Target

Abstract

Skills shortage has been a growing problem in Britain and the European Community for some considerable time. As evidence of this, research in the Thames Valley region of Britain (the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire — ‘Silicon Valley’) has shown that in certain cases up to 80 per cent of firms in this area experience difficulty in recruiting skilled staff. The staff shortages range across the skills spectrum and, particularly in small and medium-sized firms, are a major inhibiting factor in companies’ ability to release their workforce for any period of training and retraining.