Dive Brief:

• Seventy percent of 510 workers polled in a new survey from Clutch said they would be likely to participate in an employer-provided training program if it was offered to them. 
• Employees rated their learning preferences: 19% wanted tuition reimbursement for classes, and 19% wanted classes and workshops. Thirteen percent said they preferred job shadowing opportunities. Another 12% asked for presentations from experts. Only 7% of respondents said they wanted learning resources like books, videos and online courses.
• The survey also revealed employees aren't getting access to learning as frequently as they might need to; 50% of those polled revealed it had been one year or more since they were last offered job retraining. Only 23% said it had been between six to 11 months previously, and 27% were offered training less than six months ago.

Dive Insight:

Slightly less than half of HR professionals in the tech industry said they believe AI will create more jobs than it replaces, a KPMG report revealed. If their prediction proves correct, businesses will need to prepare to re-skill employees for the new jobs AI brings. In fact, employees are already asking for upskilling — employers are the ones lagging behind when it comes to providing the training they will need, according to a Randstad Workmonitor survey. As employers answer the call for skills training, they may need to be prepared to keep offering it: The more training that employees get, the more they want, a 2018 Cerego report found.

Some of the largest players are jumping on the upskilling bandwagon, training their own people as well as offering training to business partners and learners at large. Amazon, for example, pledged $700 million to train 100,000 of its U.S. employees. Some workers are so committed to developing new skills that many are finding learning pathways on their own and paying for them out of pocket.