Workforce Data and Trends

• The Conference Board issued a recent report (Casner-Lotto & Wright Benner, 2006) finding that high school and college graduates are deficient in mathematics, reading comprehension and writing. Supporting this data, an ASTD survey (Paradise, 2007) showed that 25% of businesses sampled identified shortages of key skills as a top challenge. However, only 33.2% of employers provide remedial basic skills training to incumbent staff (Casner-Lotto et al, 2006).
• The 2005 ASTD’s State of the Industry Report found that organizations spent an average of $643 to provide one hour of learning content (Sugrue & Rivera, 2005), and roughly $500 per employee for remedial skill training (Casner-Lotto et al, 2006).
• ASTD reports that 27% of training in 2004 was delivered using technology. In addition, roughly 75% of online learning was self-paced (Sugrue & Rivera, 2005). They also found that more innovative organizations provide a range of learning opportunities to their employees in addition to web-based training, including work-based learning, access knowledge bases (81%), knowledge sharing opportunities (71%), and mentoring and coaching (70%). Blended-learning is becoming more popular, since it provides for more effective learning and transfer of knowledge to the job, making it easier to measure the outcomes of training (Casner-Lotto et al, 2006).
• Prior research has found that the trainees’ level of engagement pre-training affects learning and behavior change; and also that those trainees who are engaged and have a career goal or map within the organization, are more willing to apply the new knowledge on the job. (Noe et al,1986)