In order to survive in the working world of the future, employees need the opportunity to continue their education.
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Berlin The automation of the economy means changes in the job for millions of people. Up to 85 million jobs could be lost in industrialized countries by 2025, and 97 million jobs with new requirement profiles could be created. This emerges from the “Future of Jobs Report” of the World Economic Forum, which examined 26 countries.
This makes it clear why it is important for companies to invest in the further training of their employees. This is also made clear by Hansjörg Fetzer, the managing director of the Haufe Academy. After all, 50 percent of all employees will need retraining by 2025.
“Today, learning is more important than ever,” says Fetzer, whose academy offers training in various areas, from management to IT to compliance. “Without targeted upskilling and reskilling, neither companies nor employees can successfully shape the future,” he says with certainty. Roughly speaking, upskilling and reskilling means: further developing skills and thus ensuring your own future viability – continuously, with a plan and a goal.
But how much money actually flows into the further training of their own employees in Germany’s most important corporations? And where is the main focus? The Handelsblatt surveyed the forty Dax companies.
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Only a fraction of the corporations wanted to give specific figures on how much they invest in the further qualification of their employees. Only four out of 40 provided information here: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Bayer and Siemens.
According to BMW, it invested 222.6 million euros in further training measures last year – in 2020 it was 136.3 million. In the past fiscal year, Siemens spent around 165 million euros on training. At Mercedes-Benz, around 155 million euros flowed into training and further education in 2021. And Bayer’s education budget for the current year is 25 million euros.
The corona pandemic had a major impact on the education expenditure of the Dax companies. Munich Re, for example, says: “There was a ‘dent’ in 2020 – due to the largely non-existent face-to-face events. Since 2021, spending has been around the pre-Corona level.”
A spokesman for the automotive supplier Continental made a similar statement: during the Corona period, “fundamentally less was spent on further training” – also because virtual training courses are cheaper than on-site formats, which can now take place again. And the engine specialist MTU is now also spending more money on further training. The reason: “Training that could not be carried out during the lockdown and later due to the Corona rules will be made up for.”
Further training: Dax companies rely on leadership skills
As far as the content of the further training is concerned, there is a clear number one topic: leadership skills. Leadership, especially in a hybrid context, plays a central role in almost all training courses offered by the Dax companies.
Deutsche Post, for example, says it places “particular emphasis on the development of management and team leadership”. And the in-house demand seems to determine the offer of the corporations: A majority of them agree that management training courses for their own employees are in greatest demand. Chip manufacturer Infineon, for example, reports that training courses dealing with the topic of virtual management are particularly popular with its own employees.
Hansjörg Fetzer from the Haufe Academy is not surprised. “In today’s companies, traditional and new management skills are in demand at the same time, from hierarchical management models to agile management.” Due to the corona, there are new, increased requirements – “due to the increased leadership of hybrid teams”.
Another major topic is also the focus of the training courses, especially for the large car manufacturers: future technologies. Daimler, for example, says that the “development of targeted future skills” plays a central role in the group’s range of further training courses. According to Daimler, it has already trained almost 7,000 employees in battery technology in recent years, after all, the car manufacturer wants to switch its product range entirely to electric cars.
Data analysis also plays an important role in most corporations: Allianz, for example, has expanded its range of training courses. At Munich Re, the topic is also one of the most sought-after training courses, while Henkel and BMW also name “data analytics” as one of the most important contents of their training programs.
“Big data is relevant in really every business area – we have gone through an incredible transformation in the last six to eight years,” says expert Fetzer. “The ability to interpret data and to be able to draw the right conclusions is a qualification that has to be acquired in many job profiles.” That is why the topic of data analysis is rightly on the agenda of companies.
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