An assessment of the degree to which businesses access national mainstream employer skills and government business support programmes

Synthesis Report

The 2012 Rural Statement said that the government would 'ensure that all government policies designed to promote business and support economic growth benefit rural communities’.

As part of that commitment the government said it would ‘research the degree to which rural businesses are accessing national employer skills programmes and government business support programmes and identify options for improving take-up if evidence shows that rural businesses are not accessing programmes that might benefit them’.

This report summarises the main findings of that research.