The past few years have seen the world of Learning and Development (L&D) programmes undergo a dramatic transformation. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all classroom training: Lockdown ushered in a new era of hybrid learning, and in the years since we’ve seen innovations such as AI, micro learning, and data-driven L&D strategy take hold.
But what will tomorrow’s learners want? What challenges are today’s L&D functions facing that could set them back? We’ve curated 25+ need-to-know emerging trends and statistics that will define the state of workplace learning and development programmes going into 2025 and beyond.
1) L&D teams are struggling to demonstrate Return on Learning (RoL):
- 19% of L&D functions cite lack of stakeholder buy-in as their biggest barrier to achieving their development goals. (2023)
- 36% of L&D teams cite “limited budget” as their main barrier to supporting their organisation and people (2023)
- One in four employees don’t feel confident that they have been properly trained to do their jobs (2023)
- 42% of employees believe workplace learning isn’t relevant to their jobs, and 32% believe workplace learning isn’t tailored to their learning needs (2023)
- 33% of workers say their current company-provided training doesn’t meet their expectations (2022)
2) Organisations are limiting L&D budgets:
- 49% of organisations will be spending less on their programmes as a result of economic downturn (2023)
- In the UK, the average investment in training per employee has plummeted 27% since 2011 (2022)
- While spending on skills has fallen across all types of organisations, some have scaled back more than others (2024)
- Larger businesses are spending 35% less
- Public service sectors are spending 38% less
- Primary sector businesses are spending 44% less
3) If people aren’t developing at your organisation, they’ll go elsewhere:
- (2023) When employees feel supported by their organisation to grow and develop:
- Their likelihood of being a high performer increases by up to 39%
- Their willingness to stay at the organisation increases by up to 19%
- Their engagement increases by up to 61%
- Only 46% of employees are satisfied with the career development opportunities at their organisation (2023)
- 76% of employees are more likely to stay at an organisation that offers continuous learning (2022)
- Gen Z and Millennials are prioritising training and development more: More than a quarter of employees aged between 16-34 believe training and development is the most important factor impacting their engagement as an employee (2023)
4) Demand for workplace skills continues to outpace supply:
- CEOs cite labour and skills shortages as the second-most crucial external factor hindering business strategies (2024)
- 94% of UK workers will need reskilling by 2030 – that’s 30 million people (2023)
- 30% of businesses said they couldn’t grow over the last 12 months because they didn’t have the right skills (2023)
- 76% of employees don’t feel they have the skills they need to work in new digitally-focused workplaces (2022)
- The required skillsets for modern work have changed by 25% since 2015, and this figure is expected to double by 2027 (2023)
- Coupled with recent findings that indicate 75% of employers are struggling to fill roles, (a 17-year high), the need to offer impactful reskilling and onboarding programmes is more important than ever. (2024)
5) Learners want flexibility in learning formats, and L&D teams need to offer it:
- More employees are willing to attend in-person training events than in previous years (2024)
- “Access to learning management systems” ranks highest in resources that Gen Z look for to help with career growth, suggesting a shift towards a preference for digital learning environments. (2024)
- 43% of Gen Z respondents say they prefer a fully self-directed and independent approach to learning (2023)
- Only 1 in 5 L&D teams currently plan to offer self-directed learning options, which could cause Gen Z learners to disengage (2022)
- Half of Gen Z consider online experiences to be meaningful replacements for in-person interactions—compared with about one-third of older employees (2024)
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