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Leadership development is top L&D priority, says survey

Leadership development is the top priority for L&D teams over the next 12 months, according to a new survey from Video Arts. The survey asked 417 Learning & Development professionals about the training they provide, how it is delivered and their plans for the future.

The survey found that classroom training remains the most popular form of delivery, used by 90% of organisations. 85% use video clips; 49% create their own self-authored e-learning, 45% buy-in e-learning resources from specialist providers and 11% use mobile learning as part of their L&D strategy.

"Although the take-up is still relatively small, mobile learning is the fastest growing medium for training," said Martin Addison, CEO of Video Arts. "This reflects the interest in learning on-the-move, using hand-held devices such as smartphones and tablets. L&D teams are predominantly using m-learning to reinforce the messages from classroom training or e-learning."

38% of respondents say they are open to introducing m-learning in the near future. 71% claim they could reach more people if they used m-learning, however 48% believe that there are technological barriers which make m-learning difficult to implement.

The survey found that L&D teams are using e-learning to provide training in compliance and legal skills (47%); health & safety (44%); personal development (43%); IT skills (40%); inductions (39%) and diversity & equal opportunities (37%). 29% of L&D practitioners who don't use e-learning say they plan to implement it in the future.

"The evidence shows that e-learning courses are used more widely for 'hard skills', such as IT training, compliance and health & safety, whereas video is used more for 'soft skills', such as leadership and management skills, customer service skills and professional skills," said Martin Addison.

L&D teams use video as part of classroom-based training courses (79%); to provide short pieces of bite-sized learning (50%); for informal learning (32%); for standalone online learning (31%); to support one-to-one coaching (24%); in self-authored e-learning courses (23%) and for mobile learning (10%).

"Video can support experiential learning but it is also an effective substitute," said Martin Addison. "It is difficult to role play a situation if you've not had any experience of it. However, the next best thing for learning is to watch someone else do it. This is particularly true when you want to explore the emotional impact of real experiences in the workplace, such as redundancy."

Leadership development comes out as the top priority for organisational learning in the next 12 months, after 61% of respondents identified it as something they intend to provide. The survey found that the other key priorities for learning are people management, coaching, teamwork, customer service, time management and change management.

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