News Story
May 2026 / Blog
At the end of last year, the Employer Skills Survey highlighted that investment in training among UK businesses had fallen to its lowest levels since tracking began back in 2011. This seemed to indicate that organisations are tightening the purse strings and, in an increasingly challenging climate, the first casualty is the L&D budget.
But cost-cutting when it comes to training doesn’t have to spell a cut in quality or a delay in individual and organisational development. This is because training doesn’t rely on big investment, but on better consideration of your needs, careful planning and ensuring you are playing to your strengths.
As well as this, Welsh businesses are able to access fully-funded work-based learning from the Welsh Government. Meaning that the only investment they need to make is time and ensuring their employees are supported throughout their learner journey.
Here are some things to consider.
Training isn’t a tick box exercise
Training shouldn’t be treated as something someone does because they have to. Attendance alone doesn’t create the value, rather the change it yields as a result of what’s learnt is what’s valuable. Good training challenges how a person performs, how a team operates and how a business can drive positive change.
Organisations who maximise their training budget shift the question from ‘what training should we buy?’ to ‘what do we need our people to do better?’ This shift in thinking reframes learning as a strategy rather than a one-off purchase.
Talent is right under your nose
Before looking externally, it’s worth taking a closer look at what you have within your organisation. Many businesses assume they lack certain skills when, in reality, they just haven’t had chance to come to the forefront yet. Knowledge often sits informally within teams, built through experience but not formally recognised or shared.
Employees can often become accidental experts in their field, with a wealth of knowledge that they could be sharing with others. And that’s not just sharing within their team but to the wider organisation to help others gain new insight and skills. By utilising internal staff knowledge, businesses can reduce unnecessary spend and share skills that are particularly relevant to their operations.
Ensure change is the centre of your focus
A common challenge in learning and development is focusing on the training itself rather than the impact it can have. It’s easy to measure how many people attended a course or enrol in a qualification, but much harder to measure what change it yields.
The most effective training is directly linked to real business challenges and gives people the opportunity to apply new skills straight away. When learning is tied to practical, measurable goals that are linked to an individual’s role it becomes part of everyday work – meaning change feels like a natural development rather than another task added to the list.
When looking at training options, keep in mind the goals you have and how this training will help obtain them.
Apprenticeships are for everyone
Apprenticeships are often misunderstood as being only for new starters or entry-level roles. This is not the case, in fact, they are undertaken by professionals at all stages of their careers as they offer a flexible route to develop skills on the job.
From gaining better insights into digital tools to becoming a more confident manager, work-based learning offers progression in a wide variety of subjects.
ACT, Wales’ largest training provider, worked with more than a thousand organisations to help develop their staff. The team works with businesses to understand their goals, ensuring that training becomes a strategic tool for growth both for the individual learner and their employer.
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If you’re currently looking at your 26/27 training budget, make sure to keep in mind that the most important question shouldn’t be ‘what training can I afford?’
It should instead be ‘am I making the most of the funding available to me?’ ‘Am I developing the people I already have?’ and ‘Is the training yielding the results we need?’ Because ultimately, the organisations that are getting ahead this year won’t be the ones spending the most on training, but the ones thinking about how learning can drive the most change.
