Only half of business leaders sent staff for training amid hiring crunch: Study
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Only half of business leaders in a survey said they have sent their workers for training in the past six months, according to a new labour research report by the National Trades Union Congress and NTUC LearningHub.
This is despite 78 per cent of business leaders in the study reporting difficulties in filling job vacancies at their companies.
On Dec 15, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) reported an all-time high record of 98,700 job vacancies in Singapore due to border restrictions and manpower demand in growth sectors.
The research involved 564 business leaders across different industries in Singapore, such as manufacturing, information and communications, finance and insurance services, and wholesale and retail trade.
Financial cost is the top challenge faced by those wanting to send their workers for training (38 per cent), followed by difficulties in identifying relevant courses (37 per cent), and matching employees to training (33 per cent).
Business leaders said provision of higher training subsidies and business consultancy services would serve as incentives for them to send their workers for training, said the report, which was released on Wednesday.
Three in four business leaders surveyed said they have participated in training-related initiatives by the Government or the labour movement.
However, the overall utilisation of initiatives remains low at an average of 14 per cent.
NTUC will continue to offer support through its training and placement ecosystem to help companies better access and leverage these initiatives, said NTUC and NTUC LearningHub.
Unions (17.9 per cent) remain among the top three avenues through which business leaders have heard of training-related initiatives, with the others being human resource departments in the company (27.5 per cent) and government websites (25.9 per cent).
Out of the companies that have sent their employees for training in the past six months, 57 per cent were unionised while 37 per cent were non-unionised.
STUDY FINDINGS
78%
Proportion of business leaders who reported difficulties in filling vacancies at their companies.
Proportion of business leaders who reported difficulties in filling vacancies at their companies.
51%
Proportion of business leaders who said they have sent their workers for training in the past six months.
Proportion of business leaders who said they have sent their workers for training in the past six months.
57%
Proportion of companies that have sent employees for training in the past six months that are unionised.
Proportion of companies that have sent employees for training in the past six months that are unionised.
37%
Proportion of companies that have sent staff for training in the past six months that are non-unionised.
Proportion of companies that have sent staff for training in the past six months that are non-unionised.
Growth sectors with higher demand included financial services, information and communications, and health and social services, where resident employment has increased in tandem, the MOM said in its third-quarter labour market report.
NTUC LearningHub chief executive Jeremy Ong said one way to fill vacancies is to upskill and uplift current employees, as building on existing talent is more cost-effective than hiring new talent.
