Most of us have been there before. You buy a new shirt or pair of trousers off the shelf in a retail outlet, and trust that it will fit you. Once you get it home, however, you find that the neck is too tight, or that the waist is less than flattering.

But paying for unsuitable "off the peg" training is something that many Irish companies also do, Alan Nuzum of the Skillnets initiative points out.

Frequently, they find that such training, although "ticking the box" of providing their employees with ongoing training, may not be what they really need.

"Very often, when an individual company comes looking for a trainer, they have to take off the shelf training that may only be partially relevant," he explains. "For example, an engineer might see a course in marketing, and say: 'Ah great, I'll go on that.' But 90 per cent of its content might not apply to them."

Skillnets aims to change this. An enterprise-led support body established in 1999, and which will receive €55 million in funding from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment over the next five years, it provides a platform for companies to come together to decide on the type of training they need.

Companies can either form or become part of an existing training network, or arrange for Skillnets to do this.

To date, over 5,000 companies - 82 per cent of whom are SMEs - have helped to improve their competitiveness using training supported by Skillnets, leading to increased skills for over 30,000 workers. So what are the main barriers to prevent companies, in particular SMEs, from providing training for their workforce?

Nuzum says that there are a number of reasons why such companies might be reluctant about getting involved.

Apart from the availability of suitable training, there is the time that it requires to release staff members and organise the training. On top of this, there are other cost considerations - particularly if the location of the business means that participants have a long way to travel to train.

For many small businesses who understandably tend to focus their efforts on the more immediate concern of keeping the business going, training might not be as high on the agenda as it should be, he adds.

"Running a small business is a lonely station, but by encouraging the establishment of networks, you are able to put a group of owner-managers, for example, in a room and get them thinking and talking about the issues that they have got in common.

"They begin to realise that they are not the only one who is paddling a canoe."

At a time when the importance of a well-trained, highly-skilled Irish workforce is becoming increasingly evident, failing to provide extra training for staff may hinder a company's performance and competitiveness.

This is also relevant to the wider economy, which will continue to rely on a steady supply of well-trained new workers in the years to come.

Indeed, one thing that Nuzum has noticed in the past few years is the increasing need for training for immigrants who are coming to Ireland to work.

While this training usually centres around providing language and integration skills, he points out that learning other skills is also necessary.

"There are training needs for managers, who need to be able to give their best in terms of managing these workers. This is also true on the cultural side. Ireland is no longer monocultural. The Ireland of the welcomes needs to have some backup," he says.

One small business owner-manager who has seen the benefits of getting involved in a Skillnets network is John Brophy of John Brophy Produce in Naas.

He helped to form a Skillnets network for companies supplying produce to the large multiples around three years ago.

His company, which employs eight full-time staff and produces vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli, also relies heavily on seasonal workers.

"We would have had major issues with regard to training timing, and getting seasonal staff onto courses when they arrive," he says. "They need induction training, for example, manual handling instruction, and basic food hygiene instruction."

"Usually for us, the problems would be a time issue. Usually, you would have to book a trainer to come down to you three or four weeks in advance. But we work to a very short-order time-frame."

Through his involvement in his own Skillnets network, however, he has been able to become a trainer himself.

This means that he can now train a group of four seasonal workers in two hours. The more you avail of the training opportunities which a Skillnets network provides, the more cost-effective it is, he adds.

"If we were running a manual handling course here, and we only had two or three people on it, we can bring staff from other companies here to train. I would have no threat from a flower, potato or mushroom company participating in a training session with us. We found that we had more in common with these companies than we thought."

This is something with which Nuzum wholeheartedly agrees. One training network is unlikely to meet all the needs of every company in that network, he says.

"Companies have said: 'What if I train people and they leave?' But the flipside of that is: 'What if you don't train them and they stay?'"