The System of Support for SMEs in the UK and Germany

Compares the role of the recently established Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) with that of the relevant German institutions of support for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Examines the adequacy of each as a means of supporting SMEs in the context of overall SME policy. In the summer of 1992 the authors conducted a survey of the TECs in England and an in‐depth investigation of a management consultancy scheme at a particular TEC. The results from this work, along with other research into comparable German schemes, provided an invaluable source of information with which to evaluate the coherence of SME support. Certain problems were found with TEC schemes which were partially attributable to their infancy. The German case offers important lessons but should not be used as an exemplary model for the UK.