Those in Upper Management Are Least Likely to Learn Online; Upskilling Should Be Led from the Top, Says NTUC LearningHub

SINGAPORE -�Media OutReach -
23 October 2020 – Out of a majority of Singaporeans who learn online, it has been
uncovered that those who are senior leaders of their organisations are the
least likely to upskill or reskill virtually, compared to individuals in
different career stages[1].
This was one of the key findings in NTUC
LearningHub’s recent How Singaporeans Learn report.

The survey,
which was conducted online in September 2020 with 450 Singaporean Citizens and
Singapore Permanent Residents who were users of the LHUB GO online learning
platform, aimed to uncover insights into how Singaporeans learn in the Covid-19
era.

Overall, 84%
of respondents say they learn online. Out of this population, ‘entry-level
executives’ (37%) made up the largest segment, followed by ‘business owners/
self-employed’ (26%), ‘managers’ (15%) and ‘the unemployed’ (10%). Respondents who
identified themselves as ‘assistant director and above’ made up the smallest
segment of those who say they learn online (4%).

The report
also reveals that ‘assistant directors and above’ prefer a blended learning approach
to learning (54%) over in-person (38%) and online (8%) modes of learning. In
addition, two in three (62%) of them had never signed up for an online learning
platform before the ‘circuit breaker’ in April 2020.

By contrast, of
the ‘assistant directors and above’ who do upskill, most are likely to upskill
once every three months. The top reason for learning online is to ‘gain a basic
understanding on topics they are curious about’ (70%) as opposed to other
reasons such as to ‘upskill’ or ‘reskill’. Moreover, the top three topics they learn include
‘leadership’ (54%), ‘project management’ (54%) and ‘design thinking’ (46%).

Commenting on
the findings, NTUC LearningHub CEO Kwek Kok Kwong says, “In this new world
order where new information and technologies are being fielded at an
exponential rate, leaders must continue to learn to keep abreast with times. Upskilling
should be led from the top; only then would they have the necessary skillsets
and knowledge to lead their teams in innovation and transformation in a rapidly
changing climate. While in-person learning will always offer greater engagement
effectiveness and networking opportunities, online learning is a great
complementary option for busy executives who are trying to juggle work and
life, while learning just in time, just enough, for the immediate future.”

To download the NTUC
LearningHub How Singaporeans Learn report, visit https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/how-singaporeans-learn/.

About NTUC LearningHub

NTUC LearningHub was corporatised in
2004 with the vision of transforming the lifelong employability of working
people. We work with both corporate and individual clients to provide learning
solutions in areas such as Infocomm Technology, Healthcare, Employability &
Literacy, Business Excellence, Workplace Safety & Health, Security, Human
Resources and Foreign Worker Training.

To date, NTUC LearningHub has helped
over 21,000 organisations and achieved over 2.5 million training places across
more than 500 courses with a pool of over 600 certified trainers. As a Total
Learning Solutions provider to organisations, we also forge partnerships and
provide a wide range of relevant end-to-end training solutions and work
constantly to improve our training quality and delivery.

For more information, visit www.ntuclearninghub.com.