Scottish Sector Profile 2007: Small Business Sector

This report presents key results of the Employers Skill Survey 2006 for the small business sector. The report was produced in collaboration with FSB Scotland.

Small businesses are defined as having the following characteristics:

• based in the private sector;
• less than 50 employees; and
• not part of a larger organisation.

The main finding is that small businesses are different from other workplaces in the private sector. However, the biggest differences are found between small businesses with less than 10 employees (micro workplaces), and other businesses in the private sector.

In general, these micro workplaces:

• have high labour turnover;
• find most vacancies hard-to-fill;
• find skill shortages account for more than half of hard-to-fill vacancies;
• are less likely to have training or sales and marketing plans;
• are less likely to recruit direct from school, further education or higher education;
• are more likely to report staff already being fully proficient as the main reason for not training; and
• are less likely to participate in government training programmes.

Compared with the rest of the private sector, employees in micro workplaces are:

• more likely to be employed in managerial, administrative or skilled trade occupations;
• as likely to be considered fully proficient; and
• less likely to receive training.

The report also contains information on the product market characteristics of small businesses, business planning, the anticipated challenges facing employers, the type of training undertaken and the providers of off-the-job training.

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