[Survey] The Covid-19 crisis, accelerating trends in terms of skills development

15/10/2020

The Cegos Group released the results of its international survey entitled "Transformation, skills and learning".The 2020 survey polled 1,783 employees and 254 HR Directors and Managers or Learning & Developement Directors and Managers, all working in private-sector companies employing fifty employees or more, in four countries: France, Germany, Italy and Spain.Here are the essential points of this survey:GROWTH OF DISTANCE LEARNING AND DIGITISATION OF TRAINING COURSES: THE COVID-19 CRISIS ACCELERATES AN UNDERLYING TREND- 89% of European HR Directors say they adjusted their online training offer to continue training their teams during the Coronavirus lockdown, or have done since.- A total of 81% of the HR Directors questioned said that the training courses organised by their company would place a greater emphasis on distance learning than before the health crisis.ALTHOUGH ORGANISATIONS AND EMPLOYEES ANTICIPATE THE RISK OF SKILLS BECOMING OBSOLETE IN THE SHORT-TERM, THEY ARE APPROACHING THE SITUATION WITH CLARITY- According to the HR Directors polled, the skills used in 45% of the jobs (+3 points vs 2019) in their organisation could become obsolete in the next 3 years.- 77% of European employees fear that the current transformations will change their job content.- 69% of HR Directors/Managers plan to implement support programmes to help employees develop their skills in their current position.EMPLOYEES ARE AWARE OF THE EMPLOYABILITY ISSUES AND SHOW A GENUINE DESIRE TO FOR TRAINING / LEARNING- 90% of employees say they are willing to do self-directed learning in order to adapt to transformations in jobs and professions.- 62% consider that the company and the employee have a shared responsibility in terms of skills development.A KEY SHORT-TERM ISSUE: PERFORMANCE LEARNING- HR Directors and employees in France and Europe agree on the need to provide training that is tailored as much as possible to real professional situations and individual needs.- The people involved in Learning & Development are being directly challenged by Operational Business Departments to ensure the rapid and effective development of their employees' skills.Guillaume Huot, member of the Cegos Group's Board, makes the following comments regarding the 2020 survey:"As the European leader in vocational training, this crisis reminds us of our core mission on a daily basis: to respond to the crucial challenge of skills development in a sustainable and responsible way. Today, all the different stakeholders seem ready to take action - public authorities, companies, employees, training organisations - and this crisis therefore provides various opportunities to bounce back:The first opportunity involves seizing on the growing acceptance of digital services, without ignoring the fundamentals. At Cegos, we have considerably broadened our service offer in order to provide all our programmes in remote format, anywhere around the world... without abandoning human interaction or the need to anchor the training courses in real professional situations.The second opportunity is to review the added value of training to respond to today's challenges, i.e. train more people, to respond to several different, yet specific needs, in very short time-frames, and often with lower budgets. At Cegos, we have set out three keys criteria for achieving these goals: Firstly, perspective or outlook, which consists of linking the skills development to a career project, a job opportunity or even a change of jobs. Secondly, responsible innovation, which means building solutions that incite greater involvement from each individual AND that are of benefit to the broadest possible audience. Finally, performance, i.e. ensuring that the investment in training is fair and fosters a lasting desire to learn."Download the press release.Have a look at our publications and surveys.