The challenge of growing the UK economy in such a way that raises wages and increases jobs is widely recognised as being in large part, something best solved by the SME sector. As many large corporations grow by buying competitors and stripping their assets and making staff redundant, SME’s are much more likely to increase staff numbers on a scale that ensures sustainable growth and in doing so, hopefully enabling them to increase their wages and profitability. Due to the sheer number of SME’s their capacity to increase jobs is immense, but such an approach is not a matter of huge change, it depends on a large number of these smaller business taking on one member of staff at a time. However this depends on the actions of Governments focusing on their needs when it comes to issues such as training and the creation of apprenticeships. One of the substantial barriers to increasing jobs for SMEs is that they are primarily focused on their business and few of them have the capacity to train staff to a standard that they need. On the other hand the way in which Governments have historically focused on education is to train people in what could be termed the primary colours of industry. The majority of apprenticeships appear to focus on roles such as brick laying, building construction, basic IT skills. Yet many of the SMEs in the UK are focused on much more nuanced tasks. At a recent business breakfast I sat next to a business who installed double glazing, whilst my business involves the installation of audio visual equipment. Whilst our businesses are miles apart, we both experience the same problem, that there has been no effective educational provision available from training providers. Each of us needs skills that are taught on building courses, on plumbing courses, electrical courses and then in the case of our industry we also need people with IT skills. None of this is rocket science, but unfortunately it appears that large multinationals are the voices that get listened to. This link relates to the work of Goldman Sachs who held an event in Birmingham on 20th July called the “10,000 Small Businesses UK Innovation and Internationalisation Conference”. The video on the webpage is of Richard Gnodde who is CEO of Goldman Sachs International, discussing the importance of small businesses to the UK economy but through the lens of what he sees as “the need to support these businesses as they scale and grow, and how a significant number of 10,000 Small Businesses UK business owners are driving their growth through accessing international markets.”  

There are of course many SMEs in the UK. Take the breakdown adopted by the UK and the EU and the total number at the beginning of 2015 was 1.3m of which over 1m was micro enterprises, 203,000 were small business (employing 10-49 people) and 30,000 or so were medium sized businesses. The first two categories employ around 8m people and these are the businesses that need support from the Government when it comes to training and other provision. Listening to Richard Gnodde who speaks about scaling up the businesses and exporting to the rest of the world misses the point that for most businesses, they are working to grow sustainably, not to ‘scale up’ which is code for doubling or tripling their size. The truth is that Governments love the idea of scaling up businesses and charities, yet the truth is that such language ignores the fact that real growth comes from a myriad of businesses working at a scale which suits the people concerned and the work they do. Some undoubtdly will scale up, but many more will not because the whole raison d’etre of many of these businesses is the scale they currently are. A 20% or 30% or even 50% growth year on year will never feature on the scaling up chart used by people such as Richard Gnodde or the Government. Yet this is what is achievable and sustainable by business who are well placed to take on more staff if people with the right training and skills are available. As for the focus on exports, this may well be on the agenda for 10,000 of the 200,000 small business in the UK, but bearing in mind how well the Government listen to Goldman Sachs, who is going to speak up on behalf of the 190,000 businesses that do not have an interest in exporting their work? let alone a large proportion of the 1m micro enterprises?