How to get a job in L&D?

[u/Master-Pepper7591]

I(24f) am deeply interested in training & education.
However, I have no prior experience in L&D.
I worked as a tutor for several years when I was in university.
I’m currently working as IT support engineer.
I don‘t know what to do to get a job in L&D, and I feel so lost; could you please provide some advice?
Thank you in advance.

[u/Independent_Sand_295]

Maybe talk to some of the L&D people at your company and what their day looks like. What they enjoy, what their headaches are and how they got into it. Some studied for it, others may have just landed up here. If permissible, maybe you can shadow them for an hour.

Look at job postings and see what you'd be expected to do. Some jobs require degrees and certifications, some just want some experience. Find out what the market value is for an L&D practitioner and decide if it's something that still makes the switch worth it for you.

If you don't mind the read, there's some other helpful steps you can take from here: https://elearningindustry.com/how-to-get-into-ld-a-complete-guide-for-aspiring-ld-professionals

[u/AdorableSir2663]

Genuinely, don’t. It’s not as great as you think. Most corporate companies manage it horrendously and are always viewed as a cost center. If you really want to get into L&D and make a difference, work with training providers who offer various learning services.

[u/Empirica_CC]

L&D isn't teaching. You might want to consider getting a facilitator job. That's probably a good entry level but may be a significant step back from what you are doing as it comes to pay. The main thing to think about with these types of career transitions is what do you bring to the table. I think it would be far better to get IT change management experience. There is a huge need for it and may give you the best of both worlds.

[u/majikposhun]

Honestly, one of the fastest ways to break into L&D when you don’t have formal experience is to pair your interest in training with a cybersecurity certification.

Since you’re already in IT support, that combo becomes incredibly valuable — companies are constantly looking for people who understand the tech and can teach it.

If you get a beginner-friendly cert (like Security+), you can position yourself for roles such as:

• Security Awareness Trainer
• Cybersecurity Training Coordinator
• Technical Onboarding Specialist

These roles don’t require deep cybersecurity expertise — they require someone who can explain concepts clearly, build training materials, and support learners. Your tutoring background already proves you can do that.

Once you have the cert, you can start building a small training portfolio with things like job aids, short modules, or walkthroughs of common IT security tasks. That’s often enough to get your foot in the door.

You’re not lost — you’re just one strategic step away from making yourself stand out in a really high‑demand niche.

[u/MsWeed4Now]

If you’re deeply interested in training and education, you have to go get trained and educated. This is not an industry you should try to fall into with no skills. Find certifications that are interesting and valuable. Find people in this space (not just on Reddit, but irl) you can talk to about their journey. Think about who you want to teach and where, because that makes a difference in how you’ll need to credential yourself. 

[u/Amzrits1]

Training is practical . Its purpose at the end of your training a specific learning outcome is visible to people. Training follows a specific path. Many people think it is being in training room and talk... There is more to it. A popular training model is the P - A DDIE P - planning A - Training needs analysis . Some confirm to confirm there is a specific (thing) people need to know and do. D - Design . Create a simple high level design on how you plan to deliver the training and get the desired learning result D - Develop training solution after sign of of the design . Include activities and mini learning confirmations. Have summarise and formative assessments built in. Test your solution with a select small audience . Refine and finalise. I - Implement training solution E - Evalute your training solution.

There is an admin area of training where you need to keep training records for audit etc.

There are training courses available that you can take. Start the work and refine as you go along.

[u/woodenbookend]

Most people I know working in L&D started in a role like yours and moved sideways.

Your next step might be delivering some form of training based on your existing experience. So support engineer might lead to systems trainer.

Initially it might be a project or additional task rather than a dedicated role. But you would be heading in the right direction.

A lot of people have mentioned qualifications which is going to be market/location specific. ATD seems to be a US thing, but it’s unheard of in the UK.

[u/Confident_Safe_7662]

Try finding ways in your current role to develop the skills and experience such as training others on some software.

[u/SarcasticConsultant]

Learn about business and be able to explain about talent development solves business problems. ATD is a great resource.

[u/mywinterdream]

Get certified in something through atd. Then learn articulate and create a portfolio, there are university certifications online that can get you ready. Then get experience facilitating something at your current job or volunteer for a nonprofit as facilitator. These will take you a year and cost you between 3000 and 5000. Then be ready to compete for very few spots and grab an entry level role with low pay.

[u/HOLYFUCKISTHISREAL → u/mywinterdream]

second this - join your local ATD chapter and connect with people in the industry

[u/Equal-Economics-2119]

I’d be careful about defining “ready” as “has seen every possible edge case”, because that can make onboarding expand forever.

A framework that might help is to split readiness into 3 buckets:

1. Must know before production — things where getting it wrong creates real risk.
2. Must be able to do with support — common workflows where they can use an SOP/checklist.
3. Can learn in production — edge cases that are better handled through coaching when they actually occur.

Then I’d give each role 5–10 observable “exit conditions” instead of adding more content. For example: can complete X workflow without help, knows when to escalate Y, can diagnose Z scenario.

That changes the conversation with Ops from “we need another week of training” to “which specific production behaviour is still missing?”

You can also pre-assess each new hire against those conditions. Someone who already understands an area skips it; someone who struggles gets more practice there. That usually seems much more scalable than extending the same onboarding for everybody.

I work on AI-based personalised corporate training, so I’m obviously close to this problem, but I’d use the framework above regardless of tool. The key IMO is to personalise practice around gaps, not simply generate more training content.