NTUC LearningHub Survey: Despite More Employers Seeing the Importance in Training in the Wake Of Covid-19, Not Enough Is Being Done to Upskill Workers

• Since
  the pandemic started, more employers agree that training will help employees be
  more resilient (93% in 2021 vs 84% in 2020). However, only 62% are currently
  training or intend to train their workforce.
• Businesses
  in severely affected industries are more likely to turn to train their
  employees (73%) compared to those in other industries (57% average).
• Rather
  than to completely reskill employees (52%), employers are mostly keen on
  upskilling their workforce in technical (66%), adaptive (65%) and digital (57%)
  skills.

SINGAPORE
– Media OutReach – 16
April 2021 – As workforce upskilling tops the national agenda in
the wake of the pandemic, more employers say that sending their workers for
training will help their businesses to develop stronger resilience during this
downturn (93% in 2021 vs 84% in 2020).  However, not all of them are taking action to ensure their
workforce are equipped with future skills, with only less than two thirds of
employers (62%) currently training or intending to train their workforce. This
is one of the key findings in the recent NTUC LearningHub‘s Employer Skills
Survey report.

The survey, which was conducted in February 2021
with business leaders across Singapore, aimed to uncover the most in-demand
skillsets a year post-pandemic. The findings include the top skills by industry
cluster: Built Environment, Essential Domestic Services, Lifestyle, Manufacturing
and Professional Services, and Trade and Connectivity.

Businesses in severely
affected industries — i.e., Tourism, Aviation, Retail, Food Services, Land
Transport and Arts and Culture — are more likely to train their employees (as
voted by 73%) in contrast to other industries (57% average). Training employees
during the downturn encourages them to develop stronger resilience, in case of
similar events in the future.

In addition, the
survey uncovered that of those who are sending their employees for training, more
are keen on upskilling their workforce in technical, adaptive and digital
skills, as compared to completely reskilling them. Specifically, they are
focusing on deepening employees’ technical competencies relevant to their
current roles (66%), improving their adaptive skills (65%) and equipping them
with more general technology-related skills (57%). By contrast, slightly more
than half (52%) of employers are seeking to completely reskill their employees
with technical skills unrelated to their current roles.

Commenting on the
findings, NTUC LHUB’s Director of Technical Skills Product Division, Tay Ee
Learn, says, “While many employers see the value of skills training, there is a
mismatch in the action taken to upskill their workforce. We observe that this
is often due to the lack of awareness of training support available or that
employers simply do not know where to start.”

“We recommend that
companies take the first step by fostering a culture of lifelong learning.  There are many training support and schemes
available for employers to leverage, including the Enhanced Training Support
Package (ETSP) and Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF) Enhanced Funding.
We urge companies to take the step to speak to our NTUC LHUB consultants to
find out more on such schemes.”

For operationally
intense companies, they can provide their employees with readily available
training content that is bite-sized and on-demand.  This would encourage self-directed learning
on-the-go and eliminate challenges such as time constraint or lack of learning
resources. This is why we introduced LHUB GO Enterprise, a fixed rate
subscription-based elearning package which offers companies a suite of over
75,000 courses to cater to the myriad needs of their workforce.”

 

To download the Employers
Skills Report 2021, visit https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/employer-skills-report-2021/.