Flexible workforce development fund: first year evaluation

Appendix B: Primary Research Challenges

It is worth commenting on the Employers’ Survey, and some challenges encountered. The original intention was to undertake the following number of telephone interviews with employers: 100 in receipt of a grant from the FWDF; 10 choosing not to apply to the FWDF; and 10 small businesses not eligible for funding.

A total of 187 responses were received, of which 172 employers opted-in to the telephone survey. We received responses from employers engaging with almost all colleges involved in the delivery of the FWDF ^[13] .

A total of 82 telephone interviews were completed, which is a good response rate given the total number of contacts who opted-in to the survey (i.e. 48%).

A further challenge, however, was that most employers who opted-in to the survey were those engaging in some way with a college regarding the FWDF (e.g. in receipt of funding, working up an application, considering an application).

The extent to which the communication issued by the college network reached employers not aware of the Fund, or deciding not to apply, would appear to be limited. As such, the majority of interviews undertaken with employers were with those actively engaging with the FWDF – which is in line with the original plan for the primary research.

The Employers’ Survey was delayed for a number of reasons, with the main challenge being our initial inability to secure contact details of levy-payers who have accessed the Fund (or indeed a list of all employers who are eligible for the FWDF) ^[14] .

The SFC, who administer the funding, do not hold contact details for employers (it is not provided by colleges on their Reporting Templates), as such we subsequently approached the college network directly with regards to progressing this aspect of the evaluation.

In line with new General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) guidelines, colleges are not allowed to pass employer contact details directly to third party organisations unless they have permission to do so. EKOS provided colleges with introductory email text and a link to an online survey that asked employers to:

• specify which college they are engaging with;
• indicate whether they wanted to opt-in or opt-out of the telephone survey; and
• if selected opt-in – we gathered some basic contact details (company name, contact name, telephone number, etc).

Reminder emails were sent to the college network by EKOS and SFC, and the deadline extended to boost responses.

Other organisations also helped distribute the opt-in-opt-out survey link to employer contacts, including Skills Development Scotland, NHS Scotland, and Coalition of Care and Support Providers.