Employee Training Prevalence Worldwide

Proactive companies around the world are investing a great deal of their resources in training and mentoring their employees. Training is important for both the employee and the employee because it gives the employee the right skills and knowledge for better output and quality work. Besides, training enables the employee to understand the company’s culture and mission better enabling them to align themselves with the company’s standards and requirements. Training allows the company and its employee to keep up with the continuous changes in the business environment. The majority of companies around the world have made employee training a priority, some regions around the world exhibit low rate of formal employee training. Below is the prevalence of employee training by companies around the world.

Middle East

Increases in the employee skill gap are some of the biggest challenges facing many organizations in the Middle East today. While a significant amount of growth is being experienced in the regional economy with several companies and organizations coming up, there is little concurrent growth and development in manpower skills. Only 17.8% of firms offer formal training while the majority of the firms offer only induction to the new employees then let them acquire the rest of the skills on site. The low number of firms offering formal training is attributed to the lack of necessary training tools to meet the demands. Only 37% of the companies in the Middle East have the capability to offer formal training to their employees.

Maghreb and North Africa

In Maghreb and North Africa there is a mismatch between the skills that the labor market offers and the right skills needed by the region's employers. The Maghreb countries, such as Tunisia and Morocco, are facing productivity challenges due to the lack of necessary skills for its labor force. Due to the high cost of production and priority on revenues and returns most firms in Maghreb and North Africa invest in employee training and development. Also, North Africa companies are rising from the effects of the economic crisis which affected their human resource development through investments in training. Only 20.2% of the firms in Maghreb and North Africa have the necessary structures and training programs to offer formal training to their employees.

South Asia

South Asia is generally comprised by populous nations with developing economies, including India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The labor market in South Asia is characterized by unskilled and untrained employees. Productivity is relatively low in most of the firms partly because of lack of proper and formal employee training. Only established firms and organizations have the capacity to conduct training to its employees. Only 28.3% of the firms offer formal training to its employees.

Regional Variation

East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, and Western Europe are some of the other regions with the highest numbers of firms investing in their time, money, and effort to provide formal employee training. Over 40% of firms in this part of the world offer formal training to their employees. Formal training in these regions has been accelerated by the need to adapt to the changing business dynamics in the regions and the ever increasing competition between firms and in the international market. Most companies in these areas have well-structured training calendar and programs throughout the year for their employees. In-house training and external training where exchange programs between companies are conducted are some of the training means common in Western Europe.