November 2nd, 2021
[Portions of the following blog originally appeared as a post on Forbes.com that Edward Segal wrote as a Leadership Strategy contributor. His other posts on Forbes.com can be read at https://www.forbes.com/search/?q=Edward%20Segal&sh=696c69c8279f]
Case in point: The recently announced partnership between performance management software company Betterworks and remote learning provider Udemy for Business. It’s already bearing fruit in the form of a pilot project, a more powerful integrated learning and development platform.
By any measure, learning and development (also known as upskilling) is big business and important for business. According to one estimate, the market size of this global industry is more than $370 billion, with companies spending an average of $1,300 per employee each year on various continuing education activities.
Nearly 40% of respondents to an April survey by 451 Research S&P Global Market Intelligence say their organizations are planning to make their biggest HR investments in learning and development. Executives in particular are most interested in matching employees’ skills to business goals (55.6%), customizing learning opportunities (48.6%) and creating a library of courses to help close skills gaps (27.8%).