The bank’s new report, Tomorrow’s Skills, which includes a foreword from The Rest is Money presenter Steph McGovern, identifies three societal shifts (changing attitudes to work, the rise in artificial intelligence, and climate change) the British workforce must address to tackle the UK’s productivity problem.
More than half of UK workers recognise they will need to upskill to adapt to their job role in the future but spend 20% less time in training than a decade ago1.
Santander Open Academy2 and xUnlocked3 have launched a free adult education programme to develop green, digital and professional leadership skills.
Santander UK has urged government to focus their new National Plan for Skills on addressing the UK’s productivity dilemma and equipping British workers for a future, in which shifting attitudes to work, the rise of AI, and climate change will have a major impact on the workforce.
In Tomorrow’s Skills, a report published today, Santander surveyed 3,000 adults to reveal that the UK workforce is spending 20% less time on training than they were a decade ago1. The UK is facing a problem of stagnant productivity, with fewer workers taking the opportunity to upskill due to lack of time, cost, and flexibility to fit learning around their jobs and family.
Employees are also generally unaware of how emerging societal shifts could impact their job roles, with 69% of people expecting to stay in the same field for the rest of their career and 72% thinking that their job will still exist in 10 years’ time.
Mike Regnier, CEO, Santander UK said: “Education and skills are critical to powering productivity, financial resilience and economic growth. The UK cannot afford to fall behind in this critical area if we want our economy to grow and remain competitive.”
Santander wants government to use its new National Plan for Skills to roll out courses to upskill people for three significant societal shifts that are currently taking place in the UK:
- Changing attitudes to the world of work amongst different generations, posing new challenges for managers and business leaders. There is currently no real consensus on how often employees should be in the office and what makes a quality leader. When asked whether the increase in hybrid working post-Covid were positive for the UK economy, 65% of 25–34-year-olds agreed, vs 27% of 55–64-year-olds.
- The advent of a new technological wave driven by AI, which could have potentially far-reaching consequences for the UK economy. As technology advances, 63% of workers recognise that they will need training around new technology as part of their jobs and almost half (45%) believe businesses should be embracing AI to increase productivity. Half (47%) of workers aged 18-34 worry their job could be replaced by AI in the future.
- The transition to Net Zero is shifting from ambition to delivery, with tangible steps now being implemented to reach 2050 emissions reduction targets. For the most part, people across all age groups are worried about the threat of climate change and 73% of people think it will have an impact on their future. However, only 35% think it will have an impact on their jobs.
According to the research, despite some concerns (particularly among older groups), there is significant willingness to adapt to future changes, with 58% of UK workers recognising that they will need training to adapt to their role in the future, and 86% seeing the importance of having access to professional skills training throughout working life1.
The bank, in partnership with xUnlocked3, Fearless Adventures4 and House 3375 has today launched a new education initiative which aims to equip people above the age of 18 with green, digital and professional leadership skills – the skills needed to power the economy of the future. The new course content, delivered on Santander Open Academy2, is bite sized, video-led and accessible on-the-go, led by experts in their field6.
Mike Regnier added: “As a bank we play our part by investing significantly in education and skills development from school through university to funding some of the UK’s most exciting early-stage entrepreneurs. Our new adult education programme focuses on the key shifts in the economy to equip the workers of the future with the skills they need. Together, government, educators and industry can enable workers across the UK to upskill and take advantage of current global economic shifts to improve our productivity.”
Journalist and presenter of The Rest is Money podcast, Steph McGovern, added: “In my two decades as a business journalist, I have visited over a thousand workplaces across the UK. The organisations that do well are the ones who take a proactive approach to training and development. As Santander’s report shows, most people do want to access educational opportunities while in work, with more than 4 out of 5 people saying it’s important for adults to have access to professional skills training throughout their lives for all kinds of reasons. As the needs of the economy change, so too should our attitude to learning. We should think of education as lifelong. We all need to adapt, but workers can’t do that on their own.”
Henry White, Co-Founder, EdTech platform xUnlocked commented: “The ultimate objective of this initiative is to prepare people for the future, in which environmental and digital technologies, along with strong leadership, will drive real progress. This aligns with our mission at xUnlocked, which is to help people, and organisations, build the skills and capabilities they need to succeed. Over the past four years, we've been proud to collaborate with Santander to enhance essential skills for its workforce and select cohorts of the UK public.
The release of this major free adult education programme for the wider UK public marks our most recent, and most ambitious, collaboration to date. Santander's research and the newly created Skills England under the new Government demonstrates the depth and immediacy of the skills crisis in the UK. We're looking forward to meeting this need in a way that is accessible and engaging, driving meaningful impact for society as a whole.”
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Notes to Editors
Research conducted by Santander UK and Opinium polling a representative sample of 3,000 UK adults from 19 July to 5 August 2024.
At Santander Open Academy, we help people of all ages, customers and non-customers alike, become more employable and develop the professional skills most in demand by the labour market with the training needed for further growth. We offer courses, content, and scholarships from leading universities and institutions all over the world at no cost.
xUnlocked is a UK-founded EdTech platform, seeking to redefine professional education. It brings industry-leading experts in sustainability and finance to employees across a variety of sectors. It is already trusted by customers such as JP Morgan, Santander, GSK and Airbus. In 2023, it secured a £5 million investment from BPP Education.
Fearless Adventures is a UK-founded venture capital firm on a mission to shape a future where fearless entrepreneurship thrives. It has launched Basecamp, a leading digital marketing training provider that has secured contracts with the Department for Education (DfE) and major UK councils. Basecamp delivers industry-leading marketing education, equipping individuals with the skills needed to excel in the digital space.
Santander, in collaboration with creative agency House 337, has launched a collection of films to promote the new programme as part of the marketing campaign activation. These films inspire people to unlock their potential through the educational courses offered.
Experts delivering the courses include Keira Walsh, England and Barcelona Footballer (Leadership), Charles Leclerc, F1 Driver (Leadership), Priya Lakhani OBE, Founder of Century Tech (Digital), and Solitaire Townsend, Sustainability Expert and Co-Founder of Futerra (Net-Zero).
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. At 30 June 2024, the bank had around 19,600 employees and serves around 14 million active customers, including 7 million digital customers via a nationwide 444 branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the FCA and the PRA in the UK. Santander UK plc customers’ eligible deposits are protected by the FSCS in the UK.
Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC.LN) is a leading commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain and one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. The group’s activities are consolidated into five global businesses: Retail & Commercial Banking, Digital Consumer Bank, Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), Wealth Management & Insurance and Payments (PagoNxt and Cards). This operating model allows the bank to better leverage its unique combination of global scale and local leadership. Banco Santander aims to be the best open financial services platform providing services to individuals, SMEs, corporates, financial institutions and governments. The bank’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. Banco Santander is building a more responsible bank and has made a number of commitments to support this objective, including raising €220 billion in green financing between 2019 and 2030. In the first quarter of 2024, Banco Santander had €1.3 trillion in total funds, 166 million customers, 8,400 branches and 211,000 employees.
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