|
Financial crisis barely impacts continuing education budget |
PDF |
| Print | |
|
|
26.02.2010 |
Science -
Articles
[en] [de]
|
A new study among 500 personnel managers shows surprising results on continuing education in Austria. The continuing education budgets of companies remain constant in 2010.
The financial crisis has hardly had an affect on the continuing education budgets of companies. The continuing education budgets remain the same with 68% of the surveyed companies and are only lower than in 2009 among a mere 8%. 13% of the companies are even spending more on continuing education this year. “We are reluctant to cutback on the further education of employees because it provides an essential competitive factor," as Michael P. Walter, speaker of the platform for occupation-related adult education, interprets the result. The significance of specialist qualifications is increasing. A total of 45% (2009: 39%) of the HR and personnel managers think that occupation-related offers are more and more important. In comparison to this, 17% of those interviewed ascribe increasing significance to personality development. This result also corresponds with the companies’ assessment on which focal points in continuing education make the greatest competitive advance available to the companies. Continuing education in the technology and production sectors is ranked in first place, followed by personality development as well as sales training and marketing. While the significance of further education is increasing in the technology, production, sales and marketing sectors, it is decreasing in the areas of personality development, management and languages. “We have observed that in financially difficult times, ‘hard facts’ take precedence over ‘soft skills’,” as Michael P. Walter explains this development. The topic of funding was also addressed within the framework of the study. 60% of the companies would provide more continuing education for their employees, if more funding was available. Regarding the funding programme for older employees, a quarter of all companies see a particular backlog demand. Employees in small and medium-sized companies would primarily profit from an expansion of subsidised programmes. Executive staff have the highest demand for company-paid continuing education. The higher up the hierarchy, the more days he/she is allowed to study further at the company’s costs. While at least 38% of the managing directors and 42% of the executive staff are entitled to more than five continuing education days a year, this is the case for only 29% of non-executive staff. Furthermore, white-collar employees in continuing education financed by the company clearly fare better than blue-collar workers. 500 personnel managers (managing directors, HR managers and managers with personnel responsibilities) were surveyed in the study on continuing education. The representative study was carried out by “Makam Market Research” in January 2010 on behalf of the platform for occupation-related adult education.
|
|
|
| Details: |
|
|
