NTUC LearningHub, the leader in Continuing Education and Training in Singapore, recently released their findings in their Workforce Learning in Workplace Transformation (WLWT) Report. This report consists of a survey of 150 business leaders and 300 employees across industries in Singapore, as well as interviews with human resource experts.
As upskilling tops the business agenda for companies in Singapore, seven in 10 (68%) Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) employers revealed that they needed more support in the form of training resources. One in two (50%) of SME employers cited “the lack of budget” as the key challenge in upskilling their workforce.
SME employers also identified the most pressing areas wherein they need support which included the following:
- The ‘training resources to tap on’ (68%)
- ‘More support from employees’ (65%)
- ‘More government training support’ (55%).
The implementation of workforce training programmes is not without drawbacks. The two main challenges noted by SMEs are:
- The sending of workers to ‘attend courses can be disruptive to daily operations’ (48%)
- The ‘lack of support from employees’ (43%)
Comparisons were also made between SMEs and larger companies, with the main point being that SMEs are the most sluggish when it comes to training and development. Other insights include:
- SMEs are the slowest in improving training (68%), as compared to their larger counterparts (82%).
- SMEs are the least likely to improve training methods (19%), as compared to larger companies (40%)
- SMEs are least likely to use post-training feedback to measure the effectiveness of workforce learning programmes (48%), as compared to larger companies (71%).
Anthony Chew, NTUC LearningHub Director of Infocomm Technology, says “As the leading Continuing Education and Training (CET) provider in Singapore, we hope to enable more businesses to tap on training resources, government funding and support schemes, in order to drive human-centric business transformation. Being the key pillar of our economy, SMEs must also be proactive in the employability of their existing workforce to survive and thrive in a new world order. We stand ready to work with SME leaders to provide their workforce with outcome-focused training so that their workers are well-equipped with job-ready skills.”
