Three in five UK workers think on-the-job training or apprenticeships are more valuable than a university degree for preparing people for work.
Sixty-one per cent of workers surveyed for Amazon’s future of work and career development study agreed that learning on the job was more valuable than the traditional academic route, with only 31% stating that a university degree is as essential for a good career as it was a decade ago.
Appetite for learning was high among the 1,294 employees polled. Seventy-nine per cent think it is important for them to learn new skills in the next 12 months to improve their career prospects – higher than the proportion who said getting a promotion would improve their career trajectory (67%).
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Concerns about skills were rife. Thirty per cent were worried they would not have the skills needed to remain relevant in their job in the coming years, while 71% saw retraining and upskilling as necessary to continue working in the future.
Asked about moving to a new job or role, 86% of adults said training was essential, very or fairly important, and that training programmes offered by a potential employer were more or as important as company culture (84%) and flexible working (75%).
The survey highlighted the importance of employer-funded training, with 24% of workers stating they could not afford to pay for training on their own.
Amazon said it planned to invest a further £23 million into skills development for its UK employees and was adding new courses to its programme including information security analysis, software testing, and procurement and supply chain.
John Boumphrey, Amazon UK country manager, said: “The research reflects what we’re seeing in our workplace, and that is people in the UK want access to skills training programmes.
“Amazon is proud to have offered our upskilling Career Choice programme in the UK for the past 10 years and to further expand our courses options, so that thousands of employees across the UK can continue to advance their skills and take on new career opportunities at Amazon and beyond.”
Around 18,500 Amazon employees have participated in courses under its Career Choice programme over the past decade.
Ipsos UK surveyed 2,139 adults for Amazon in April, of whom 1,294 said they were employees.
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