Last updated 15:14, Thursday, 18 February 2010 

From the Institute for Employment Studies.

Conclusions

This fifth wave of the Train to Gain learner evaluation builds on the positive findings from the four previous waves.Train to Gain appeals to learners primarily because they want to improve their skills and gain qualifications in order to further their career. The findings from all five waves show that achievement of new skills and qualifications drives participation – this is the main motivation for learners to take part, and the most valued outcome from their training. Learners gain some tangible outcomes, including increased self‐confidence and motivation. Pay increases and promotion are less common at least in the short term.

Satisfaction levels with the training programmes are very high, and remain high among those respondents whom we interviewed for the third time in Wave 5. However, Wave 5 does see a drop in the highest ratings of satisfaction for the new entrants; fewer of this group said that they were extremely or very satisfied. Whether this is a short‐term fluctuation or the start of a downward trend is impossible to know: satisfaction overall is still high and has been high for five consecutive waves of the survey, yet the 10 percentage point drop in those most satisfied could be an indicator of a future trend.

The fall in levels of awareness about Train to Gain is also worth further exploration. In itself, the fact that many learners do not know who is funding their training is not surprising; if the learner does not have to pay he or she may not be very interested in whether their employer, the government, or someone else is footing the bill. Furthermore, the Train to Gain ‘brand’ is likely to be less important to the learner than the skills they gain and the impact this has on their 94 Train to Gain Wave 5 Learner Survey career. However, policymakers may wish to reflect on the decrease in awareness and consider whether or not this may reduce the perceived impact of the programme since learners and their future employers may not credit personal gains and work‐related skills to the programme.

Another change we can see in this wave’s findings is a more individual approach to accessing programmes. In the last two waves it seemed that embarking on Train to Gain programmes was increasingly a joint decision between employers and employees; this is less evident in this wave. Similarly the benefits of the training are seen by learners as more individual and less of a ‘win‐win’ than before. Again, the significance of the change is hard to predict at this point.

The recession has had an impact on many learners’ attitudes towards training, making many learners more keen to boost their chances in an unpredictable economic climate. However, similar numbers say that the recession makes their learning no more important, nor makes further learning more likely so the impact is far from unanimously agreed.

Further learning continues to be a goal for many learners, and the longitudinal data shows increasing numbers of learners making this a reality. This is encouraging, and learners also say that Train to Gain has made them more positive about learning. However, cannot conclude from this survey that the Train to Gain experience is influencing future participation, since those who participate have already shown that learning is at least of some interest to them. Despite some of the uncertainties raised here, the overwhelming story from this and previous surveys is that Train to Gain is valued by, and demonstrates benefits to, the learners who take part. In this wave, the longitudinal data tells us that, as time passes, more learners feel that there is an appropriate match between their job and their skills – 13 percentage points higher than the same group felt one year ago. Perhaps this is the strongest measure of the impact of the programme.