As workers seek training to remain competitive, 55% say they have paid for it themselves, according to late October results of a University of Phoenix survey conducted by The Harris Poll. Among those workers, nearly a quarter say they have more than once paid out of pocket for training their employer didn’t cover
At the same time, nearly three-quarters of workers surveyed said they turned down professional development opportunities, either because of cost (35%), scheduling conflicts (32%) or a lack of employer support (18%).
Ninety percent of employees said they spend time each month learning or developing new skills at work, and 18% spend more than 20 hours monthly, on average.
Access to training continues to be a struggle for workers, yet employers ranked training lower on their priority lists, according to HR Dive’s 2025 Identity of HR survey.
Even as artificial intelligence adoption increases in the workplace, more than half of companies say they don’t have the resources to train employees to use it effectively, according to an Oct. 22 report from Express Employment Professionals and Harris Poll.
Meanwhile, half of workers may have undergone some training in the past year, but only 12% received training on AI, a Pew Research Center report from February found.