SME recruitment and skills landscape

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are heading for a positive shift in landscape when it comes to skills and recruitment. The Department of Education (DfE) has released its Skills Horizon 2025 report in which it has been reported that 70% of SMEs are planning to upskill their existing workforce in 2025, and 54% are considering offering training and employment schemes such as apprenticeships.

These measures are coming off the backend of a very positive year in which 90% of SMEs have reported a growth within their business, with an average of 27% growth across the surveyed businesses. This growth has surpassed the predicted growth set last year.

One concern seen within the report is the topic of staff retention. While the percentage of businesses citing this as their top concern has dropped (27% in 2025 compared to 40% in 2024), this is still a topic that needs addressing. The way businesses look to addressing this is through resolving the skills gap and upskilling their staff with seven out of 10 SEMs saying that they are planning to invest in upskilling their existing workforce.

Upskilling staff is a great way to support staff retention as a recent survey found where 45% of employees surveyed reported that they are more likely to stay in a job if their received training.

A cost-effective way to upskill staff and bring in new motivated talent is through apprenticeships. These funded training programmes are available for all businesses and the cost of training is covered either partly or in full by the apprenticeship levy. Using apprenticeships to upskill existing members of staff has a variety of benefits from the cost saving aspect of the training itself, to savings on National Insurance Contributions for apprentices under the age of 25.

LMP Education offers a range of apprenticeships for the business sector to fit all types of industries. Explore all of LMP’s funded training programmes.

Are you interested in upskilling an existing member of your team or hire new talent through apprenticeships? Book a discovery call with the LMP Team.