UK Learning: Set Up to Fail?
Only half of Britain’s workers are given time for learning, despite companies’ seeing the need as critical.
Most corporate leaders agree: Offering learning and development for workers in this era of AI and other constant change is critical for success. But how to set aside the necessary time is a different story.
According to new government data, nine in ten British CEOs support offering workers more learning and development. But fewer than half of the employees say they are being given designated hours to take such training. Experts say it’s becoming a serious problem in the United Kingdom, both for its economy and any corporate growth. “There’s a strong case for significantly increasing technology and AI-related learning in organizations,” says Drew Hill, a Korn Ferry senior client partner based in London. “There’s a growing need for most employees to understand how to use AI tools effectively.”
Time isn’t the only issue here: Financial investments in training are falling too. Despite demand for specialists of all kinds—not just in tech—the amount spent per employee for learning has fallen by 29.5% since 2011 in inflation-adjusted terms, according to a 2024 UK government document. The same document reported a high skills shortage of 27% in 2024, up from 16% in 2011. “We know that in the private sector, learning is often the first thing to get cut back,” says Benjamin Frost, a Korn Ferry senior client partner, EMEA.
The lack of investment has hit the tech sector particularly hard. One UK-based consultancy found that 35% of organizations are struggling to fill artificial-intelligence roles. The main barriers include a lack of work experience (31%) and insufficient technical skills (30%). Senior positions are particularly difficult to fill, reflecting a shortage of experienced professionals.
The scarcity of hours allocated for employee learning is a major challenge: Only 49% of workers say they’re granted a defined time for such learning—which otherwise takes place after work, between meetings, during the lunch break, and alongside a full workload. “Many organizations still treat learning as something employees do,” Hill says. “This is one of the biggest barriers.” There’s also a disconnect between line managers and the employees who are learning. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) a mere 29% of line managers are involved in assessing learning and development impact, and only 36% support teams to transfer learning back into work. “Often human resources are distant,” says Frost. But line managers interact with workers every day, so they can nudge and cajole them to learn, he says.
Experts say a first step toward reversing the learning curve is for firms to pick which programs to focus on. Hill says leaders need to determine which capabilities they need now, which they anticipate needing in three to five years, and which they believe will become obsolete. “The most successful organizations treat learning and development as a business-strategy issue, not a training issue,” he says.
He adds that staffs that learn quickly will be a major differentiator of corporate success—particularly now that technology is changing so rapidly and workers are becoming more sophisticated. “In an AI-driven economy, the organizations that learn fastest are increasingly the organizations that win,” Hill says.
Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Organizational Strategy capabilities.
