Close to 40% of managers and executives in British manufacturing and utilities businesses report that their companies are failing to offer training for senior professionals, according to a new survey.
Over all sectors, 34% of those surveyed agreed with the statement “there is no training programme for senior executives here”, research published by executive mentoring company Rutbusters indicates. For manufacturing and utilities the figure was 39.6%.
Rutbusters is a firm specialising in coaching senior individuals to make changes in their career. The research, among 1,000 senior managers and executives who were over 40 and managed a team, division or business, also found that 41.8% in manufacturing and utilities report that “the older you are, the less the organisation wants to spend on training you”.
More positively, 63.8% agreed that the training programme for younger employees such as apprentices at their organisation was “generally very thorough” and 59% said the training programme for graduates was “generally very thorough”.
Commenting on the results, Rutbusters chief executive Kedge Martin said: “It paints a bleak picture of the training of the UK’s 10 million professionals and senior executives, with our research finding at least a third reporting their organisation has little or no programme. Ongoing training for employees is essential, yet at many businesses there is the paradox that the more senior people get, the less they are seen as needing training. In fact, it is quite the opposite,” she added.
“Providing suitable high quality training and mentoring to senior executives and managers is especially important in today’s business environment, with the UK in the midst of a productivity crisis, and many businesses facing both the huge challenges of Brexit and technological disruption.”
She added that effective training provides benefits for both the organisation and the individual, and has been shown to improve work satisfaction, motivation and employee loyalty.