As upskilling tops the business agenda for companies in Singapore, the majority, or 68%, of Small and Medium Enterprises employers say that they require more support in the form of training resources, according to findings from NTUC (National Trades Union Congress) LearningHub’s recent Workforce Learning in Workplace Transformation report.

The report, based on a survey with 150 business leaders and 300 employees across industries in Singapore, also found that 50% of SME employers cite 'the lack of budget' as the key challenge in upskilling their workforce.

According to the report, SME employers cited the most pressing areas in which they require support as 'training resources to tap on' (68%), 'more support from employees' (65%) and 'more government training support' (55%).

SMEs also said that sending workers to 'attend courses can be disruptive to daily operations' (48%) and the 'lack of support from employees' (43%) are also challenges encountered when implementing workforce training programmes.

When compared to their larger counterparts, SMEs remain the most sluggish when it comes to training and development. SME companies are the slowest in making plans to improve training (68%), as compared to their larger counterparts (82%). They are also the least likely to make improvements to training methods (19%) and to use post-training feedback to measure the effectiveness of workforce learning programmes (48%), as compared to their larger peers in these two areas (40% and 71% respectively).