News

This
month’s news

Internet
learning set to rocket

The
real Internet-based learning boom will take place this year, according to
research conducted by Hewlett Packard Education.

A
survey of trainers found that although 52 per cent of organisations do not
currently use the Internet for training, 85 per cent will change their IT
strategy to include Internet learning in 2000.

The
survey also found that 50 per cent of companies that use the Internet for
training spend less than 10 per cent of their budget on this area, with no
companies spending more than 20 per cent of their budget on Internet-based
learning.

HP
Education found that 60 per cent of people have used the Internet as a medium
to receive training at least once.

Of
those questioned, the majority found their particular service to be very
useful, although 27 per cent added that the course they chose was impersonal
and 30 per cent suggested that improvements could be made.

Poor
climate report on-line

An
interim analysis of the Campaign for Learning’s on-line learning climate quiz
suggests that 60 per cent of people work in a poor learning climate.

Chief
executive Bill Lucas expressed concern at the results. “This has implications
for British industry’s productivity, innovation and competitiveness.

“As
nearly 60 per cent of the sample respondents were working in organisations
recognised as Investors in People, higher than the UK average of 35 per cent,
these findings are even more worrying”.

The
final results of the survey will be released at the end of this month. To
participate, visit www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk

Skills
high on business agenda

Companies
must raise skill levels to boost productivity concludes a new report on
employment trends, published by the Confederation of British Industry and human
resources consultancy, William M Mercer.

The
Employment Trends Survey was conducted by the CBI in January and February, based
on responses from 829 companies which between them cover approximately 2m
private sector employees.

Companies
said that improving and utilising skills is more important to productivity than
low labour costs and the freedom to adjust the size of the labour force.
High-levels of workforce skills influenced competitiveness, according to 58 per
cent.

The
report suggests that this priority results from concerns about skill shortages
– 52 per cent of firms said their performance had been affected by problems
when recruiting skilled labour, reflecting shortages of specialist staff such
as IT and engineering staff.

Employers
also said that skill levels among existing staff had affected performance. 38
per cent of employers said that lack of skills among employees had an impact on
company performance.

Commenting
on the report, John Cridland, the CBI’s director of HR policy, said, “Companies
are increasingly aware of the need to improve staff skills, but red tape is
distracting business from focusing on this and improving productivity. Firms
are working hard to balance business and employee needs, but more legislation
could tip the scales in the wrong direction.”

Almost
half of employers are training their staff beyond the needs of the job and a
further fifth are considering doing so in the future. The report also found
that teamworking is becoming increasing important in performance assessment.