Many in the private sector are cautious of the government’s attempts to address the skills gap. According to the spring 2007 quarterly Labour Market Outlook survey published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and KPMG, 20 per cent of employers are indifferent or uncertain about the skills pledge, 15 per cent are fairly or very unlikely to make the pledge and 12 per cent say that it is not applicable to them. Their reasons are the cost or resources involved (46 per cent), the lack of business benefits (33 per cent), the lack of commitment from senior management (22 per cent) and the lack of employee motivation (13 per cent).

“Our members are reporting generally negative experiences of the government institutions and bodies set up to promote skills,” says Martyn Sloman, the CIPD’s learning, training and development adviser.

But recent government initiatives, led by the Leitch Review, have solicited some positive comment. “What is good about Leitch,” says Mr Sloman, “is that it is less prescriptive than some that we have seen in the past.”

When the findings of the Leitch Review were published last December, some business leaders were openly enthusiastic in their support. Belinda Earl, CEO of Jaeger, the fashion brand, declared: “The Leitch Review of Skills is spot on when it recognises the urgent need to address skills shortages in the UK.”

Meanwhile, the Confederation of British Industry, the employers’ body, has encouraged business to do more to address the issue. In an article for this publication, John Cridland, deputy director-general of the organisation, calls on business to engage with government to ensure that the need for high-level skills is achieved.

A big concern for the private sector is that although funded training is being undertaken, many do not feel it is being properly targeted. Jim Hillage, director of research at the Institute for Employment Studies, an independent research centre, says that distribution is skewed. A lot of it is undertaken by certain types of people, in certain occupations, in certain types of jobs, in certain workplaces, who are already well-qualified and well-skilled.

“Investment continually goes to employers who are already committed to implementing training,” he says. “It makes very little difference to the total numbers trained. The only way the skills shortfall will be addressed is if the government stops spending public money on schemes which end up subsidising training which would have happened anyway.”

Recent research by Vedior, a recruitment service company, shows that only one in eight respondents believe government policy and regulation is helping to ease the skills problem. A quarter think the government is actually hindering the situation. “The people who are in most need of the training, are most likely to complete it and who are most likely to give the greatest contribution to the workplace are excluded from all of the current initiatives,” says Karl Parkinson, chairman of Computeach, a training company. “There appears to be a glaring discrepancy between the needs of industry and of individuals, and currently neither are being met,” he continues. “They will not be met if funding continues to be focused only on government approved qualifications which are often neither desired nor useful.”

Mr Hillage agrees that so far a lot of employers are sceptical of the government’s efforts to close the skills gap and that most are fairly indifferent. He says that some larger employers are quite involved in government schemes and the more involved they get the more positive they become about government policies.

An example is McDonald’s, which invests £14m a year in training. “We will continue to work closely with government and other employers to ensure that basic skills deficiencies do not hold Britain back,” says David Fairhurst, the company’s chief people officer.

Robert Leggett, managing director of Omni RMS, a recruitment outsourcing company, argues that when recruiting most businesses tend to focus on ‘hard’ factors, such as school grades, degrees, work experience and literacy and numeracy skills and neglect the “softer”, more generic skills that are often more important. “I am often told by employers that they would love to see confident, charismatic graduates with presence and initiative,” he says.

The Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative, which offers advice on learning and training to small businesses, points out that 97 per cent of all businesses have fewer than 10 employees, yet access less than 10 per cent of government skills budgets.

In partnership with the Small Business Research Trust, a research charity for small business, it recently surveyed 1,000 small business owners and over 80 per cent rated the standard of literacy and numeracy of school leavers as either average or poor. “These softer, communications, verbal, written and financial literacy skills are what small business owners find are in short supply,” says Tony Robinson, its executive chairman.

But not everybody is as negative. According to a survey carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce, 87 per cent of respondents were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the Train to Gain initiative. Nick Dunes, the organisation’s head of communications, says that government support initiatives are the right way to engage more small and medium-sized enterprises in training. “We will be working to increase their awareness of the scheme,” he says, “which is currently very low indeed.”

Closing the skills gap requires considerable management skills, but managers have their own skills gap. The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) believes that there are about 4.5m managers in the UK, yet only 20 per cent have a management qualification. “The Leitch Review goes some way towards addressing the skills gap, but it is not focusing as much as we would like on the vital management skills that help to drive the employer investment in training and development,” says Jo Coulson, the CMI’s director of marketing and corporate affairs. “We would like to see 50 per cent of managers qualified to level four or higher by 2020.”

This is supported by “Tomorrow’s people: making the most of the best”, research from the Management Consultancies Association. Only 52 per cent were effective at developing leaders from within their organisations and attracting potential leaders from the outside. Only 26 per cent were confident their organisations have the people they need to lead their organisations in the future

The CMI’s National Management Salaries Survey also shows that 40 per cent of managers joined their organisation because of opportunities for training and development, yet 51 per cent of organisations offer little in the way of training and development, up from 37 per cent last year.

Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the retailer John Lewis Partnership, puts forward the view of many: “Employers need to do more, so the government must do less. We need fewer initiatives and fewer bodies responsible for skills delivery, but more focus on encouraging generic communication skills, positive attitude and an enterprising outlook.”

On a more positive note, Mr Hillage at the IES points out that employer scepticism is a result of not getting involved in government schemes and not understanding what government is trying to do. “Employers who are more involved tend to be more enthusiastic and appreciative of government policies,” he says. “The new ‘Our future. It’s in our hands’ campaign might make a difference in encouraging employers to get more involved.”