In a poll of trainees, it found more than half (54%) of respondents said they were not given enough time to be able to keep up with their work-related training courses.
"This is the untold story of training and development," said Kevin Young, general manager of SkillSoft. "Trainers and venues are booked and paid for, but while lack of budget is often cited as the reason for training lapses, it is shortage of time that is the real enemy."
According to Young, any further trimming-down of workforces will only cause the situation to get more serious. He said: "Recruitment freezes already mean fewer people are doing more work, with less time to fit in learning; if this continues, the situation will get far worse. The long-term consequences of this could be to put businesses at even further risk."
The Institute of Directors recently found financial spend on training was continuing to hold up, despite the economic condition. It found eight out of 10 business leaders had either maintained or raised their staff training budgets over the last six months.
Young said: "Employers still want to buy training, but they need to look at ways they can offer staff more flexible learning programmes so that staff can fit learning around their work, or that it can be carried out in short bursts rather than in long-drawn out classroom sessions."
Last week a SkillSoft study of 2,500 learners also found 70% preferred virtual learning solutions that they could do in their own time, compared to traditional time-intensive instructor-led learning.
