Research Digested – The UK Learning Power 100, Lyceum Education Group and FT Longitude
About the research
This report benchmarks leading UK employers on the maturity and effectiveness of their learning and development (L&D) practices. The research combines an assessment of the top 100 organisations with a survey of 2,000 UK employees.
Key findings
The top 100 organisations achieved an average score of 70/100, indicating relatively mature L&D functions overall. The strongest area was strategic workforce and skills planning (87/100), while inclusive talent pathways (58/100) showed the greatest room for improvement.
Other pillars included culture of lifelong learning (80/100), measuring impact (70/100), delivery and capability (64/100) and strategic leadership (61/100).
A defining characteristic of high-performing organisations is that learning is treated as a business priority – 91% discuss and evaluate L&D strategy at board or C-suite level. These organisations also take a long-term approach to workforce planning, with 53% focusing primarily on future skills and roles needed over the next five years.
External influences play a significant role, with 86% aligning skills development with national or local agendas and 72% engaging with external organisations to shape best practice.
Most organisations are investing in learning – 67% have a ring-fenced L&D budget, while almost half have partnered with EdTech providers (48%) or universities and professional bodies (47%) to strengthen specialist training.
Organisations are increasingly moving beyond participation metrics, with 79% gathering learning impact data and 84% reviewing strategy at least every six months.
Despite this progress, the report identifies a significant gap between organisational strategy and employee experience. Only 24% of employees say they are aware of their organisation’s full L&D offering, while 25% know who to approach with learning questions.
Accessibility and support are also inconsistent – 17% of employees say training is not available in formats that meet their needs and despite 85% saying lifelong learning is part of their organisation’s culture, only 37% report that managers regularly recommend learning opportunities and just 28% say training is recognised in performance reviews.
The largest capability gaps are around emerging skills such as AI, cyber security and sustainability – 48% of employees rate their capabilities in these areas as adequate or poor. Employers share this concern – only 56% are satisfied with their organisation’s emerging skills capabilities, compared with 91% satisfaction for job-specific technical skills.
Leading organisations are making learning more strategic and closely linked to business performance. The next challenge is ensuring learning is visible, accessible and consistently embedded into everyday working life so that workforce capability keeps pace with organisational ambition.
Read the report https://www.lyceum.education/uk-learning-power-100
