Assessment of National Employer Skills and Government Business Support Programmes

IES completed a project from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) working with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) looking at the extent to which rural businesses access government support to grow their business and develop their workforces’ skills.

It considered whether the way the programmes are designed, delivered or marketed could be improved to provide proportionate support to economic growth in rural areas.

We conducted this study with a new partner, the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) and the work involved a mix of literature reviews, secondary data analysis and expert interviews.

Project details

Client	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Year	2012
IES contact	Emma Pollard
Research partners	Countryside and Community Research Institute