L&D Intelligence Report

Latest Top 10 Trends and Challenges in Learning and Development

As the world recovers from the disruption of the COVID pandemic, how people live, work and learn has profoundly changed. Digitisation has been accelerated in every sphere, reshaping the workforce and requiring new skills and approaches. The World Economic Forum and PwC observe in their Upskilling for Joint Prosperity report that “half of all employees around the world will need reskilling by 2025 – and that number does not include all the people who are currently not in employment.”

For the L&D sector this represents immense opportunity. It also involves immense change, with education systems and skills training requiring rethink and reform. All stakeholders, from government and industry to the L&D sector itself, must be involved. Whereas previously the L&D department might have been overlooked, it’s now central to business strategy. As McKinsey notes, it’s vital to “support the link between talent development and talent strategy within the broader business strategy”.

We asked learning and development professionals across a range of industries in Australia to share their perspectives on the key trends and challenges confronting the L&D industry, and they identified the following as the most pressing issues.