More than half, or 55%, of Singapore employees said that they have taken steps to seek training outside of the workplace in the last 12 months, on top of what is offered by their companies, according to NTUC (National Trades Union Congress) LearningHub (NTUC LHUB)'s recent Workforce Learning in Workplace Transformation report.

The report is based on a survey with 150 business leaders and 300 employees across industries in Singapore, and interviews with human resource experts.

According to the report, 38% of employees say that current learning & development (L&D programmes) offered by their companies are either 'fair', bad' or 'very bad'. The reasons given for the sub-par ratings include: 'limited range of topics covered' (40%), 'boring and conventional training approach' (37%), and 'training topics are not relevant for career advancements (18%)'.

The report also found that companies could do well from improving their training programmes as part of their talent retention strategies. According to 86% of employees, the 'availability and comprehensiveness of training courses' are key factors for them to remain loyal to the company. However, less than half of employers, 45%, consider L&D beneficial to employee retention.

A third, or 29%, of employees either believe that their companies do not act on insights from post-training evaluations to improve training programmes, or are they are uncertain of what is done with their feedback.

When asked about the motivations behind upskilling outside of the workplace, workers have cited reasons 'to stay relevant' (70%) and 'remain competitive during this period' (61%). In particular, 59% of employees who are negatively affected by the effects of Covid-19 are more likely to take up external training as they prepare to seek new employment, as compared to those less affected (31%).

NTUC LHUB's Director of Human Capital, Sean Lim, says, "Seeing employees increasingly take the initiative to upskill signals that there is a strong desire to become adaptable in these uncertain times. As much as this is a positive move for individual workers, it is also a call to action for businesses to provide quality L&D programmes to engage their workforce in a meaningful way and motivate them to be the best versions of themselves at work. Training should be used as a strategic tool to develop new capabilities for businesses to stay competitive today."

Adrian Tan, Strategist, Future of Work at Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP), said, "There needs to be a push for employees to start regularly upskilling and boosting their productivity and efficiency. For businesses to be sustainable, developing human capital to be future-ready is key. Putting training at the front and centre of the business is one way to overcome the prevalent skills gaps and labour shortage. Many companies tend to hire without the intention to train. If every company only acquires talent and does not develop them, it will be harder to overcome the shrinking talent supply."