Skills Development Scotland: Workplace Learning Grants Project Evaluation  

Progressive undertook research following the pilot stage of the learndirect scotland for business Workplace Learning Grants project.  The project offered a learning grant to small businesses, which could be used either to pay for training or to help offset the business costs of undertaking workplace learning. 

The Brief

The aim of the research was to evaluate the success of the project by determining how the businesses had used the Workplace Learning Grant and the business impact it had.  The evaluation also assessed the impact that the Grant had had on employees and the companies as a whole and identified potential areas for improvement of the project prior to its launch.

Our Research Approach

The study involved undertaking 47 semi-structured telephone interviews with participating small businesses (94% response rate).  The first 6 of these interviews were undertaken by the Progressive executive team to ensure that all of the key areas were covered in the questionnaire and to provide additional insight for developing the discussion guide for the second stage.

In addition 6 depth interviews were undertaken with a selection of companies to provide a more detailed insight into their experience of the process.  Participants covered a range of organisations from public, private and voluntary sectors.  Interviews were undertaken with the person in the business who was responsible for the delivery of the Workplace Learning Grant scheme to employees; this was in most cases a business owner or Director.

The Output

The results from the telephone surveys were presented to a team of key stakeholders from SDS.  The results from this stage of the study suggested universally positive views of the scheme, which reinforced the benefits of learning for participating organisations.  It was found that the three elements of the scheme; funding towards the cost of training, advice from a dedicated Training Partner and the deadline for undertaking learning, all contributed to its success. 

The qualitative research was reported in the form of individual case studies that could be used for PR purposes. 

The findings and recommendations from this research were used by SDS to facilitate decisions regarding the future of the project, and helped the client to identify where to invest their resources to best effect to deliver maximum benefit to SMEs and their employees.