FUNDING FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING: STUDY SHOWS 60% OF CPD TRAINING IS FUNDED BY EMPLOYERS IN THE UK

The majority of professional development training in the UK is funded by employers, recent online study conducted by Findcourses.co.uk  shows. 60% of the 1,232 individuals polled in the UK stated that they have participated in training that was funded by their respective organisations or employers thus far in 2011, while 38% claimed to have funded their CPD (continuing professional develop) training themselves. Only 1% received Government funded training for their personal and professional development.

In addition to those polled in the UK, a parallel study of 1,750 respondents was conducted in Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Sweden. Respondents from Finland and Sweden showed dissimilar trends to the UK, with a vast majority (82%) of users funding their own training. German respondents closely reflected those from the UK with 75% of respondents claiming that their employing organisations are funding their training endeavours. Denmark showed the most evenly divided respondents, but the highest percentage of individuals declared that governmental agencies will be funding their training.  

Specialists in the training industry believe that these variations can be attributed to varying laws and work cultures within the different countries. Additionally, this data suggests that investment cutbacks in CPD training for staff may not be as drastic as originally expected.

Experts at the CIPD had expected employee training to be cut across the board, with 43% of organisations decreasing training funding immediately and 42% expecting a reduction within the next 10 months. However this study indicates that a majority of training is still being funded by employing organisations throughout the UK.

“It is promising to see that even with reduced budgets and in the midst of an economic downturn, organisations are still investing in CPD training. Prioritising staff development and investments in skills is clearly an important HR task, and we have been seeing more and more organisations capitalising on in-house training and utilising more cost effective training options,” said Kate Butterworth, Site Manager at findcourses.co.uk. Furthermore, research conducted by the Skills Funding Agency shows that three in four business people (76%) believe that their organisation would not succeed without investment in training.