Employer Supported Training, 2010

Employers who sent employees for training reported improved work productivity, quality of products/services and customer satisfaction

1. More establishments provided structured training to their employees in 2010. Employers also reaped tangible benefits from training their employees, leading to improved work productivity, quality of products/services and customer satisfaction. These are the key findings from the biennial Survey on Employer Supported Training, conducted by the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Manpower Research and Statistics Department. The survey effectively covered 3,244 private establishments (each with at least 25 employees) employing some 987,000 employees, yielding a survey response rate of 90%.
   
   Main Findings
2. With the rapid recovery from the 2008/2009 economic recession, 71% of private establishments provided structured training to at least some of their employees in 2010. This was a significant improvement from the 65% in 2008, when the proportion declined from the pre-recessionary high of 72% in 2006.
3. The improvement in provision of structured training was broad-based, affecting large, medium and small establishments. Small establishments that employed 25-99 employees experienced a larger increase from 57% in 2008 to 65% in 2010, narrowing their gap with larger establishments. Nevertheless, the latter were still more likely to provide structured training for their employees at 85% and 93% for those that employed 100-199 and 200 or more employees respectively.
4. On average, the training-providing establishments sent 58% of their staff for structured training during 2010, resuming the uptrend that saw the proportion rise from 51% in 2003 to 58% in 2006, before dipping slightly to 57% in 2008. As in the past, a higher proportion of professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) were sent for structured training (63%) than production & transport operators, cleaners & labourers (57%) and clerical, sales & service workers (54%) in 2010.
5. With more establishments providing structured training, the average training expenditure incurred by these training-providing establishments declined from $995 per trainee to $872 per trainee in 2010. When averaged across all employees in these establishments, the training expenditure per employee similarly declined from $566 in 2008 to $511 in 2010. The training expenditure as a percentage of employee payroll (comprising staff remuneration and employers’ CPF contribution) declined from 1.3% in 2008 to 1.1% in 2010.
6. Generally, employers reaped tangible benefits from training their employees in 2010, leading to improved work productivity (83%), quality of products/services (80%) and customer satisfaction (72%). A large majority of employers also reported that training enhanced the employees’ skills (92%), job responsibilities (79%), work motivation (73%) and flexibility in deployment (60%). The employers were more divided about the impact of training on employees’ wages (49%) and promotion opportunities (54%), with around half indicating that training had positive impact.
7. The report is available online at the Ministry of Manpower’s  Statistics and Publications webpage.