LSC North Yorkshire ARG Project -
Action Research for Growth

The ARG Project was successfully concluded at the end of February 2004. Funded by the European Social Fund and Learning and Skills Council North Yorkshire, the project targeted small businesses located in the Districts of Richmondshire and Hambleton.

One of the project's aims was to research the real skills gaps apparent in SMEs in the rural areas of North Yorkshire. The focus was on higher levels of business and ICT skills. A further aim was to research into the training preferred by SMEs - and into the significance and impact of one-to-one mentoring during training.

A free Skills Gap Analysis was conducted focussing on either business skills, individual ICT skills, or both. A Training Action Plan was created summarising the identified skills gaps but also giving individual preferences regarding type of training, location, and timescales. Using all this information, the training broker sourced relevant training for each participant in the project. The training was either free or a heavy subsidy was provided towards the costs of training. All business sectors were eligible for the funding.

• A total of 120 Small and Medium Enterprises were registered for the project - 55% located in Richmondshire and 45% in Hambleton.

• Training provided by the project included one-day business courses, distance learning, college courses over many weeks, and computer-based training.

• The training provided for participants covered many different skill areas including:

  • Marketing
  • Time Management
  • SAGE
  • MS Excel
  • Web Design
  • Graphics Design and Manipulation
  • Food Safety and Hygiene
  • Business Finance
  • First Aid
  • Balloon Sculpture
  • Clown Workshops

Further details about the ARG Project can be found in the following documents:

• The ARG Project Executive Summary (174kb)
• The ARG Project Research Report (1.2MB)
• The ARG Project Statistical Digest (652kb)