Small firms invest much more in training their employees than larger companies according to the results of a new survey, carried out by Capita Learning & Development, into training trends amongst UK businesses.

Firms of under 25 employees spend over £400 per head on training compared to less than £350 per head invested by larger firms. Small firms also free up their staff to have more time for training than big business, giving them 27% more time during the working day to develop their skills - an average of 6.4 days per employee per year compared to the UK average of 4.7 days. 93% of SMEs said they evaluated their training, compared to an 80% average.

The survey also found that 47% of businesses still rate communication skills as the most important area in which to train their staff, compared to just 10% for whom business and finance training was top of their list of training needs. 42% rated computer and IT skills as most important - an 18% drop since last year's survey - followed by Health and Safety (41%), customer care (34%) and people management (33%).