Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
A third of people working in retail and manufacturing have failed to take up a new activity or hobby in the past 12 months.
New research from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills also shows that 12% in those sectors have not read a book for pleasure in the same period.
Last year a BIS consultation found that people were keen to take up learning opportunities if they were made available and easy to find, following which the government committed an additional £30m to support informal adult learning under the banner of The Learning Revolution.
Workers within the sectors were enthusiastic about learning something new, with half of them saying that learning a new skill or hobby would make them more confident at work. The thing they would most like to learn is photography, followed by dance.
According to Ben Fletcher, occupational and health psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire: “People really grow from informal learning, both personally and professionally. This research reveals that we now need to take the next step – do something different and break the habit of inertia that prevents us from getting more from our lives and gives something back to society too.”
