The survey, conducted by the global staffing and headhunting firm in October, found that 69% of younger workers (aged 18 to 24) struggled to acquire new skills in their current role, compared with 49% of respondents aged between 55 and 67.

“The opportunity to learn management skills, new systems as well as resource planning is critical to the career development of younger workers,” said Fahad Naeem, head of operations at Randstad Malaysia.

“As these learning opportunities diminish during remote working, the onus is on the employer to create new learning opportunities and drive employee engagement initiatives.”

The results were part of the second edition of the company’s 2020 Workmonitor survey which highlights the concerns and challenges candidates are facing in the employment market.

There were a minimum of 400 respondents in each of the survey’s 34 markets across the globe.

On average, 85% of respondents said they had transferable skills needed to find a job at a different company or industry while 15% said they feared job loss.

Meanwhile, 70% believed that employers would have trouble finding the right talent in the future.

Stating that employees should proactively keep pace with industry trends and upskill themselves to meet new skills requirements, Fahad said employers should also prioritise investment in their human capital as companies with good training culture and programmes tend to be more attractive to candidates and enjoy higher employee retention.