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Future of L&D - a continuing series

 I recently read a report on the future of l&d and I must I am disappointed. To sum up, here were the broad points. 

Digital learning will grow: 

My take: Yes, but getting access to good content is more and more difficult. Companies want to sell you a billion licences. Employees want learning only at the point where they need it and dont want to waste time searching through dozens on videos, learning and unlearning digital frameworks. So, digital learning will grow - but where is the quality? 

In future I hope, Digital learning is relevant, shorter (minus the preambles), crisp and very very context specific. I personally think companies are better off investing in making their own content especially if the content has to be repeated - standard frameworks, relevant to the values and so on. 

L&D will be key to talent retention:

My take: Not in India. Not in tech. I cant think where else. L&D was never and is never the key to talent retention, except in L&D itself. Companies have tried this by sending people off to expensive programs. and they work (yes, think Stanford, ISB), but almost anything lesser  - people hardly want it. Smart people want money, growth, work on something important for the company etc. Where is L&D here?

L&D will be a priority for employees:

My take: I hope, but I dont think so. Not in places which are hustle driven, which are racing against the clock. Other than that, people want learning at the point where they need it and unless you show them "so what" after the learning, it will never be priority.

Platforms for onboarding: Yes - this one works.

New tech will be impactful: No. I have not seen this work at all. There are so many distractions for the employees - from work to social media - quite impossible for anyone but the most determined employee to learn continuously from any sort of course. Nobody seems to have time.

Companies will spend on L&D: Yes

In summary - many of these predictions are exactly what we saw 10 years earlier. What is new? And in that case, what are we missing? 

Future of L&D seems to be written by the content providers, creators and those who are interested in selling. If you ask employees, any employee their answer will be different. I see usage patterns of people signed up for online course - their data seems rather different from "future of L&D" predicts.

This is from one report - will add more in other posts as I read more reports. 

Disclaimer: Work in progress...


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