Why offering learning & development is not enough

id

The public can struggle to consider how working, learning or caring for family could change in the context of longer lives, because of the strength of the structural barriers they perceive to doing things differently. 

This was one of the first things I learnt when I joined the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement almost a year ago, as part of our Public Engagement in Longer Lives research with NatCen and King’s College London (KCL). Yet when participants in this research started to identify key interventions to enable people to live better, longer lives, funded higher education and vocational training for all ages was one of their priority areas for focus and investment. Recent Government announcements about the Lifelong Loan Entitlement and their ongoing commitment to apprenticeships at any age could, in theory, mean that this focus and investment is ‘job done’. 

Stark differences in employees’ experiences

And now new research from our friends at Business in the Community (BITC), supported by Phoenix Group, reminds us that for those in work, lower skilled employees are much more likely than higher skilled employees to have undertaken no training and development activities at all, in their current role (45% to 14%). This highlights one of many social mobility tripwires that exist in employment.  One that makes progressing out of low pay a really difficult reality for many. 

This study also found that lower skilled workers are less likely to be looking to develop their skills (33% compared to 15% of higher skilled employees) and less likely to agree that progressing their career is important to them (25% compared to 60% of higher skilled employees).  So should we opine on the lack of participation or accept that learning and development isn’t everyone’s bag? BITC’s factsheet on this research Upskilling for All: No one left behind, also points out that the workers most likely to be impacted by automation and climate change are low-skilled and low-paid.

Social mobility

Of the many important things this work highlights, 3 stand out most to me as to why simply offering great learning & development opportunities is not enough;

1. The importance of lifelong learning to social mobility
2. The need for employers to ensure that they don’t have two-tier engagement in employee learning, of the ‘haves’ in higher skilled roles and the ‘have nots’ in lower skilled roles
3. The importance of establishing ‘what works’ when it comes to motivating people who don’t naturally gravitate to learning and development to engage, making it more accessible and attractive.

In today’s cost of living crisis the opportunity to train, upskill and progress at work is really important, as well as for people’s longer-term job satisfaction and financial wellbeing. The Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement committed to support this project building on the Never too late to learn research we published last year. The next step is a series of innovation sprints bringing together employers and skills sector experts to identify and develop practical and replicable ideas.

I hope that through this work and more we can start to ensure everyone is supported to participate in learning throughout their careers.