The Sector Skills Council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies has released a free tool designed to help small companies identify skills gaps and get advice on training.

Semta‘s Business 2 Skills online tool is designed to help smaller businesses benchmark their skills levels against the rest of their industry, and provides employers with a list of training priorities and advice on how to tackle skills gaps.

Philip Whiteman, Semta chief executive, said: “Our priority is in meeting the needs of companies in our sector. With smaller businesses making up such a huge proportion of the 132,000 employers we support, we designed the Business 2 Skills diagnostic tool so that they can explore skills needs and training options quickly and easily and with no initial financial outlay.”

Semta say that 96 percent of its member companies have fewer than 50 employees. It is hoped that the tool will help businesses to increase their competitiveness by pointing out areas which could be improved with further training.