A new analysis of the annual reports FTSE 100 has revealed that if investment in technology increases, the development of work skills remains a low priority for large British companies.
The study, conducted by Multiverse In collaboration with the data scientist, David Abelman, examined ten years of reports using a Great language model (LLM) To extract key themes. The results indicate that if 69% of FTSE 100 companies list technology as a strategic priority, only 7% do the same for the training and development of the workforce.
Lack of strategic concentration on skills development
Despite the growing impact of digital transformation, most companies do not carry out strategic skills journals for their workforce. Only 17% report to undertake an evaluation of the company's skills, against 78% who examine their skills in their board of directors.
Artificial intelligence The training is also under-represented. While 97% of companies highlight compliance and diversity, training on equity and inclusion (DEI), only 34% refer to AI training, despite its growing role in commercial operations.
Euan Blair, CEO of Multraverse, commented:
“Annual reports are an aneanism for the problems that attract the attention of the conference room. What we can see in the data is that the investment in technology is skyrocketing, but the skills and the training have stagnated. It is revealing that at the same time, the same goes for British productivity.”
Learning is gaining ground on graduate programs
The report also found a change in the way companies approach career development at the start of their career. Over the past decade, the number of companies referring to learning schemes has increased from 48% to 59%, while diploma diets increased from 39% to 48%. Internship programs have also increased, with 32% of companies that now offer them, against 19% ten years ago.
However, investment in training remains limited. The study revealed that only 10% of companies revealed their training budgets, with a median expenditure of £ 600 per employee. On average, only 0.16% of the company's income and 1% of working hours are allocated to the training of the workforce.
Disconnect the growth of technology and the preparation of the workforce
The results suggest that companies invest massively in technology without the corresponding accent on the preparation of employees for digital transformation. This is aligned with wider trends identified by the Institute of Tax Studies (IFS), which has reported a drop in investment of employers in training in the last decade.
David Abelman, data science consultant, said:
“It was clear that although the technological objective was accelerated, the strategic development of skills is generally late. But it is also promising to see signals of change in the tactical implementation of learning and development initiatives. It will be fascinating to see how it takes place in the years to come, because the growing impact of AI is felt. ”
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