My mother, just a few years away from retirement, expressed an interest in upskilling for her job as an office administrator. So her company sent her, on its coin, to attend a course on spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel.

She quit after the second session, when she found out she would have to study the nuts and bolts of it outside of work hours for weekly tests - on top of household chores and personal errands. Then there was the work that would pile up in her absence.