programme she talked with her employees about doing some design course but their conclusion was that they were actually making training needs up to fit the training courses. In a way, there was a real pressure to think of courses to go in the training plan. She regretted that the BLA did not involve any creative thinking. The manager pointed out that some companies are very good at drawing down money and maybe she should have just said ' ECTL for all' and then she would have got some money out of the process. But it was not the money but the process that actually mattered to her.

4.53. The HIE pilot appears to have put a stronger emphasis on wider learning opportunities and there are some clear examples of success stories in this regard. However, it is interesting to note that whereas RACE staff estimate that a form of alternative learning occurred in 50% of the BLA companies, a local delivery agent put this percentage a lot lower, at only 10%. Discussions with the other LECs and companies confirm that the flexibility of the programme is much appreciated by employers in the HIE area. However, when asked to elaborate on the different elements of the flexibility, employers point to the fact that BLAs can be used to cover travel and accommodation costs rather than to the alternative learning opportunities. This is most striking in the more remote areas of the HIE area where travel costs can be prohibitive when it comes to training.

4.54. The employer survey presents a slightly different picture. Companies were asked to recall what learning opportunities were raised in discussions with BLA advisers and LDS and which, if any, learning opportunities they would have liked to consider but were not raised during the process.

4.55. Management and leadership development activities were identified most often in the process; on-line learning, mentoring, attending conferences and events and other learning trips were also discussed quite often. Interestingly, less than a third of companies mentioned traditional training courses. This does not accord with the finding from the case study companies which suggested that the process did tend to emphasise training over learning. Very few companies (less than 10%) suggested that there were learning opportunities which they now wished had been included.

Table 4.26: Learning opportunities considered for the BLA training plan

Source: MORI/ CPC Telephone Survey (Employers)
Note: Percentages do not add to 100% because of multiple answers.

4.56. The learner survey follows the initial case study findings more closely, with the majority (77%) of learners responding that they participated in traditional classroom based training courses. However, a relatively high proportion (43%) of learners took part in mentoring or coaching. Over one third of respondents learned on the job and nearly one fifth participated in online learning.

BLA Outcomes - conclusions

4.57. Overall, 570 TNAs were undertaken and 344 BLA accounts opened. The four different BLA pilots all reached their target of 75 TNAs, but the sectoral pilots in particular experienced difficulties in reaching this target: the sectoral pilots depended more heavily on other LECs for their referrals than was the case for the geographic pilots.

4.58. The BLA programme seems to have succeeded in its objective of offering alternative learning opportunities to a substantial number of companies. However, stakeholder interviews confirm that the 'default' option for workforce development advisors continues to be traditional training options.

4.59. Despite these positive outcomes, the BLA programme does not appear to have succeeded in reaching its target group. Only 5% of companies had not been engaged in training in the 12 months prior to their BLA involvement and, although sample sizes are small, the majority of BLA companies had already received advice on (70%) or financial support for (60%) workforce development.

4.60. The difficulties in reaching the target group - experienced across all four pilots - can be explained by a number of elements in the design of the BLA concept:

• The use of targets is an important part of performance management but for some the objective of BLAs narrowed down to the achievement of 75 BLAs, in particular in the SE area. This has strained the delivery of BLAs into areas where the eligibility of companies and the quality of outcomes are debatable;
• It was always going to be hard to reach companies that had traditionally been outside the reach of (the workforce development branches of) the business support agencies. Active outreach to these companies would have required far more additional resources than LECs were willing or in a position to provide, especially considering the de facto ban on marketing of the BLA pilot;
• The role of 'funder of last resort' assumed a degree of integration between local training and business support services which existed only rarely at the outset of the BLA pilots. In some local areas, the range of local support is such that it has been very difficult to identify where BLAs can fit into the jigsaw. The HIE pilot suffered less in this regard, with local workforce development support in the domain of the HIE network only.

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