Supply Side Policies are one of the three government economic policies to achieve some of the six government economies objectives. They are set by the government to make the local domestic economy more efficient in comparison with economies of other countries. Supply side policies include: privatization, training and education for workers, deregulation (increasing competitiveness), adjusting domestic policy and foreign policy.
The importance of training and education to the country
Employees need to know what to do at work. They need to be both trained and educated, so that they can do their daily jobs effectively (achieve goals) and efficiently (be productive).
Spending on training and education is always regarded as important investment in the business organization’s most valuable asset – its people. No matter if the money is invested by the country’s government or individual businesses. People matter!
One of the policies that the government can use to achieve more efficient economy is to provide training schemes and education programs to working population of the country. By increasing government spending on higher education and vocational schools, the government will ensure that the higher proportion of future workers enters the job market with university degrees and high-level qualifications.
Why workers need training and education?
Training provides workers with an opportunity to gain employment-related skills. It will lead to higher efficiency. Work-related education increases workforce knowledge. It will lead to better expertise.
In the short-term, workers also need to be trained every time new technology is introduced, so they can use the new equipment properly. Without appropriate training, staff may not know how to operate the machines.
In the long-term, without training and education, workforce will become demotivated. This will most likely make the company having many unhappy customers causing loss of customer loyalty, therefore lower sales revenue – all bad for the business.
The amount and nature of training and education required obviously varies from one job to another. Some jobs require many years of higher education and constant updating of skills and qualifications, e.g. doctors, lawyers or teachers. While other jobs only require very basic training and minimal knowledge, e.g. drivers or factory machine operators.
Major objectives of training and education
Training and education are important to both workers, businesses and the whole economy. Business organizations must ensure that their employees undertake the responsibilities expected of them. And at the same time, that all the workers develop their full abilities.
In order for workers to be well-equipped to perform their assigned duties at maximum capabilities, they need training and education to develop both hard skills and soft skills.
A. HARD SKILLS
Training and education for hard skills tend to be specific to the tasks and responsibilities of the certain job in order to:
- Enhance effectiveness of staff, so they can successfully complete business objectives.
- Improve the efficiency (productivity) of workers, so they produce more products within the same period of time, or the same number of products in the shorter amount of time.
B. SOFT SKILLS
Training and education for soft skills focuses on enhancing the personal soft skills such as emotional intelligence skills or decision-making skills in order to:
- Develop a multi-skilled workforce so the quality of work by the employees will improve, so will customer service.
- Better adapt to changes from external environment.
- Facilitate career and personal development of employees.
Ultimately, the benefits of training and education mean that the workforce becomes more flexible to perform different tasks, motivated to act at the maximum capabilities over a long period of time and productive to maximize output within a specific period of time.
The benefits of training and education that are greater than the costs will always be deemed financially justified both for the whole country and individual companies.
