L&D: We want it but we don’t have the skills to do it

We regularly produce digests of research related to the people development space. Stats from a couple of recent pieces of research tell an interesting story.

Fosway Group’s research into the realities of digital learning shows that the top growth areas for learning platforms are:

• Analytics – 85%
• Social/collaborative – 72%
• Virtual classrooms – 72%

However, research from the latest Emerald Works Health Check shows that despite being a priority for 98% of L&D teams, only 18% have the required data analytics capabilities. This figure has dropped from 30% in 2018.

It’s a similar story for social/collaborative learning, which is a priority for 96% of L%D teams. However, only 15% of teams have these capabilities, a drop from 25% in 2018.

And the picture is the same for virtual classrooms. They are a priority for 91% of learning teams but only 32% have the capability to deliver them.

If these stats are to be believed, it looks as if L&D teams are keen to invest in technologies that they don’t currently have the skills to use.