Businesses are facing a skills gap crisis, due to failure to upskill their workforces, a new report published by skills body City & Guilds Group has revealed.
The research, which polled a total of 2,000 current full-time employees, claims that 75% of respondents agree that work continuous education is essential to success, whilst nearly half of those polled do not believe that they are getting the training they need to stay relevant in their field.
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All but 20% of those polled also believe that the education needed to adequately carry out their jobs will change over the next five years, whilst a quarter of all respondents claim that their management simply isn’t providing enough feedback on their skills.
Whereas all workers are affected by the issue, those over the age of 55 see a dramatic decrease in the workplace training offered to them. Nearly half of those polled claimed that they received no training at all in 2018. Those working part-time are also in danger of not receiving training, with 42% of those polled claiming to have not learned a new skill last year.
“As working lives get longer and the age of the workforce Increases, now is the time for employers to prioritise up-skilling and re-skilling people at all ages and stages within their current workforce and to recognise the value and potential of every employee,” commented City and Guilds Group Chief Executive Chris Jones.
“Skills gaps are a stark reality and employers have a responsibility to enable critical training for their entire workforce, from graduate entrants through to senior leadership.”
Respondents claimed that the greatest barriers to on-the-job learning this year include employees having to take time away from essential daily tasks (42%), lack of training and investment from employers (29%) and a lack of personal funds to invest in training outside the workplace (28%).
Investing in employees
At the recent World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, Accenture’s Head of HR Ellyn Shook confirmed that over the past four years, the consulting firm has re-trained over 300,000 of its 469,000 employees at a cost of around $1billion.
According to Accenture, the drive was to aide employees in retaining key skillsets to combat the rise of automation. The company made software available for employees that tells them how much of their current position could be lost to automation, and which parallel skills would ensure future relevance. Within 18 months of release, 85% of Accenture’s employees had opted to utilise re-training.
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“You need to inspire this work-learn, work-learn mindset,” Shook told Business Insider. “You’re not going to go to school and practice what you learned in school for the rest of your career. That day is over.”
“Make sure that you are investing in your people, to understand how to work with the technology. I think that’s how you’re going to future-proof your workforce,” she concluded.
