IT MAY be a period of economic gloom, but cutting training budgets isn't the answer for businesses looking to save cash, according to employment experts.

As part of the Mail's Bounce Back campaign, we are looking at why continuing to invest in training can help companies during difficult times.

East Yorkshire food producer Cranswick plc has maintained its commitment to training throughout the economic downturn, and believes there are many benefits.

General manager Stuart Kelman says ensuring workers have the right skills is crucial to the continued success of the business.

He said: "Cranswick recognises its staff are its greatest asset.

"It is essential therefore that we provide them with the key skills to ensure continued success across all aspects of our business, especially given the current economic situation."

Cranswick plc supplies fresh and processed food to the UK food retail, food manufacturing and food service sectors.

This includes a range of fresh pork, gourmet sausages, premium cooked meats, traditional air-dried bacon and sandwiches from a number of production facilities, including those in Preston and Hull.

The company's commitment to staff development has, in the past two years alone, seen hundreds of workers taking courses through a link-up with Bounce Back partner East Riding College.

These include food manufacturing NVQs, apprenticeships, management NVQs, short courses in food safety, health and safety and bespoke courses on communication and management effectiveness.

Mr Kelman said: "By their persistent efforts to source funding, East Riding College has been instrumental in helping us achieve this by continually providing high calibre staff and training programmes.

"We are pleased to be associated with such a quality training provider."

East Riding College has found it isn't just Cranswick who are continuing to invest in training, even as the recession has deepened.

The number of employees enrolling on courses doubled in 2008-09 compared to 2006-07.

Employers have been receptive to the message that reducing workforce development is a false economy and have continued to invest in their staff.

They have also benefited from the convenience of flexible training in the workplace, which allows staff to fit in training around shifts without losing time by travelling.

Andrew Wren, East Riding College's director of employer engagement and marketing, said: "We have done a lot of work to ensure business people throughout the region keep their staff development programmes going, even if they are feeling the pinch.

"Training is good for businesses because staff feel they are valued by their employer and because it makes them better equipped for their job role.

"In turn, this reduces staff turnover and improves productivity, which are crucial in these difficult economic times."

The types of training employers are investing in takes a wide variety of forms. Some work in industries covered by national legislation, such as food safety regulations, while others want to increase the skill levels in their workforce.

Businesses increasingly want to "grow their own" rather than recruit new people, and this can be seen in the number of staff taking supervisory and management qualifications, including foundation degrees.

Employers have been helped significantly by government initiatives such as Train to Gain, which enabled hundreds of thousands of workers nationally to receive training at no cost to their employer.

However, that pool of funding has now been vastly reduced as politicians focus on giving long-term unemployed and recently redundant people the skills they need to get back into work.

This means businesses will need more help from colleges and other training providers to ensure their training budgets are well spent.

Mr Wren said: "It's now more important than ever that we make training as affordable as possible and demonstrate to employers the rewards they can reap from investing in their staff.

"When we are creating training programmes, we set out clear, measurable goals so we can ensure workers do the right courses for them and then evaluate their progress against those goals.

"This means the benefits to each individual member of staff and the organisation itself are easy to see, and senior officers can see the merits of maintaining their training programmes."

The Spa Bridlington is one of East Riding College's key partners, with members of staff undertaking training in hospitality, catering food hygiene and team leading courses.

The college and the resort venue agreed several targets, including one which aimed to ensure levels of customer service were very high, which is essential to a conference and events business.

John-Lee Thompson, senior catering manager at East Riding Council, which owns The Spa, said: "Our partnership with East Riding College has helped us to ensure we have highly skilled staff that can provide the standard of food, drink and service our clients require.

"Even though we are in difficult economic times, we have to ensure our standards remain high because that's crucial to our business and helps to bring people back time and time again."