Social Enterprise Training Trends

 “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Mahatma Ghandi’s quote could be the beginning of the research commissioned by the School for Social Entrepreneurs in order to analyze the training trends across the UK. On Monay, David McGlashan, Enterprise Officer at the School for Social Enterpreneurs reported on the Guardian, the results of the survey, which involved 449 people across all sectors.

Here are the jey findings from the research:

 

1. Under-investment

Everybody recognizes the importance of professional training but very few are willing to invest in it. 20% of the respondents answered that they had spent nothing on training in the last year, and close to half had spent less than 500 £.

 

2. The biggest barrier to training is time

Money is not the only problem when it comes down to training. Respondents were concerned about spending time away from their day jobs on training courses. One or two days are the average length of courses. However, longer durations are considered to have a greatest impact and 77% of respondents said the would be interested in a training course, taking place in several weeks.

 

3. Cross-sector is interesting

It’s not just social enterprises that are interested in training. Public sector organizations, housing associations, charities and even private sector organizations, are all looking for training and support in order to develop a social enterprise idea and scale a social enterprise.

 

4. Social impact measurement is the hot topic

The most wanted training topic was social impact measurement. Almost 50% of the respondents answered that that would be the subject they would like to learn the most about.

 

5. Training is going online

60%  of correspondents said that they’d rather take an online course, as a response to the time and cost pressures, that many in the sector actually face.