A poll of 4,000 British professionals conducted by CoursesOnline – a workforce training company – found that approximately one-third of respondents did not believe that studying for professional qualifications is worth the effort.
On the other hand, 67 per cent of the professionals were confident that such studies were worth the effort; 49 per cent stated that they believed their level of qualification enabled them to get the role that they wanted; 18 per cent said that a lack of qualification was stopping them from getting the role they sought - and 33 per cent stated that their level of qualification was irrelevant to them being offered a job.
The industries that felt that the qualifications were most worthwhile were Social Work – 90 per cent of respondents believed in putting in time and effort to gain qualifications; Teaching and Education – 87 per cent felt qualifications were worthwhile and Law, with 85 per cent believing professional qualifications were worth the effort.
The sectors that considered that qualifications were least worthy were Energy and Utilities and Creative Arts and Design - where 63 per cent and 72 per cent respectively believed professional qualifications were not worth the effort - and in Recruitment and HR, 60 per cent of respondents felt the same.
When asked how they preferred to learn, 36 per cent of respondents cited learning on the job and 29 per cent stated taking dedicated courses. Only 11 per cent stated professional industry qualifications and just 10 per cent said through industry publications and social media.
Sarah-Jane McQueen - General Manager of CoursesOnline - explained that the findings demonstrated that… “the learning material provided to see learners through the qualification process can’t afford to be generic – those studying need real-world examples as to how what they learn is applicable to their day-to-day work”.
The Chancellor- Rishi Sunak - recognised in his spring statement that the UK lags in adult technical skills compared to other countries - and said that the government would consider whether they were “doing enough to incentivise businesses to invest in the right kinds of training”.
Naomi Phillips - Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Policy and Research at the Learning and Work Institute - welcomed the focus on skills spending. She warned that the last decade had seen a drop in business investment in skills and added:
“More support is needed for people who have fallen out of the workforce who can return but need to retrain or reskill.”
