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FRONT OF HOUSE
Employers must also maintain an
open dialogue with employees about
their training and development
needs. Less than half (46%) of
all workers feel they are getting
enough advice and support from
their employer to develop vital work
skills for the future.
Where HR teams can have real
impact is in aligning training and
development plans with business
strategies and having a clear goal
about the impact any training
programme will have. You need
to have an aim and a means of
measuring its success.
Where are the key skills gaps
in today’s workforce and who
requires upskilling?
In our People Power research with
employers across all industries,
we found that the biggest skills
shortfall is across manager and
team-leader roles. This lack of
leadership has a big impact on UK
plc, as leaders have a vital role to
play in maintaining productivity in
a volatile environment.
ILM’s Leadership Lag research,
among 2,000 UK employees and
500 employers, asked UK workers
how their leaders made them feel;
only 15% felt empowered, compared
with a quarter who were made to
feel stressed. Specialist technical
skills are also lacking across many
industries, and are the exact skills
that need refreshing most often to
keep pace with change.
When it comes to who requires
upskilling, the answer for me has to
be everyone. Both businesses and
individuals have a responsibility
to change their mindsets and see
learning as a lifelong pursuit rather
than a single intervention.
What form and frequency
should training take in the
21st-century workplace?
People access information in a
variety of ways and this should be
mirrored in how training is delivered.
Kineo, our workplace L&D brand,
always starts from the premise that
content must be interesting, relevant
and easy to incorporate into your life.
It’s also important to mix up
the types of learning people will
encounter to suit different styles.
In the Learning Next research,
we found that people most often
learn at work through informal
on-the-job training, self-study and
internal conferences and events,
yet they also rated coaching and
“UK employer
investment in
training is
half that of the
EU average”
mentoring and formal qualifications
highly when asked how they would
prefer to learn.
The frequency of opportunities
matters less than the impact these
interventions have on the employee,
and this, again, comes back to setting
clear and measurable objectives for
your learning and development.
What are the current barriers to
learning new skills and how can
organisations address them?
Unsurprisingly, our research showed
that most people find it hard to take
time away from work to learn new
skills. More worrying was the second
most popular response: a lack of
employer investment in training
and development.
Simply put, employers need to
invest more. It’s shameful that UK
employer investment in training
is half that of the EU average,
according to the Institute for Public
Policy Research Skills 2030 report,
and surely no coincidence that our
productivity is also suffering.
What does ‘lifelong learning’
actually mean?
Lifelong learning is about a mindset
shift from thinking that learning
stops when we leave formal
education towards a recognition
that learning never stops. For
individuals, it’s about recognising
the need to keep learning; for
employers, it’s about creating a
culture of continuous learning
across the entire workforce, while for
policymakers, it’s championing skills
and education for all.
Too many people are turned off
education in childhood, and the HR
community has a pivotal role to play
in re-imagining learning for the 21st
century, making it fun, accessible
and valuable so that everyone can
benefit, no matter what age or stage
of their career they are at. Who owns
the skills gap? We all do and we all
need to work together to close it. FT
March – May 2019
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