THE head of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) Tees Valley is a keen advocate of vocational training - after all, he is himself a beneficiary.

Having opted to become an accountant, Miles Middleton, CBE and chairman of the Tees LSC, followed a career path that did not involve a strict academic route through university.

"I do class training to be an accountant as vocational training, and I do believe accountancy is a good example of how training benefits an organisation," said Mr Middleton, 64, who was a senior partner with what was then Coopers and Lybrand until taking early retirement nine years ago.

"Employers are the first to complain when there is a shortage of skills available, but by and large they're not good at training their employees."

A new workforce development strategy, now in the consultation stages, aims to change that with millions of pounds of investment from the Government.

The aim is to see thousands of workers in the region - particularly those in smaller businesses - benefit from more training at work.

The Learning and Skills Councils are responsible for funding and planning education for those aged over 16. The LSCs took over from the Training and Enterprise Councils more than a year ago and implement national strategy on a local level.

Nowhere is there a greater need to improve basic skills than in the Tees Valley, where 27 per cent of adults have difficulty reading or writing.

Mr Middleton, who has served as chairman of the Rural Development Commission and as a board member for One NorthEast, said: "It's not necessarily about the higher skills such as IT training, it's about training at all levels.

"Nor are we distinguishing between any particular sector, we're talking about reaching every place where the skills level is low."

But the idea of a Government initiative to give the workforce more skills is not new, and with 90 per cent of businesses in the Tees Valley having fewer than 50 employees - the majority with ten or less - they may not appreciate employees taking time off work to brush up on skills.

"I think we're going to have to be innovative on a national scale and we're going to have to buy the commitment, initially, of employers," said Mr Middleton.

Ways of encouraging employers to take part will come through tax relief via a training tax credit.

The LSC will also look at bringing the classroom to the workplace.

"Why can't we take a classroom to a trading estate and deliver it to the workforce? It would make it much easier to put an extra hour in before or after work, " he said.

As part of the LSC's workforce development agenda, it is managing six Employer Training Pilots, which includes one in the North-East.

The £40m scheme will help 16,000 low-skilled workers improve their skills in Tyne and Wear, as well as Birmingham and Solihull, Derbyshire, Essex, Greater Manchester and Wiltshire.

The 12-month scheme starts in September, providing help and incentives to test the impact on take-up of training by low-skilled employees.

The draft Workforce Development Strategy has been put out to consultation with the aim of putting a business plan together by September and real changes seen by 2005.

"We are going to go about this differently and it isn't going to happen overnight - it's going to be a long haul," said Mr Middleton