A stark majority of workers at UK small- and medium-size entities (SMEs) want to upskill, but they are presented with little opportunity to do so, according to new research from AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.
More than four-fifths of SME employees (82%) in the UK indicated a desire to upskill, both by improving their existing skills (56%) and by learning new skills (55%), according to Mind the Skills Gap, a report focused on the needs and expectations of SME employers and employees.
Only 31% of employees said they had received formal training beyond the mandatory training required by their employer in the last 12 months, a marginal decrease from 32% in the report’s 2022 version.
The recent report found that employees’ enthusiasm to upskill was more concentrated across younger demographics, with 69% of workers under 35 wanting to improve existing skills and 63% wanting to learn new ones. For workers over 55, these numbers drop to 41% and 47%, respectively.
Despite fervour to develop in their careers, over two-thirds (67%) of employees reported undergoing no formal training in 2024, with the figure increasing to 70% in smaller SMEs (10–49 employees) and decreasing slightly to 64% for larger SMEs (50–249 employees), the report said.
The findings raise important questions for how organisations can better engage and develop the skills of all their employees, the report said.
The survey was carried out among UK organisations with between ten and 249 employees by Opinium Research on behalf of CIMA. Insight from 1,000 employers and 1,000 employees was collected online in late 2024.
Skills gaps could widen the innovation gap
Skill and knowledge gaps across companies mean that a tenth of employers said their company never uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the report said. Yet almost all employers (90%) believe those tools will have an impact on communication and collaboration, with 35% calling the impact “major”.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the percentage of SMEs reporting frequent use of AI amongst employees is tied to organisation size. More than one-third (35%) of larger businesses in the survey said their workers use AI frequently, but that’s the case for only 20% of smaller entities (10–49 employees).
Another factor hindering integration is the confluence of age and attitudes towards AI technologies.
“Typically, confidence in the potential of AI goes down as SME leadership [gets] older or organisations get bigger,” the report said. Several factors may be affecting this trend, including familiarity with technology, bureaucracy, and adaptation to change.
Younger employees, while more willing to undertake further training, are also more likely to seek out new opportunities if they feel unable to progress in their careers, posing retention concerns for companies.
SME employers need to do more to unlock their full economic potential and ensure a future where businesses prosper and to retain the talent needed for the journey.
“To navigate the evolving demands of the future, more effort is needed to bridge the skills gap, invest in relevant training, and embrace technology advancements as they come,” the report said.
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.