Spending on workplace training is falling, despite incentives from the Government and the EU to boost employment skills, with the gap in investment between smaller firms and larger organisations getting wider.
These are among the key findings of the latest national study of learning and development (L&D) practices in the Republic. Average spending, as a percentage of total payroll costs, has declined from 3.85 per cent in 2001 to 3.55 per cent in 2003 to 3.13 per cent last year.
The drop in training and learning initiatives, measured by training days, was most noticeable for supervisors, senior managers and professional staff, according to the joint research by the University of Limerick's Kemmy Business School and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Ireland (CIPD), to be published this weekend.
Results of the study of 500 companies and more than 1,000 employees indicate that multinational companies continue to lead in staff training, with expenditure of just over 4 per cent of total employee costs, but still slightly below the EU average of 4.15 per cent.
For the past 15 years Irish companies have lagged well behind most of their peers in western Europe when it comes to employee development, and the gap between those employing more than 500 people compared with companies with fewer than 250 continues to widen.
The research found that there remains a gulf between what managers and employees consider are effective learning and development practices. The managers surveyed rate on-the-job training, coaching, mentoring, direct instruction, job rotation and "shadowing" to be most effective.
The preference among employees is for more off-job initiatives such as education programmes, classroom-based training and e-learning.
Research team leader Prof Tom Garavan says: "Gender, age, contractual status and country of origin are significant factors in determining who secures access to employment-related training.
"Clearly, an immigrant worker, those on short-term contracts, women and men over 50 all lose out proportionately when it comes to accessing training and development opportunities."
The use of "conditions of support" or "training handcuffs" is declining according to the survey data. Traditionally companies required staff receiving training to sign "loyalty forms" that they would stay for at least two years after the training was completed.
In 2003, 57 per cent of respondents insisted on these restrictions, but last year that dropped to just one-third of establishments. In many cases firms found that they were not enforceable.
The research found that the "uneven distribution" in workplace training continues, with the focus still on those either with professional and management qualifications or, alternatively, those with few employment skills and sometimes basic literacy or numeracy difficulties. Those in the middle often lose out. The international experience that "the more education and training you have, the more you are likely to receive in the future" holds true here as much as in other economies.
When is comes to professional qualifications such as accountancy, legal studies, human resources, postgraduate diplomas or masters degrees, 30 per cent of organisations provide funding for all employee categories while one-quarter restrict support to those in managerial positions.
Gerald Flynn is an employment specialist with Align Management Solutions in Dublin. gflynn@alignmanagement.net
