An urgent overhaul of training is needed to address the serious skills gaps crippling many parts of the economy, a TUC report warns.
Training, who gets it?' reveals that a third of businesses do not offer any training to their staff and almost two fifths (39%) of the workforce received no training last year.
And the union body warns that the trend for individuals to be responsible for their own training needs – 62% of companies surveyed expect this responsibility to shift more to the employee – could result in those who shout loudest, rather than have the greatest need, being developed.
According to the study, those least likely to get trained are in semi-skilled and manual jobs. Three fifths (60%) of employers offered some form of training to their professional staff in the past year, while just 45% made the same offer to manual staff.
Paradoxically, employers say that staff in semi-skilled and manual jobs have the greatest skills gaps that need to be addressed.
Training, who gets it? reveals that workers in semi-skilled and manual occupations are much less likely to have an opportunity to discuss their training needs at work than those in higher skilled jobs. Additionally less skilled workers rate the quality of support from their line manager well below workers in white-collar jobs.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "If individuals are expected to take greater responsibility of their own training needs we will have a situation where whoever shouts the loudest, or knows how the training system works, will get the most out of the training budget.
"This report shows that if businesses really want value for money from their training then they must find out what their staff need. Managers need to embrace the skills agenda, work with the unions, and deliver training for staff who really need it."
- Training, who gets it?' looked at what £2,000 could buy:
- 4.2 days project management training
- 3.3 days financial training for non-financial managers
- 3.3 days senior advanced manager training
- 1.5 years of a part time degree/HND
- 1/6 th of an MBA
- 2 adults achieving an NVQ Level 3 (training over 18 months)
- 15 people on three-day quality assurance training
