Upskilling and reskilling are now the top strategic priority for learning, latest Fosway Group research reveals
Fosway Group, Europe’s #1 HR industry analyst, has revealed the headline insights from its annual Digital Learning Realities research, in association with Learning Technologies, the world’s leading workplace learning tech event. Now in its 10th year, the research explores how L&D teams rise to the challenge of a fast-changing business environment and tech landscape.
Crucial to L&D teams has always been the support of the C-Suite. But, the long-standing priorities of compliance, mandatory and regulatory training have now been supplanted in 2024 by the need to upskill and reskill the workforce. This represents a paradigm shift in strategic priorities for learning teams and the C-Suite, as well as a welcome opportunity for every employee, organisation-wide.
“That compliance and regulatory training has finally dropped off the top spot in L&D priorities is a huge signal”, says David Perring, Fosway’s Chief Insights Officer and lead analyst on this latest research. “It’s not that compliance is dying, it’s that skills, upskilling, reskilling, cross-skilling, whatever you want to call it is now the driving force behind L&D’s value add to organisations. And that is a game-changer in so many ways.”
Last year's research findings showed a continuing emphasis on the importance of skills to L&D’s strategic priorities, but another new and clear opportunity for 2024 has emerged - the leveraging of AI-enabled content authoring, a mostly untapped resource which many learning teams will look to make use of in the coming months.
And, whilst expectations of AI are at an all-time high, scepticism is too, with relatively few learning teams adopting the tech at scale so far.
Other key insights from the Digital Learning Realities 2024 research include:
- 69% say they plan to use their budget to upskill subject matter experts
- 22% will be using an external contractor marketplace less, with 41% of respondents also saying they will use their internal talent marketplace more
- 65% say the cost of learning content will decrease because of the predicted adoption of AI
David Perring added: “When I look back over the past 10 years of the survey, we have seen some steady shifts. But based on this year’s data we seem to be on the verge of a true step change. AI is changing the game and it’s difficult not to see that learning will never be the same again. The question is, are you ready?”
As part of Fosway Group’s support for its corporate members they are also building new Digital Learning Realities benchmarking reports, so their members can compare their position on strategy, priorities, AI, budget and learning technology maturity to the rest of the corporate respondents.
It’s an exciting new corporate service from Fosway designed to arm L&D teams with insights into where they stand, derisk their decision making and accelerate success.
Download the infographic here: https://www.fosway.com/research/next-gen-learning/digital-learning-realities-2024/