Learning and Development in Australia
Learning and Development is an essential and complex function of every organisation. It involves many stakeholders, impacts the entirety of the business, and often is activated in collaboration with external providers.
To better understand how Australian organisations value and operate their Learning and Development function, and the challenges they face doing so, AIM conducted a pulse survey with responses received from nearly 200 organisations.
This survey examined L&D across two main axes. The first perspective is around the pragmatics, asking about budgets, the amount of training provided to staff, and how the success of programs is evaluated. The second is the product side of L&D: which employee groups are given training, what skill areas are prioritised, how training and development opportunities are delivered to staff, and the technology used.
Budgeting and Evaluation
While around half of survey respondents report their training budgets as remaining at the same level they are currently, they have grown overall for Australian organisations in the past financial year and this trend is expected to increase further in the current financial year.
The growth of these budgets is relative to the amount and cost of training provided to staff and the results of our survey clearly demonstrate that it is being outpaced by the increasing rate of requests for development opportunities.
Priorities and Training Methods
Results of our survey revealed that the functional areas of participant organisations that require the greatest need for improvement were:
Leadership
and Strategy
Communication
Project
Management
Additionally, the skills which are prioritised are:
People
Management
Strategic
Management
Interpersonal
Skills
It was also discovered that organisations prioritise training certain employee groups. This priority is as follows:
Individual
Workers
Mid-Level
Management
Senior
Management
Leadership and Strategy and People Management are both areas and skills most predominantly needed in higher levels of management. Despite this, Mid-Level and Senior Management are not the most prioritised groups.
Online training methods were one of the most popular training methods across all employee groups. Given that 72% of organisations’ employees have limited time, eLearning and virtual classrooms were the two most popular (82% and 69% respectively) forms of learning delivery.
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To see how AIM can help you maintain your career momentum, develop your skills, and emerge from this pandemic stronger, call 1300 658 337 to speak with one of our expert course advisors.
