9 in 10 Employees Say Lack in Data Skills Lead to Greater Challenges at Work, May Be Career Development Roadblock

July 03, 2020 - 07:20
9 in 10 Employees Say Lack in Data Skills Lead to Greater Challenges at Work, May Be Career Development Roadblock

  • 92% admit to not achieving optimalproductivity due to a lack of data skills
  • 89% say that they face challenges at work as aresult of not understanding data
  • 87% view their lack of data competencies as a roadblock to their career development


SINGAPORE- Media OutReach - 3July 2020 - As the Covid-19 economy spurs businesses to increasetheir reliance of data analytics and business intelligence, employees face thepressure of keeping pace with the evolving workplace demands. A largemajority of employees (92%) say that theycould be able to do their job better if they were more data literate, while toa similar measure, 89% say they experience challenges at work due to the lackof data-related skillsets. These were some of the key findings revealed in the recently launched NTUC LearningHub Data Skills Report,which features insights from industry leaders such as global tech giantIBM, Japanese tech conglomerate Softbank and leading analytics software companyQlik.




The report, entitled 'AView From the Ground: Closing the Data Skills Gap in the Covid-19 Era andBeyond' uncovers both employers' and employees' views on the degree of relianceon data and business intelligence in Singapore's business landscape, thegeneral perception about the data-related competencies of the nation'sworkforce, hiring trends and preferences of businesses here, andrecommendations for closing skills gaps in order for businesses and workers toremain competitive.


Amongother challenges, employees have voiced that not being competent in data resultsin their inability to measure workoutcomes (59%), becoming outdated on current and future businesspractices (56%) orinability to do their jobs well (55%). In addition, while employees voted Data Analysis(voted by 63%), Data Interpretation for Decision Making in Business (voted by50%), and Data Protection and Risk Management (voted by 48%) as the mostnecessary data skills for their businesses, these skills were perceived as thosein which they lack, as voted by 37%, 30% and 27% of employees, respectively.


Whenasked about how the lack of data skills impacted their careers, 87% of employeesraised concerns suchas a falling behind their colleagues in work performance (68%), becoming lessuseful to their companies (64%), and having lesser chance of a job promotion (57%).


Commenting on thefindings, NTUC LearningHub's CEO Kwek Kok Kwong says, "In this new decade, dataliteracy will evolve as a basic literacy skill for Worker 4.0 -- our futureworkers. Reading the report, more workers will be anxious about their data capabilities,but we are here to assure you that it is a learnable skill if you are willingto invest time and effort. It is not reserved for an elite few."


"To make dataliteracy more accessible to all, we have been working with esteemed industryplayers such as Qlik, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, and many more. Like learningall new things, it can be daunting in the beginning but taking the first stepforward is a success in itself. If you are new to data and the many businessbenefits it brings, take this first step by reading the report, exploring theoptions and make the first commitment to learn this emerging core skill of thedecade."


To download the fullNTUC LearningHub Data Skills Report 2020, visit: www.ntuclearninghub.com/data-skills-2020/


About NTUC LearningHub

NTUC LearningHub was corporatised in 2004 with the vision oftransforming the lifelong employability of working people. We work with bothcorporate and individual clients to provide learning solutions in areas such asInfocomm Technology, Healthcare, Employability & Literacy, Business Excellence,Workplace Safety & Health, Security, Human Resources and Foreign WorkerTraining.


To date, NTUC LearningHub has helped over 21,000 organisations andachieved over 2.5 million training places across more than 500 courses with apool of over 400 certified trainers. As a Total Learning Solutions provider toorganisations, we also forge partnerships and provide a wide range of relevantend-to-end training solutions and work constantly to improve our trainingquality and delivery. 


For more information, visit www.ntuclearninghub.com.


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