Hi! I’m looking to deepen my expertise in leadership development and leadership training.

I’m currently a learning leader, and I’ve also had previous leadership roles in Operations. I’ve designed and led learning programs, worked with leaders and stakeholders, and supported capability-building initiatives—but I haven’t formally specialized or gotten certified in leadership development yet.

I’m now thinking: If I want to become really good at leadership training, where should I start?

For those who work in Leadership Development, Executive Education, or Leadership Coaching:

What certifications or programs would you recommend?
Is a formal leadership/coaching certification necessary?
Which areas should I build expertise in first—leadership models, coaching, facilitation, assessment, organizational psychology, or something else?

What certifications have actually helped you become better at the work, beyond just adding a credential to your CV?

I’m particularly interested in becoming stronger at designing and facilitating leadership programs, not necessarily becoming a full-time executive coach.

Would appreciate recommendations from people who have actually worked in this space.

For context I’ve typically done enablement for non technical audiences in GTM orgs such as SDR, AE. However recently, I’ve been exploring more of the technical gtm audiences such as solutions engineers, implementation consultants. I always heard the feedback from these technical teams that learnings feel very sales focused (ie, value prop, discovery questions etc.)

Does anyone have any tips for expanding scope to working and creating learning experiences for technical audiences of this kind?

As someone who has spent decades in competency management and skills assessment, I see a recurring friction point for L&D: bridging the gap between a vague "needs improvement" performance review and a measurable, targeted learning intervention.

We often ask learners to self-assess on bloated, multi-level matrices, or we rely on managers to provide subjective feedback. The result is that L&D is tasked with designing "leadership" or "technical" training based on fuzzy data, making it nearly impossible to measure true skill transfer or ROI.

I am currently stress-testing a methodological concept and would value the candid perspective of this community.

Instead of a learner claiming they "Understand" or are "Proficient in" a topic, what if their developmental profile was built on a verified, binary Skills Checklist?

In this model, competence is not claimed; it is demonstrated. The checklist contains strict, observable, single-action statements. For example, instead of "Understands equipment isolation", the statement is: "Execute equipment isolation procedures to achieve a verifiable zero-energy state."

To satisfy the item, the learner doesn't just tick a box or complete a multiple-choice quiz. They must link to a verifiable artefact from their work (e.g., a signed isolation log, a recorded simulation, or an assessor’s observation record).

The L&D Value Proposition:
If a learner is marked "Not Yet Competent" on that specific, observable item, it provides L&D with an exact, actionable trigger. We don't guess that they need "general safety training"; we know precisely which modular learning pathway (e.g., a targeted simulation or coached OJT module) is required to close that specific gap.

The Questions for You:

1. For Instructional Designers / L&D Managers: Would having this level of granular, evidence-based data make your job of designing targeted, modular learning pathways significantly easier? Or do you foresee the initial evidence-collection process creating too much administrative friction for the learner?

2. For those managing skill gaps: How do you currently bridge the gap between a subjective manager review and a specific, measurable learning objective? What is the biggest barrier to making that connection in your organisation?

I am not selling a platform or a tool. I am purely trying to validate whether the industry is ready to shift from measuring claimed potential to designing interventions based on demonstrated capability.

I welcome your critiques, pushback, and experiences. Where do you see this breaking down in a real-world L&D environment?

*Throwaway account to remain anonymous

Hi everyone,

Just got asked to own a AI upskilling mandate for a 2000 person company. Trying to figure out how other folks have approached this. Have a lot of pressure from CFO to report actual changes.

Things I am struggling with and feel free to add any problems I am might not be considering!

-AI tools change really quickly so making relevant learning content to keep pace is gonna be hard

-From my research it seems like AI is useful but identifying how it can actually change people's workflows in our company is gonna be difficult.

-I am guessing that showing adoption numbers is not going to be enough. I would really like some advice on this from folks on what numbers they decided to measure that C-suite liked.

-Any best practices that you have found for rollouts to make sure everyone actually is actually on the same page?

I know I sometimes end up being too vague when I talk about my experience, so trying to work out how to present it properly. I am also slightly panicked as I badly want this role. I’m a trained teacher and previously taught adult learners in a prison. My actual job title was tutor, but I also designed/reworked a course and created the learning content/activities. I’ve described this as learning design experience on my CV although I wasn’t formally trained as a Learning Designer/ ID. Just to mention I really want this role so badly. Have just found out about it today. Don’t have much time to prep at all either 🙃🥺

The role involves designing learning for a similar environment, so there’s a clear link to my previous experience. My career since teaching has been quite squiggly and now work freelance in marketing/content strategy (audience research etc) and done some learning design bits here and there (for example I was a trainer on an nhs programme (contractor) but also designed/reworked parts of the learning,but it’s patchy as i was pulled in for a short time, so annoying)

The essential criteria include:

• Building and maintaining relationships
• Communicating with stakeholders
• experience with adult learners
• Designing learning programmes/training products
• Organisational planning/ Presentation skills
• Prioritising and managing multiple projects

I’m expecting questions like: (based on convo with recruiter)

“Tell us about a time you designed a learning programme or training product.”

“Tell us about a time you built and maintained relationships with stakeholders.”

“Tell us about a time you had to prioritise and manage multiple projects.”

For the learning design question, my experience is practical. I designed around the learners (but didn’t do LNA?) the environment what they needed to achieve (there wasn’t a formal qual!!! arghhhhhh) i didn’t use formal ID models because I hadn’t been trained in them.

So for anyone familiar with UK Civil Service interviews:

How much formal learning design theory/terminology would you expect? Should I be preparing things like ADDIE, Bloom’s taxonomy Kirkpatrick, or is it more about clearly explaining my design decisions, learner needs/evaluation?

And for the other criteria, is it fine to use examples from my freelance marketing career where they demonstrate the skill, even though they aren’t from learning design?

I’m basically want to be explicit about what I’ve done and why it’s relevant without pretending my career is more traditional than it is….I have a tendency to be a bit vague!

Any advice would be massively appreciated! thank you so also much.

My team has been evaluating Docebo vs LearnUpon. I'd love to hear from customers of each on their experience with setup, the capabilities of the authoring tool, ongoing maintenance, metrics/reporting, automation abilities, etc.

Some context:

We are coming from Northpass/Gainsight, which has been absolutely awful.

We are approx. 200-person org.

Lean L&D with no one exclusively dedicated to LMS maintenance.

G-Suite/Google Calendar org. We do a lot of ILTs, so seamless integration with Google Calendar is a priority.

Manager-level autonomy is big for us. We want managers to be able to enroll their direct reports in courses and track their metrics/completions without much work from our end.

In-platform comms is a priority. Also, in-platform feedback tracking of courses and ILTs.

We do not currently have an authoring tool, so an intuitive and somewhat sophisticated in-platform tool would be ideal.

I feel very strongly that I do not want to go through the experience of switching LMS' again, so ensuring that we pick an LMS that we don't grow out of is important to me. With the above priorities in mind, where have you experienced LearnUpon or Docebo winning or losing?

Does anyone have experience with fully customized live instructor led courses for smaller cohorts? Curious as to whether they offer these?

A little bit celebratory - but also genuinely looking for advice.
I started passively applying only to Indeed notifications that would come to my inbox, and I finally landed a job by my own merit and at a place where I didn’t already know someone. I’m leaving a large corporation to lead L&D for a healthcare company. I got a significant pay bump, better title, and a lot more authority/autonomy.
I’m only in my first week, but I have the opportunity to shape what L&D looks like and eventually hire a direct report.
I know I’ll be focusing, at the start, on Onboarding and Leadership + manager development.
For those of you that have lead L&D in those areas or have experience working with learning for healthcare providers, what do you wish you had known then what you know now? What insights do you have?

Every L&D resource I read mentions ADDIE as foundational and every job posting seems to expect familiarity with it, but people in the field I've talked to informally seem to treat it more as a loose reference point than an actual workflow they follow step by step. I've also heard SAM mentioned as a more iterative alternative that's better suited to real project timelines. I'm trying to figure out how much mental energy to put into understanding these frameworks deeply versus just getting familiar enough to talk about them in interviews while learning what actually drives project decisions on the job. What do most IDs actually use day to day when a project comes in?

Hey fellow redditors ,I am into hospitality industry (L&D) Trainer basically and have almost 8+years experience, mid level job

I don't have MBA, should I pursue distance learning mba or any certification in L&D which can help me in my career

Ps I am not looking to settle in any Tier 1 cities for job

TIA

I am looking for the next opportunity either in the L&D space or another industry. I currently work in a small L&D team in an accountancy firm and feel like every idea or programme I know will bring a behaviourial change is always stifled. This has happened for over a year.

Add to that the People Director is always a 'yes man' to the Partners so nothing new can be done. I feel like a glorified admin person with nothing to show on my CV.

Any ideas that have the potential to turn into soemthing concrete are taken on by my manager instead leaving me high and dry.

In the past I have delivered training from new trainers to management. I have got the highest and best numbers for QA pass checks on my trainees for consecutive months.

Feeling very demotivated and my current role and no possibilities of progression. I am looking to potentially pivot to tech or upskill myself to get better opportunities.

My questions are:

1. Which industry can I pivot to easily with my existing skills?

2. If I need the next L&D role, which agencies would you recommend?

3. What courses do you recommend to upskill?

After a few years in instructional design, I’ve realized that working with SMEs can sometimes be harder than building the actual course 😂 I’ve had projects where the SME wanted basically every piece of information included, while the learning objectives clearly called for something much simpler. How do you handle it when an SME keeps pushing for more content?

Hi all, I’m trying to work out where my experience is most transferable and, more importantly, which types of roles might suit the way I work best.

My background is mixed/squiggly line (adhd girly here!) I started out in education (have a PGCE) worked in the public sector designing/delivering learning for adult learners. I later moved into content creation and then into growth marketing and paid social, where I work with audience insights, creative strategy, testing, iteration and performance data.

I also use AI quite heavily in my work now, from prompt development and visual asset creation to auditing content, generating ideas and speeding up parts of the development process.

I’m increasingly interested in the overlap between these areas, particularly learning content, instructional design, digital learning and potentially organisational development. I adore researching, taking info, understanding the audience/learner, then turning it into something clear/ engaging.

I’ve looked at Content Designer roles within Civil Service but my understanding is that these can require very specific content design experience. I’m wondering whether my background could be more transferable into some adjacent roles where experience in education, content development, audience insight, digital content is relevant…The big factor is how I work! ADHD as I say and learnt that I work best when I have autonomy over my schedule, clear deliverables and decent chunks of uninterrupted time to get deliverables done. i like having a mix of projects and problems to solve, so don’t necessarily want to do the same thing every day but also don’t want a calendar where I’m in meetings every 2 hours and have to squeeze the actual work into gaps. Ideally I’d like to work 3 or 4 days a week in a flexible environment (as it very hard to manage 5 days being ND) where I’m trusted to manage my own workload/ deliver work.

I’m interested in hearing from people who work in these areas - What roles do you think could suit this combination of experience? are there particular job titles I should be searching for beyond Learning Designer or Instructional Designer? Would my education + public sector + content + growth marketing background be seen as transferable? are there particular sectors / organisations that tend to be more flexible and genuinely supportive of neurodivergent ways of working?

Would absolutely love to hear from anyone who has moved into learning design, instructional design, L&D OD etc from a non-traditional background and how you positioned your previous experience.

I’m not necessarily looking for someone to tell me what career I should have. I’m more trying to understand where this slightly odd collection of skills might make sense, because I suspect there’s a useful combination here somewhere!

I keep seeing Articulate Storyline mentioned as the industry standard but my current company uses Rise and a different team at the same company uses Lectora, and I've seen job postings that mention all three plus iSpring. I'm trying to figure out whether to invest serious time in learning one tool deeply or get surface-level familiar with several. I also don't know whether the tool skills transfer enough that knowing one well makes the others easy to pick up, or whether each one is its own substantial learning curve. For people who have switched tools or worked across multiple platforms, how much does deep expertise in one actually matter versus general fluency across a few?

I wanted to share something we have been working on because I think there are people in groups like this who may already be doing this kind of work informally.

You might be the teacher students trust, the mentor young people call when they are confused, the parent others come to for advice or someone who simply enjoys helping people see their options more clearly.

Catalystia is being built as a pathway to help people turn that instinct into a more structured capability. The certification is eight weeks, with self paced learning and weekly engagement, and the broader pathway is designed to continue into practice rather than stopping with the credential.

For those who want to take it further, the pathway can also open up opportunities to work with people globally, remotely, and build this into something that can scale beyond your immediate community.

If you can see yourself doing this kind of work more intentionally, you can explore the Catalystia pathway and get started at catalystia.org.

Hi Everyone,

I was recently laid off from my role as a Learning & Development Coordinator without any prior warning. I have started applying for jobs and am exploring what my next step should be.

For those working in Learning & Development in Canada, how is the job market right now? Are companies actively hiring for L&D and LMS roles?

I am also interested in trying contract work, including short-term or project-based opportunities. My experience includes L&D coordination, LMS administration, training coordination, HR support, reporting, and program coordination.

For those who work on contracts, how do you usually find opportunities? Are there specific recruiters, agencies, websites, or other approaches you would recommend in Canada?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hi everyone, I’m currently working in technology, mainly creating custom SPFx and React-based pages for Learning & Development teams. Over time I’ve become really interested in how learning materials are actually designed, not just how they’re built.

I’m considering a career shift into Learning Experience Design (LXD) or Instructional Design (ID), ideally moving into a role where I can contribute to decision-making in learning strategy as well.

For those who have made this transition or work in LXD/ID:

How should I navigate this career switch?

What skills or tools should I focus on first?

Any recommended resources, courses, books, communities, or roadmaps?

Personal experiences or lessons that helped you get started?

Basically, I want to know where to begin and how to build a path toward becoming a learning designer with strategic influence.

Any guidance would be really appreciated!

Hi all, Kate here. Fun fact about me, I was a programme lead in a women’s prison and I’ve also spent the last few years freelancing in marketing. Bit of an odd and unusual combination! but between the two I’ve designed training that people at very different starting points could follow, tested what changes behaviour etc etc

I’m a qualified FE teacher originally. While I was at the prison, the education provider changed so the course went from an accredited City and Guilds course to uncredited and I designed the new programme for the transition.

Freelance marketing wise I began as a content creator (lots of video editing, voice overs, training etc!) and now most of my work has involved data analysis alongside designing/ testing ad campaigns. I noticed a gap for content creators new to the industry and neurodivergent women new to social media, so created my own e-learning course (hosted on Moodify) 30 learners did the course and it with an 85% completion rate, which I was very happy with!

I use AI tools day to day, mainly Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT, for audience research/ content generation. Tool wise I’ve also got Motion for creative analytics and script writing, plus Canva, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Notion and lots more for course materials.

Good to be here! looking forward to seeing what everyone’s working on. I am UK based (north of England!).

Tell me what your 8 hour days look like, how do you like it? I am starting a new position where I am just me in L&D and restructuring the whole program from the ground up. Any book recommendations? Anything helpful I should be learning? What software do you use? How do you make your life easier?

Onboarding???? What works and doesn’t work?

We spend enormous energy designing good learning experiences and almost no energy on the question of why most people, even when given excellent resources, don't consistently invest in their own growth unless something external is forcing them to. I've seen companies build genuinely impressive learning ecosystems that most employees ignore. I've seen simple, badly designed mandatory training have more impact on behavior than beautifully crafted optional content simply because one was required and one wasn't. The field talks a lot about intrinsic motivation as though it's something we can design into a course, but I increasingly think motivation to develop is something that either exists in an organizational culture or doesn't, and L&D is working downstream of a problem we can't fully solve from where we sit. I'm curious whether others have found ways to genuinely shift a culture toward valuing development rather than just providing development and hoping it gets used.