This archive report was first published on 27 November 2019.
As the world becomes increasingly digital, businesses are realizing the importance of investing in their workforce to stay ahead of the competition.
However, a recent study by Oxford Group found that 60% of employees feel that leaders and staff in their organizations lack the necessary skills to tackle digital transformation.
Despite the yawning skills gap, many organizations in Africa are not making convincing investments in talent development initiatives, with some learning and development programs being outdated or not responding to employees' needs.
According to a study by City & Guilds Group business Kineo, 79% of employees expressed interest in seeing a bigger focus on training and people development in their workplace, but only 16% found the learning and development programs offered by their organizations effective and relevant to their growth.
As a result, employees are taking matters into their own hands, with 6 out of 10 employees investing their personal time in learning, education, or training activities, and 59% seeking online advice, guidance, or e-learning solutions.
Organizations worldwide have acknowledged the connection between corporate learning development and business sustainability, and the current trend is on creating and designing a 'learning organization' that has acquired skill-sets in creating, interpreting, transferring, retaining, and managing knowledge.
However, the effectiveness and appropriateness of this learning organization model in Africa still leaves a lot to be desired, with many organizations' human resource having university academic degrees but lacking the skills, abilities, and attitudes to operate in the business environment.
To achieve success in Africa, there is a great and urgent need to change leadership behaviors and Human Resource Management practices through concerted effort in investing in internal and external training and capacity building.
According to a recent study, 85% of employees are struggling to access training in their workplace, and only 16% found the learning and development programs offered by their organizations effective and relevant to their growth.
As the Digital Era continues to shape the future of work, it is clear that Africa cannot progress further without developing leadership capabilities on a continental scale.
Creating and devoting time to honing leadership competencies remains the best investment in the future of organizational learning processes for Africa.
The upcoming Annual Training Evaluation Compendium in Africa, ATECA, conference aims to congregate players in the Training, Learning, and Development industry to look at ways of standardizing systems and ensuring Africa is at par with its global peers in having learning processes that address the 21st century labor market needs.
