The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the professional body for those involved in the management and development of people.  The 2008 Learning and Development survey provides data on current and emerging trends and issues in learning and development. This year CIPD focused on some important issues facing the profession: employee skills; current and future learning and development practices; perceptions of e-learning; and the role of coaching. They also provide benchmark information on trends in workplace learning and training spend.

Below I will outline the summary of key findings.

Employee Skills

• Two in five (39%) respondents feel their learning and development activity has been influenced by the Leitch Review of Skills: Prosperity for all in the global economy: world class skills (2006). Around two in five have also considered or would consider implementing initiatives such as Train to Gain (44%) and signing the Employer Skills Pledge (47%).
• More organisations feel it is the Government’s responsibility (87%) to raise educational standards among young people before they enter the workforce rather than employers’ responsibility to raise literacy/numeracy standards within the workforce (57%). Sixty-two per cent feel the Government should prioritise funding on basic/lower-level skills.
• Compared with two years ago, organisations are now requiring a broader range of skills (61%) and a higher level of skills (40%). The key skills that employers class as very important include interpersonal (79%) and communication skills (68%). However, 66% of organisations feel that new employees currently lack both communication/ interpersonal skills and management/leadership skills. Yet, these are also the same skills that organisations feel will be required to meet business objectives in the future.
• One-third of employers have a graduate training scheme. The main areas included in these schemes include coaching and/or mentoring (85%) and project assignments (81%).

Learning and development – the future

• The majority of organisations have experienced change over the last few years in delivering learning and development, with the most significant change concerning management development in the form of new programmes to develop the role of line managers (72%).
• Indeed, the crucial role of line managers highlighted in previous surveys is reinforced this year, with the majority being involved in determining learning and development needs (86%) and half predicting line managers will have greater responsibility for learning and development over the next five years (49%).
• On the whole, learning and development managers have accurately forecast changes in learning and development practices; e-learning, coaching/ mentoring and in-house development programmes were all previously highlighted as growth areas. In-house development programmes (61%) and coaching by line managers (53%) are both now used more than previously.
• However, the expected use of e-learning has possibly been overanticipated, with less than half (47%) using more e-learning and a quarter (26%) saying they don’t use or no longer use e-learning. This is possibly because few feel it is the most effective learning and development practice (7%).

E-Learning

• Nonetheless, over half (57%) of organisations use e-learning, while nearly half tend to agree that e-learning is the most important development in training in the past few decades. The vast majority (82%) of public sector organisations use e-learning compared with just 42% of private sector companies.
• There is some indication that e-learning will be increasingly used as a training tool, with 29% saying that in the next three years between 25% and 50% of all training will be delivered via e-learning.
• More than three-quarters (79%) of respondents feel e-learning is not a substitute for classroom-based learning, while the vast majority (92%) feel that e-learning demands a new attitude to learning on the part of learners.
• Almost all (95%) feel that e-learning is more effective when combined with other forms of learning.

Coaching

• Seventy-one per cent of organisations undertake coaching activities, with a similar proportion (72%) finding coaching to be an effective tool.
• However, the purpose of coaching would appear to vary according to whom coaching is offered. Thus, within organisations that offer coaching to all of their employees, the purpose of this coaching is demonstrably used for general personal development (79%) and to remedy poor performance (74%), whereas within organisations that offer coaching only to managers, the emphasis for the purpose of coaching shifts towards its positioning as part of a wider management and leadership development programme.
• The bulk of the responsibility for delivering coaching lies with line managers coaching those who report to them (36%) and to HR and/or learning, training and development specialists (30%).
• The main methods used for evaluating the effectiveness of coaching include: through observation of changes (42%) and reviews of objectives conducted with line managers, coach and coachee (42%).

Economic influences on learning and development

• More organisations report facing similar (44%) economic circumstances in the past 12 months than those reporting either worse (33%) or better (22%) circumstances.
• However, the public sector continues to be gloomier than the private sector, with 53% reporting worse economic circumstances in the past 12 months, 45% reporting a cut in training funds and only 13% experiencing an increase in funding.
• Larger organisations – that is, those with more than 5,000 employees – also have a gloomy outlook, with 44% reporting worse conditions and 39% saying they have received a decrease in funding.
• Seventy-seven per cent of voluntary sector respondents report that funding for training has remained stable or increased, compared with 75% in the private sector and 54% in the public sector.

Training Spends & Budgets

• Seventy-seven per cent of organisations have a training budget.
• Voluntary sector organisations continue to spend more per employee per year on training, compared with the private sector and with the public sector.
• Those employing less than 250 continue to spend far more per head on training than those with more than 5,000 employees.

The full report is available here and give us all the motivation we need to ensure that Learn Skills addresses a key need in the UK economy through the provision of web-based skills and compliance training for the workforce.

Ireland – 15th May, 2008 – The skills challenge facing the Irish economy was the subject of a major seminar organised jointly by the National College of Ireland (NCI) and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP), and held in Dublin on May 15.

The ‘Learning at Work’ seminar was chaired by NCPP director Lucy Fallon-Byrne and was addressed by Minister for Lifelong Learning Seán Haughey, Leo Casey of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching and Prof Chip Bruce, National College of Ireland.

Four national initiatives, designed to promote and encourage learning at work, were showcased also at the seminar, providing the 100-plus delegates with real-life examples of innovative responses to the future skills challenge.

Among the issues discussed at the seminar were:

• The role of workplace learning in driving and growing the Irish economy;
• The opportunities for, and obstacles to, workplace learning that exist in Ireland today;
• Effective ways of engaging employers and employees to ensure Ireland is equipped for the future skills challenge.

National College of Ireland president Paul Mooney said the message was simple:

“For Ireland Inc. to succeed, the barriers to workplace learning must be identified and systematically removed. To survive and prosper in a tougher global environment, we need to collectively up our game to out-think the competition.

“The highest performing companies of the future are the ones that are becoming engaged in workplace learning initiatives today. The time is now and there is zero room for complacency on this. The future is decided by those who sense change and actually start to do something to respond to this. For everyone else, the time bomb is ticking.”

A new DVD was launched by Minister Haughey. Produced by NCPP, the DVD profiles the practical experiences of five Irish public and private-sector organisations that have recognised and embraced workplace learning as an enabler of change. Their stories illustrate the value of promoting human talent and creativity in the workplace, and make a powerful business case for lifelong learning and workplace training and development.  Upskilling is now a necessity.

Copies of the DVD are available (free of charge) on request from the National Centre for Partnership and Performance.  Simply drop an email to Conor (conor@ncpp.ie) with your contact details, and he’ll post them out to you as soon as possible.

Source: Education MATTERS

Ireland – 25th June 2008 – Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Mary Coughlan TD, launched two new FÁS initiatives:

• Training of Workers with Lower Levels of Qualification
• SME Management Development

Ireland’s future economic prosperity will depend on the development of the skills of our workforce. We must continually upgrade the skills of those at work. It is through this process of constantly upskilling our workers that Irish companies will be able to secure a long term competitive advantage.

The SME Management Development initiative is targeted on the need for businesses to also develop the skills of their workforce and therefore enhance productivity and competitiveness. The training programmes are being constructed in such a way that the current and prospective, growth-related, needs of SMEs in Ireland are kept fully up to-date.

Speaking at the launch of the FÁS initiatives the Tanaiste said “In recent years, the Government has significantly increased funding through FÁS for the training and up skilling of persons in employment. This reflects our commitment to improving national competitiveness through training and development. These new FÁS initiatives, which over the next two years will deliver training and development to over 11,500 employed people, collectively represent a total investment of €19 million in the development of our workforce”.

The Tanaiste added “Experience has shown that well-trained managers, who realise the benefits of up-skilling for themselves, are also more likely to recognise the value of across-the-board training for other levels of the workforce.

This in turn facilitates and drives training for workers with lower qualifications. Therefore the suites of courses being launched today are in fact complementary to each other.

The initiatives being launched represent a major step forward in implementing Government policy in this regard, with the objective of ensuring that we have the best educated and most highly trained workforce possible in Ireland going forward”.

FÁS Director General Rody Molloy emphasised “It is those people at the lower end of the labour market who are now the most vulnerable to competition from low cost economies. It is their jobs, which can be most easily replicated. Many of these workers have low levels of skills and educational attainments. This has got to change. In future the key to long-term employment will be through a process of lifelong learning, where the skills of Irish workers, both of jobseekers and those already in employment, will undergo continuous upgrading throughout their careers and not just before they enter the workforce”

Source: FAS Press Release

Why are more companies choosing e-Learning for corporate training?
“e-Learning delivers more training to more people for less money. e-Learning saves time, money, resources, and it delivers measurable, tangible results”, according to Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance based company.
Instant access to information is one of the driving factors in today’s Knowledge Economy. Lifelong learning is the key to a successful career. The key to this success is moving knowledge from the people who have it to the people who need it. e-Learning gives you the power to do exactly that. Virtually anyone can sharpen skills or develop new ones.
Key benefits associated with e-Learning with Learn Skills include:

• Inexpensive and Cost Savings: Without travel time or expenses, you’re putting more of your training budget into training, thus saving up to 40 to 60 percent. And students can access their courses as often as they need.
• Accessibility of Training: Deliver knowledge on-demand, with up-to-the-minute information. Learners can access training instantly, when and where they want or need it, either at the office or at home, 24/7.
• Flexibility: Students can choose from a variety of interactive self-paced courses, and they can take advantage of our extensive course listing. They have the option to complete a course in one session and split it into smaller chunks.
• Consistency: e-Learning is a more consistent delivery and not not reliant on the skills and knowledge of the trainer.
• Measurement: Learn Skills provides a selection of tools and applications to monitor learner’s progress, and produce detailed activity reports. You can easily monitor what employees have learned, when they’ve completed courses, how they performed, and their levels of improvement.
• Variety: Hundreds of in-depth courses are available instantly; covering everything from business skills and leadership to workplace safety and IT.

Learn Skills provides you with the learning environment that engages the unsupervised learner, resulting in employees who show more participation, more enthusiasm, and ultimately, greater learning success and increased productivity.

Our staff are ready to help you with any questions you may have, simply contact us.