British industry has lost its positive role models for great training,
according to the Annual Training Research Report. When respondents were asked
which UK companies or organisations they would cite as great examples of using
training to develop their people and have a positive effective on the business,
more than half were unable to name any company or organisation.
The survey organiser, Cambridge Online Learning, said only three companies
were named by the minimal number of respondents: Asda was named by 4.8 per
cent, Tesco by 2.4 per cent and Marks & Spencer by 2 per cent.
And the top-rated public sector organisation was the NHS with 0.8 per cent
of mentions.
The scarcity of role models has shocked principal and chief executive
officer for Cambridge Online Learning David Towler. "These results came as
a great surprise to me," he said. "They are caused by the extinction
of the great industries where people were employed to be trained and
opportunities created for them to progress. Now people can’t make those
assumptions."
Overall, there is some optimism for training. The survey shows that training
spend remains healthy. One in three reports having a larger training budget
this year compared to last, 40 per cent have the same budget as last year and
14 per cent have a lower training budget this year.
The bulk of this money, around 24 per cent, is spent on developing technical
competencies and skills, whereas less than one in 10 of the sample spend 50 per
cent or more of their budget on management development training.
