A “tick-box” culture at many UK employers means health and safety training is prioritised over productivity-boosting skills, a report has found.
An analysis of labour market data and international surveys by the Learning and Work Institute (L&W) revealed nearly one in five workers reported security or health and safety was the main focus of their training.
In contrast, training in skills such as advanced digital skills or project management has fallen behind many other developed countries.
More than half of training in the UK is also short (58 per cent) – lasting for a day or less – which was the highest proportion for a country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2023 adult skills survey. The international average was 44 per cent.
‘Tick-box training’
L&W chief executive Stephen Evans said: “We’ve got more of a focus on this really short, often induction, security, health and safety stuff, which is what we’re getting at when we say tick-box training, or a culture of compliance.
“Some of it you need, but it shouldn’t be the sum total, and the more developmental stuff has really dropped off quite a lot over the last couple of decades.”
The data shows that 19 per cent of employees reported security and health and safety as their main focus of training, which is “mid-level” compared to countries such as Switzerland (9 per cent) and Italy (33 per cent).
Meanwhile, 6 per cent of UK employees received project management or organisational skills training, which trailed the US (8 per cent), Singapore (10 per cent) and Japan (13 per cent).
L&W warned that while compliance training is “necessary”, failing to invest in transferable skills means the economy will struggle to build capabilities for “future productivity growth”.
Employer training investment falling
Employer investment in training has also “substantially declined” in recent years, with a 29 per cent drop since 2011.
Countries such as Germany or South Korea have increased their investment in developmental training, while the UK has a “lower skills base”, Evans said.
He told FE Week the UK risks falling even further behind because of its “low and skewed” investment.
The think-tank CEO added that the apprenticeship levy was originally “intended to be the minimum” training budget for employers, but has ended up becoming the maximum.
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