SINGAPORE: Fewer companies in Singapore saw productivity improve after their employees attended courses under the national training framework, according to survey findings released by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) on Wednesday (Jul 20).

The annual survey on Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) courses, conducted from September 2015 to January 2016, polled more than 6,100 trainees and 1,566 companies that had sent their employees for training.

Slightly more than half of companies surveyed – 54.6 per cent – said they found productivity improved after their employees attended WSQ courses. This compares to 76.2 per cent in 2014 and 76.8 per cent in 2013.

About 55.7 per cent of firms said they saw improvements in their service quality, down from 73.9 per cent the previous year. Just 30.5 per cent of companies found that WSQ training helped improve their sales and profitability, down from 48.3 per cent in 2014 and 56.1 per cent in 2013.

The decline in firms seeing a positive impact from training could be due to the weak economic conditions, WDA said.

Still, the majority of companies – 97.6 per cent – said they would continue to send their employees for WSQ training, an increase of 1.7 percentage points from 2014.

More than nine in 10 of firms also said the training helped their employees do their job more efficiently or more effectively, although the proportion declined compared to previous years.

Training also did not seem to have much impact on career advancement. Just 7.8 per cent of trainees said they were promoted after undergoing WSQ training, compared to 12.2 per cent in 2014 and 11.7 per cent in 2013.

Only 11.3 per cent of employees surveyed had a pay increment after training, compared to 17.6 per cent the previous year, while 22.7 per cent said they were given more or new job responsibilities, compared to 36 per cent in 2014.

About 88.2 per cent said they would continue to take up other WSQ courses, compared to 90.8 per cent the previous year.

“WDA is committed to intensifying our efforts to help our local workforce adapt to the changing workforce needs and to grow in their job roles,” said Chief Executive Ng Cher Pong. “Under SkillsFuture, we have gone beyond WSQ training to broaden the range of support available to individuals in their skills deepening and mastery journey throughout their careers.”