With its budget under-spent by literally £ millions each of the last two years (see earlier story) it really did seem that businesses had limited appetite for what was on offer. But perhaps, what was on offer was just not what was needed.

Originally funding under the scheme was limited to bringing workers up to NVQ Level 2 standard (five GCSEs at grades A* to C), which is generally considered to be the minimum “passport to employment” and the starting point to climb up the skills ladder. But only if they didn’t already have any NVQ2 qualifications.

New flexibilities of offer from January next year will be delivered using a £350 million budget and will focus specifically on small businesses.

The flexibilities include funding for learners taking a level 2 qualification even if they already have a previous qualification at this level, and further funding to take workers to NVQ Level 3 (A levels or equivalent)

More interesting for Brighton & Hove where we already have one of the highest skilled workforces in the south east is the funding for “bite-sized chunks” of learning in subjects SMEs have identified as being important. Examples include business improvement, team-working, customer service, financial planning and risk-management.

Furthermore the revamped scheme will offer support for groups of SMEs located together so they can increase their purchasing power and share resources to support their training. This could be particularly useful to small retailers in the independent shopping areas like The Lanes and North Laine who could pool their individual grants to purchase training sessions on subjects like cash-flow forecasting, risk management and business planning. All vital tools during a recession.

The new Train to Gain will also extend the Department for Innovation Universities & Skills (DIUS) leadership and management programme so more can benefit from it, including companies with 5-10 workers. This is currently only available for SMEs with 10 to 250 employees.