Strategic Education, Inc.’s 2024 workforce survey of more than 2,000 U.S. based full-time employees sought to understand how employees perceive their own skills gaps — the gap between the skills that a job or industry requires and the skills that employees actually have.
85%
of employees have taken advantage of upskilling opportunities provided by their employer.
74%
of workers say their employer provides them opportunities for upskilling.
50%
of U.S.-based full-time employees are concerned about gaining the skills they need to advance at their current job.
U.S.-based full-time employees indicate feeling they could improve their:
technology skills (49%)
to advance in their current job
followed by
hard skills (46%)
and
communication skills (45%)
More than half of workers
(53%)
report that their employer provides them in-house trainings.
50%
of employees are worried about gaining the skills needed to advance their career.
Less than 1/3
of employees receive tuition benefits from their employer.
For employers
U.S.-based full-time employees indicate feeling they could improve their:
technology skills (49%)
to advance in their current job
followed by
hard skills (46%)
and
communication skills (45%)
More than half of workers
(53%)
report that their employer provides them in-house trainings.
50%
of employees are worried about gaining the skills needed to advance their career.
Less than 1/3
of employees receive tuition benefits from their employer.
For EMployees
Over the past three years,
Many employees say that upskilling opportunities increase their motivation at work.
Nearly 1/2
of employees say they are motivated to stay with an employer that supports continued education or the opportunities to cross-train/explore other areas of interest at work.
93%
of employees say learning new skills keeps them motivated at work.
91%
of U.S.-based full-time employees believe employers should invest in employees’ continued education. The expectation that employers should be investing in employees’ continued education has grown 8 percentage points in the last 2 years, up from 83% in 2022 and 87% in 2023.
It’s common for employers to be concerned about the skills gap – the gap between the skills that a job or industry requires and the skills that employees have. According to ManpowerGroup’s 2024 Global Talent Shortage report, 70% of employers in the U.S. report difficulty in filling roles.
But while employers are leading voices on the issue, it’s also important to hear how employees perceive their professional skills gap. Strategic Education, Inc. commissioned a workforce development survey by Atomik research of more than 2,000, U.S.-based full-time employees to better understand employees’ sentiment on upskilling and how they perceive their own skills gaps.
Strategic Education, Inc. commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 2,005 adults throughout the United States. The sample consists of full-time workers, ages 18-55. The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent. Fieldwork took place between May 6 and May 11, 2024. Atomik Research, a part of 4media group, is a creative market research agency.
The questionnaire consists of several survey items identical to survey items included in an online survey conducted between March 17 – 22 of 2022 and March 23 – 30 of 2023. Researchers distributed all three annual questionnaires to a sample of workers throughout the United States. Further, researchers implemented specific quotas for overall sample size and demographic variables such as employment status, gender, age group and geographic region in order to ensure sample characteristics remained consistent between the 2024, 2023 and 2022 data sets. Researchers conducted a chi-square test for each repeated survey item in order to assess differences in responses among the overall sample of workers surveyed in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Participants who qualify and take the survey in full are compensated with airline miles, credit card reward points and other monetary incentives.
Strategic Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA)( www.strategiceducation.com ) is dedicated to helping advance economic mobility through higher education. We primarily serve working adult students globally through our core focus areas: 1) U.S. Higher Education, including Capella University and Strayer University, each institutionally accredited, and collectively offer flexible and affordable associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs including the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University, and non-degree web and mobile application development courses through Strayer University’s Hackbright Academy and Devmountain; 2) Education Technology Services, developing and maintaining relationships with employers to build education benefits programs providing employees access to affordable and industry-relevant training, certificate, and degree programs, including through Workforce Edge, a full-service education benefits administration solution for employers, and Sophia Learning, which offers low-cost online general education-level courses that are ACE-recommended for college credit; and 3) Australia/New Zealand, comprised of Torrens University, Think Education, and Media Design School that collectively offer certificate and degree programs in Australia and New Zealand. This portfolio of high quality, innovative, relevant, and affordable programs and institutions helps our students prepare for success in today’s workforce and find a path to bettering their lives.
Workforce Edge is a complete employee education management platform powered by Strategic Education, Inc. The Workforce Edge platform serves as a solution to help employers offer their workforce higher education options that are relevant, innovative and affordable. Since launching in January 2021, Workforce Edge has partnered with many major employers to help administer tuition assistance benefits. For more information, visit https://www.workforceedge.com/.
