Workforce Development Trends
Reflecting the Importance of
Continuing Education
and Lifelong Learning
According to the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA),
employers have begun to recognize that money spent on training employees
is more realistically an investment rather than a cost. A more skilled
workforce results in increased economic productivity. So, organizational
spending on workforce education and training is on an upward path.
A workforce with higher skill levels is more
productive.
Increasingly, education and skills are seen as
important determinants of the employ-ability and income potential of the
worker. The productivity of labor—the output produced per hour of
work—is becoming more and more a function of what the employee knows and
can do. As the economy shifts to one in which the value of strong minds
increases relative to that of strong backs, employers seek skilled and
educated workers. The demand for education thus increases.
In 1948, men who had finished less than 12 years of formal education
completed 60 percent of the hours worked by men. By 1997, this figure
had dropped to 12 percent. Women with less than 12 years of formal
education accounted for 50 percent of hours worked by women in 1948 and
only 9 percent in 1997.
In 1999, the Bureau of Labor Statistics attempted to compute the
contribution of increased worker skill to increased productivity. They
estimated that in the period 1973-79, increased worker skill accounted
for only 2 percent of overall increased productivity. In the period
1990-1997, 32 percent of increased workforce productivity was estimated
to be due to increased knowledge and skill. This underscores the
changing nature of the U.S. and global economies and stresses the
increasing importance of knowledge and skills to economic
productivity.
Continuing education helps employers retain employees and stay
competitive.
Employers are using opportunities for education and
training to attract and retain the best employees. Employers sponsor
in-house training as well as underwrite the costs of education away from
the workplace. Fifty-five percent of the companies ranked by Fortune
Magazine as the "100 Best Companies to Work For" paid for between 21 and
40 hours of training per employee in 2001. Another 34 percent paid for
41 to 80 hours of training, and 8 percent paid for more than 80 hours of
training per employee per year. In addition to training, many companies
offer tuition reimbursement, college planning assistance and paid or
unpaid sabbaticals.
A variety of other benefits offered to employees can positively
affect an employee's ability to pursue continuing education or training.
Flex-time, reduced hour employment, telecommuting and onsite childcare
can all make the pursuit of higher education more easily attainable for
working people.
Training of employees is an investment in two distinct ways. First, a
more educated employee tends to be more productive. Second, training can
be seen as a way to attract and retain talented employees.
Employers often outsource design and delivery of
training.
Organizations use a wide variety of sources for
training. Traditional colleges and universities are among the most
commonly hired to provide training. Training Magazine estimates
that 40 percent of all training received by employees is designed by
outside sources.
Though outsourcing of training expenses remains strong, the
proportion of training dollars spent outside any given organization has
declined in the past three years. There has been a roughly corresponding
increase in spending on wages and salaries of training staff. Cutbacks
as a result of the recession forced organizations to curtail outside
training expenditures in 2000.
Institutions of higher education are clearly a valuable source of
workforce training. Those institutions that are best able to customize
their learning products, keep pace with changing technologies, develop
training content quickly and provide training on a flexible schedule are
the ones most likely to be successful and grow their share of the
workforce training market.
Copyright protected by University Continuing Education
Association, Lifelong Learning Trends, Building a Quality Workplace,
2002. http://www.ucea.edu/
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Authored by: Gina Mauller, Business &
Government Educational Development, MU Extension
Source: Creating Quality
Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 12, December 2002
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