Ongoing Learning Is Workers’ Pick

Santander's 2025 Tomorrow's Skills report serves as confirmation for talent developers: Learning isn't temporary—it's perpetual. Eighty-one percent of all respondents—comprising 15,000 adults in 15 countries—said they need to continually broaden their skills, and 45 percent believe that practical experience and informal learning now rival or surpass formal credentials. Nearly two out of five respondents believe training hasn't sufficiently prepared them for the job market, underscoring the case for continuous, applied upskilling.

The report's sharpest insights come from its regional lens. Across North America (2,000 respondents in the US and Canada), 80 percent named technology and digitalization as the most important areas for career development. It's also where almost half of workers stated that hands-on experience will matter more than official certificates, and where employees reported that companies offer more training, resulting in higher satisfaction. Notably, responsibility for lifelong learning is split: About half of US respondents placed the onus on companies, while nearly half of Mexican respondents placed it on individuals.

South America (based on 4,000 respondents in four countries) shows the strongest self-starter culture. Nearly half of respondents are already training on their own initiative, and the majority would supplement their studies with more formal education. The region is also most positive about digital learning, with 65 percent stating that platforms have a beneficial impact and 75 percent open to using them.

Researchers spoke to 9,000 people in nine European countries. The responses indicate that Europeans are more tempered on platforms and more constrained by time and cost but still tend to think about the future. For instance, 74 percent believe future generations will work in roles that don't exist yet. That also manifests in the fact that most European respondents are not satisfied with their educational level before entering the job market.

Commonalities exist among all the respondents worldwide. For instance, a staggering 89 percent don't know about "on-demand" digital training menus that companies offer despite high intent to learn. In addition, cost and time remain the top barriers across the regions.