Whilst the overwhelming majority of employers plan to keep sending their employees for training, fewer see a positive result in business performance – and employees are also becoming less keen, a survey has shown.
The results from the annual
Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) survey, released on Wednesday, showed that both employers and employees were seeing less value gained from Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) training.
Despite 97% of employers vowing to continue sending workers for training, only 54.6% felt the training was making their workers more productive, down from 76.2% in 2014.
Fewer companies also felt that employee training was actively helping business performance.
Similarly, in all categories of the survey – which looked at results from 2015 – fewer employees who underwent WSQ training said that they found it useful, compared to the previous years’ results.
Despite the findings of the survey, many companies in Singapore remain committed to employee training, and experience positive results.
Accounting firm PKF-CAP recently told
HRD magazine that training is a core part of its retention and talent cultivation strategy, part of an overarching goal to train and build strong mid to senior talent.
As a result, the company has seen an improvement in staff turnover, and said it expects to see continued positive trends in its ability to retain talent.
The WDA attributed the results of its survey to weaker economic conditions, which they said could have affected business performance.
"Under SkillsFuture, we have gone beyond WSQ training to broaden the range of support available to individuals in their skills deepening and mastery journey throughout their careers,” WDA chief executive Ng Cher Pong said.
"We will continue to work closely with employers to build up their human resource capabilities and strengthen their Singaporean core for sustainable business growth."
The survey was conducted with 6,116 WSQ trainees and 1,566 companies between last September and this January.
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