San Francisco According to Udemy Research’s recent Skills Gap Report 2018, the vast majority of employees in the US believe there is a wide gap between jobseekers’ skills and the skills demanded by employers. In Udemy Research’s survey, this means, for example, perceived lack of technical or digital skills. 84% of those surveyed in the USA agreed that they perceived a corresponding qualification deficit in their country. The survey is based on an online survey of over 1000 full-time employees aged 18 and over conducted in six different countries in September 2018. Compared to the previous year’s Udemy Research survey, the approval of the perceived skills deficit in the US rose by 6%, while in 2014 the approval according to the survey was still 61%, 23% lower. According to the survey, more and more workers are perceiving a corresponding deficit in the course of advancing digitization and, for example, the increased use of artificial intelligence, which seems to make them more aware of the challenges of the current economic transformation.
In contrast to Udemy Research, 80% of respondents in the US who expect that they will need new skills at work in the future additionally stated that they would quit if their employer did not offer them training opportunities. In France, Mexico and Spain, according to Udemy Research, awareness of a skills deficit among employees also increased significantly compared to the previous year’s survey. France was the country with the strongest increase in the level of support, with 12% (from 81% to 93%), followed by Spain with 8% (from 65% to 73%) and Mexico with 4% (from 66% to 70%). Only in Brazil did approval fall by 3% (from 98% to 95%), but it still has the highest level of approval among the countries surveyed by Udemy Research. In Portugal, Udemy Research cannot make any statement on the corresponding dynamics, as the country became a survey country for the first time in the 2018 survey. This mood among employees thus indicates that the importance of talent and competence management as well as in-company training for companies is likely to continue to grow in the future.
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