9 Popular Learning and Development Trends | 2024 Workplace (2024)

Last updated May 24, 2024

The training industry is continually evolving and developing and is shaped by a variety of factors. So, what are the latest learning and development trends for 2024? Let’s take a look.

Learning and Development Trends

1. An Increase in Hybrid & Mixed Training

Many employees are working from home these days and teams are increasingly becoming interspread geographically.

One of the results of this hybrid mix of working and learning has led to more training taking place BOTH online and in a classroom at the SAME time.

We are seeing training whereby the trainer is in the training room with some of the participants and with the others visible via video screen, with these online attendees situated anywhere globally and logging in online – whilst doing the training together with those in the physical classroom.

In the past, it was normally one or the other, i.e. either classroom-based, or it was online. It is getting easier now though to combine the two in real-time.

Training activities and ice-breakers are still possible and these training sessions can work well.

One could get the classroom-based participants to simply also log online and then you do the training all online.

What I like about mixed training though is that you can accommodate both together as some participants prefer to be physically in the same space as others to meet and work alongside colleagues socially.

2. A Continuing Increase in Training Employees Online

The ability for companies to hire employees to work online and virtually means that an increasing number of employees are working from a distance.

This combined with the increasing familiarity with using software such as Zoom and MS Teams (since the pandemic) has also meant that we are much more familiar with online meeting software than ever before.

Some learning and development trends taper off but online learning is very much here to stay and will continue to grow!

Companies have begun to realize that employing staff from anywhere in the world and allowing existing staff to WFA, is workable and is practical.

With staff working virtually and often globally, workplace training will match this trend.

With the increasing demand to WFA (Work From Anywhere) and with the realisation that staff can be trusted to work away from the main business location, hiring globally and finding the right employee for a given role is becoming easier.

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As a result, we are seeing an increase in what are known as ‘Distributed Teams‘ and with this, we are seeing an increasing trend for the need for real-time tutor-led online workplace training for work teams.

Dr Valeria Lo Iacono

With staff working virtually and often globally, workplace training will match this trend.

With the increasing demand to WFA (Work From Anywhere) and with the realisation that staff can be trusted to work away from the main business location, hiring globally and finding the right employee for a given role is becoming easier.

As a result, we are seeing an increase in what are known as ‘Distributed Teams‘ and with this, we are seeing an increasing trend for the need for real-time tutor-led online workplace training for work teams.

Dr Valeria Lo Iacono

3. A Continuing Trend for EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) Training

One of the top trends in learning and development is the drive toward EDI training.

Many companies are aware these days of the need to integrate EDI Training (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) into the company strategy both for legal and ethical reasons.

Legally speaking, we have a duty of care to look after employees whilst ethically, it is simply the right and fair thing to do. We need to treat staff fairly, equally, and well.

In the EDI area, we see a continuing upward trend for the need and demand for training in topics such as:

• Inclusion and Inclusive Leadership
• Psychological Safety at Work
• Managing generational diversity at work

EDI training is a long-term trend that we expect to see continue throughout the coming years.

One thing we have seen though is that there is a gap for employees in their understanding of EDI. Whilst some employees and managers are very aware and very knowledgeable about what EDI means and what they can do to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace, many other employees (including managers) have little or no understanding of EDI at all.

We’ve designed an training materials pack to begin to address this.

4. A Move Towards Customized Bespoke Training for Employees

One of the newer learning and development trends that you can expect to see is a growing demand for personalized online learning

Online learning provides us with a vast range of options in terms of training and development, that we can provide employees with.

Furthermore, online training makes it easier to create micro-learning units that can be put together to create bespoke learning.

So, for example, instead of one specific training program that a manager can study online as e-learning, it is becoming easier to take individual lessons and to create a custom training package for the manager being trained.

Furthermore, where this online training is tutor-led, rather than relying on a trainer who lives locally, it becomes more possible to hire someone with deeper expertise in the training topic area even if the trainer lives thousands of miles away as they can teach online.

The term Blended Learning will be a term you will hear more and more as training and development becomes a combination of online learning combined with classroom training (in-person training).

5. Continuing Focus on Employee well-being in Company Training and Development

Similar to EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) training, wellness and well-being is one of the current trends in learning and development that continues to gather importance and we do not see this slowing down at all in the coming years.

Healthy employees mean happier and also more productive staff.

Happier staff have proven in studies to stay in their job longer, have a better working relationship with colleagues, and work more efficiently.

With this in mind, whether providing wellness training to staff because you care about them or because you see the long-term benefits as a business, it is an area we’d certainly recommend considering.

Do consider also though that we do have a duty of care for our staff, particularly when it comes to wellness and mental well-being.

These topics are particularly useful and continue to gain in popularity:

• Stress management – there are techniques and ways in which we can train.
• Introduction to Mindfulness – whether for teaching employees or other groups.
• Mindfulness for Busy People – can also be useful as workplace training.

Learn more on workplace wellness trends!

6. Trend Towards Solving the 1st Time Manager Training Gap

One significant skills gap that still exists in so many companies, from our experience, is the lack of training for first-time managers and new managers.

From our own research, we have found that more than 55% of new managers fail in their role as a new manager and it is not hard to see why.

So many new and first-time managers have risen through the ranks of a business to then be promoted to a management role and for this reason, they have never been trained in essential management skills such as:

• Inclusive Leadership skills – are essential to ensure that the people you manage are fairly treated.
• Managing Difficult People skills – as a manager, there will inevitably be situations when awkward situations need to be dealt with and there are techniques to manage these situations.
• Topics such as Managing the Return to Work Process – can also be invaluable for understanding and learning effective methods for people management.

So many companies fail to provide new and first-time managers with the essential skills and training that they really need.

In terms of learning and development trends, this is changing as greater awareness of the first-time manager skills gap is becoming better understood.

7. Training Trend to Help Managers Manage Virtual Teams and Employees

With so many workplaces now involving distributed teams (as discussed in point one), there is an increasing need to provide training to develop leadership skills to manage virtual teams

We are seeing a definite increase in the demand for team leaders, managers, and supervisors to manage staff on an everyday basis as staff WFA (Work From Anywhere) and WFH (Work from Home).

8. Teaching Managers Menopause Awareness

The word menopause is one that is becoming spoken more openly about these days and a trend we are also seeing in training and development in awareness training on this topic, to help better inform managers.

Whilst the initial thought by many is that menopause awareness training would be aimed at the female workforce, such training is taking place for all employees although particularly for managers and team leaders.

It is male managers who often lack understanding on the issues surrounding menopause, the same male managers who manage staff absence and staff well-being.

So menopause training also needs to reach managers!

The use of menopause awareness training is a non-medical way of bringing awareness to the general effects of menopause on women. This is a training area that is gradually increasing in popularity as staff well-being is taken more seriously.

9. Mentoring Skills Becoming Popular Again

You might have read our posts on coaching vs mentoring and tips, reverse mentoring, and on building rapport when mentoring.

Mentoring is once again, from what we have seen in recent months, becoming one of the workplace learning trends again, as companies go full circle and re-appreciate the benefits of sharing skills in-house. The benefits include:

• Less training cost expense as skills are shared between staff
• Improved teamwork and improving communication between colleagues as they work more together
• More respect is built as colleagues appreciate the skills others have
• Greater confidence as colleagues get the chance to share their skills and knowledge
• Greater networking taking place as a result of these new connections through mentoring

Learning and Development Trends for 2025 and 2026

Looking further into the future to take a glance into the coming years and future learning and development trends, expect to see skills-based workforce models and upskilling (not new but a trend that continues).

AI (Artificial Intelligence) will come to impact learning on a much higher level in coming years, especially for online learning.

What are your thoughts on future learning and development trends and where the training industry is heading? What role will AI play? How will hybrid training develop?