by Trevor Sturgess

Nurturing workforce skills is to be the key challenge for south east businesses in 2010 and beyond.

That’s the Christmas Eve message from large and small firms alike.

CBI president Helen Alexander told bosses from Kent and the region that businesses must be more active in their approach to how they manage the talent of their staff.

They also needed to work more closely with schools, colleges and universities, with firms funding and designing courses to suit their needs.

While a Forum of Private Business (FPB) survey found that 84 per cent of small firms rate their employee skills as either “excellent” or “good,” they are less happy about the wider talent pool in their area. Only one per cent thought their skills were excellent and a quarter as “good.”

Similarly, only three per cent said the training and skills provision of their local schools and colleges was “excellent” and only 29 per cent described them as “good.”

FPB chief executive Phil Orford said: “Few small firms seem to place much faith in the ability of schools and colleges to properly prepare people for the workplace. Consequently, most of them doubt they can easily recruit people with the skills and abilities they are looking for among the local workforce.

“If there is going to be an economic recovery in 2010, it is vital that small businesses can find employees with the right attributes quickly and easily. As a result, we would urge the Government to think long and hard about how learning can be better tailored to meet the needs of industry.”

Paul Gresham, senior partner with KPMG in Gatwick said: “It’s clear that the South East is a very resilient region which is fortunate to have access to a great talent pool of highly skilled people, but if we are to remain competitive and start to grow again we need to ensure that time and money is spent on continuing to develop this talent and that means business, policy makers and education providers working together more effectively.”