Employer Supported Training, 2008

Majority of employers polled see increase in organisational and staff performance with training

1 Despite difficult economic conditions in the second half of 2008, the majority of private establishments provided structured training to their employees. Employers that sent their workforce for training continued to report increased organisational and staff performance. This is one of the findings from the Survey on Employer Supported Training, which was conducted from March to June 2009, and covers some 3,200 private sector establishments (each with at least 25 employees) employing more than 900,000 employees. The survey is conducted every two years by the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) Manpower Research & Statistics Department.

2 For the first time, the survey also examined employers' perception of readiness for work of recent graduates and the skills and attributes they lacked. More than eight in ten businesses found the recruits to be ready for work. The perception of work-readiness was higher for tertiary graduates, compared to those less educated.

3 The highlights of the survey findings are as follows:

• Amid the weak economic conditions, 65% of private sector establishments provided structured training to at least some of their employees in 2008, down from 72% in 2006. However, this was still higher than the 52% in 2002 before the formation of the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) in 2003.

• A large majority of establishments that evaluated the effectiveness of training saw productivity going up (83%), together with the quality of products & services (79%) and customer satisfaction (69%). The majority of employers also reported that training improved employees' skills (PMET: 86%, non-PMET: 84%), job responsibilities (PMET: 73%, non-PMET: 66%) and work motivation (PMET: 67%, non-PMET: 64%), but were less affirmative about its impact on employees' wages (PMET: 27%, non-PMET: 38%) and promotion opportunities (PMET: 34%, non-PMET: 40%).

• The provision of structured training declined among smaller establishments – 57% of establishments employing 25 to 99 employees provided structured training in 2008, down from 66% in 2006. On the other hand, the majority of larger establishments (93% for establishments with 250 or more employees and 82% for those employing 100-249 employees) continued to provide staff training, declining only slightly from 2006's 96% and 86% respectively.

• On average, establishments that provided training sent 57% of their employees for structured training in 2008, down slightly from 58% in 2006. As in previous years, proportionately more professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) (59%) were sent for training compared to production-related (55%), clerical, sales & service workers (55%). This gap has narrowed from 2006, as PMETs saw a larger decline than the other occupational groups.

• Establishments that provided structured training incurred an average of $995 per trainee in 2008, 2.9% higher than $967 in 2006. On average, the training expenditure per employee was $566, broadly unchanged from $563 in 2006. Training expenditure as a percentage of employee payroll dropped slightly to 1.3%, (as in 2004) from 1.4% in 2006.

• A large majority (85-95%) of private establishments found recent graduates that they have recruited to be ready for work. Some skill gaps were reported mainly in technical/job-specific skills (27-42% of the respondents), followed by people skills (23-37%) and organisational skills (21-38%). There was also significant scope to improve communication (21-39%) and customer service skills (29-42%) of non-tertiary graduates. In terms of personal attributes, generally work attitude (15-35%), creativity (15-32%) and initiative (14-34%) were found to be more lacking than teamwork (7-15%) and adaptability (14-20%).

4 The full survey report is available online at the Ministry of Manpower's website.