Corporate L&D’s Share of Learning Is Declining: Should We be Concerned?

There is concern in the industry that a decline in formal learning is leading to a smaller share of the “learning market” for corporate L&D departments. The analogy is a marketing department’s concern over a declining share of the consumer’s wallet as other products or services displace their own. In our profession the worry is driven by a move toward employee-directed learning where employees are bypassing formal corporate training programs in favor of online learning opportunities offered by outside organizations as well as self-directed learning on the internet and informal learning through their own networks. Several studies in the past two years have confirmed the shift and it is certainly a growing topic for discussion in the profession.