The South West Employment and Skills Partnership (ESP) Alliance met on 21 June 2012 in partnership
with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Federation of Small Businesses
(FSB) and Business West in an event entitled, Your Route to Skills.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face many issues in accessing training and other skills
provision. The event was aimed at businesses in the region, and also attracted a range of stakeholders
with an interest in the skills agenda including training providers, business organisations and
educationalists. With a series of speakers, case studies and some signposting, the event aimed to help
SMEs help themselves and each other to find and access the support to grow their businesses and aid
economic recovery.

The ESP combined forces with BIS as part of the national BIS Employer Engagement consultations
currently taking place across the country. The event, therefore, had a clear focus on raising awareness
of the importance of skills, informing business about the opportunities and how to get involved and
provided a forum for discussion on what is working and what is not as a feed into the BIS consultation.
This Summary Report explores the issues that emerged from the meeting and is structured in two
parts: Section 2 is taken from the presentations while Section 3 details the issues raised in the
subsequent discussion based on the BIS consultation.

Browse all SLIM Alliance Papers
Your Route to Skills Event - Somerset College, 21^st June 2012