The Increasing Importance of Literacy Courses and Further Training for the Low-skilled

At the end of 2022 the German Economic Institute (IW) conducted a survey of companies as part of AlphaGrund vernetzt, a project promoting literacy and other basic competences at the workplace. The results show that companies expect to be demanding more of their low-skilled employees in the future. This trend is particularly noticeable among firms that are finding it very difficult to recruit staff. For an optimal response to change processes, it helps if companies can deploy their staff flexibly. In their feedback, the reason enterprises most frequently gave for conducting further training measures for low-skilled workers was the need to broaden their options in how their workers are deployed. For firms that have difficulty recruiting, the most important reasons were employee retention and motivation. These companies also offer more further training for the low-skilled and courses in literacy and other basic skills, and have considerably more interest in offering digital learning at the workplace.