Beyond skills development: unleashing human potential

The ETLS interviewed workers in the EU, Iceland and Norway to assess the development of various aspects of the workers’ training, learning and ability to do their jobs. The analyses in this report underline the important role of workplaces and workers in supporting Industry 5.0. Alongside expanding worker capabilities and fostering worker empowerment, workplaces support learning by providing learning opportunities and by putting in place the requirements and inducements that encourage learning and drive the deployment of worker skills for the advancement of work organisations.

Context

Skills have become a central priority in EU policy as drivers of competitiveness, innovation, and the green and digital transitions. Initiatives such as the European Skills Agenda, the Pact for Skills, and the Union of Skills emphasise lifelong learning. The shift towards Industry 5.0 highlights the need for human-centred production systems that enhance workers’ capabilities rather than replace them.

To effectively attain productivity gains, organisations must employ workers with the knowledge and skills needed to enact their empowered role. This requires the ability to do things right, but also the ability to do the right thing. Our measure of learning captures this learning. The report analyses how this measure of learning is influenced by personal and workplace characteristics and by participation in learning activities. Finally, the report analyses how workplace and personal characteristics are related to employee participation in various learning activities, those organised by employers and those that are initiated by employees themselves.

Facts and findings

• Skills development is strongly associated with the motivation to learn, the need for learning, the effort put into learning (the participation in learning activities).
• Motivation for learning is shaped jointly by personal drivers and workplace incentives, such as pay and workplace norms about learning. Learning need emerges as personal characteristics, but it is also affected by contextual variables like job redesign and the introduction of new technologies or work processes.
• Motivation to learn, job autonomy and managerial support are strongly associated with a higher participation in all learning activities, both employer-organised and self-initiated.
• Participation in employer-organised learning activities is higher when information about how to job one’s job well is readily available, when learning is linked to career progression, in case of job redesign, and when employees’ workload is manageable.
• Participation in self-initiated learning activities is more frequent in workplaces in which employees share information and engage in behaviours that help the smooth unfolding of operations.

Key messages

• Skills development is strongly associated with individual and workplace factors. For example, motivation is affected by both personal and contextual characteristics.
• Underskilling is likely to be a temporary phenomenon as it triggers participation in all learning activities and skills development.
• Learning effort is difficult to monitor, employers may be aware of workers’ participation in training they organise, but there are many informal learning activities taking place that are hard for them to observe.
• Employers take control of skills formation process, changes in job tasks, the introduction of new processes and technologies, and underskilling are associated with increased provision of employer-organised training.
• Employees participate in the skills formation process. In organisations in which employees apply their skills to contribute to find solutions to workplace problems they also engage more frequently in learning activities.

Policy pointers

• Motivation is strongly linked to skills development and participation in learning. It stems from both intrinsic interest and external factors such as pay and workplace norms, implying that low participation may reflect weak contextual drivers rather than individual disposition.
• Managers recognise the importance of learning when it is directly tied to workplace change, particularly with the introduction of new technologies and evolving job design, where workers must adapt to new tasks.
• Both the extent of learning and its returns are difficult to observe and assess, which can limit employers’ ability to evaluate training outcomes and shape investment decisions.
• Fostering a leaning culture – involving the provision training, workplace norms concerning learning, motivational drives, and managerial support for learning, can promote learning and induce workers to draw on their skills in the interest of the organisation. In this way, the learning culture ensures that learning creates value for the organisation, linking learning to business performance.