I had a great day at the CIPD Festival of Work last week. I’ve been thinking about the event, the speakers, and the vendors and connections I made. The HR profession is in rude health but we are still looking at ourselves as a support function, rather than a business partner. Partnering means being involved in conversations at a business level and too many of us, especially in the learning space, are ‘hidden’ as a profession.

A few comments and highlights were in a couple of sessions.

Rebooting “Get Britain Working”
Health, disability and long-term sickness continue to be the top causes of economic inactivity. With three million people out of work for health reasons – and a generation of young people still contending with post-Covid scarring – a more integrated social-security system that balances “stay close to the labour market” incentives (e.g. job-coach apps, universal job-centre support for 18–21 year-olds) with access to sick pay, childcare and flexible working. The consensus is clear to me – piecemeal fixes won’t do. We NEED a coherent industrial AND work policy which aligns Jobcentre Plus, local employers, and skills providers to break the cycle of low-quality jobs and long-term un- and under-employment. As I have been saying for months why isn’t Skills England doing this?

Building a Future-Ready Workforce
Skill shortages account for roughly one in three vacancies, yet fewer than a quarter of employees believe their employers will invest in their development. This is something workplace learning professionals need to address. Predictive analytics, agentic AI tools and continuous learning models were highlighted as part of a transformation away from “training events” but the enterprise approach I mentioned the other day isn’t a good fit for all. Real-time, on-the-job, skill development has to be our way forward and part of your principles of strategic learning design and delivery. People don’t want to have to shift platforms to learn to do the hjob they’re being paid to do.

Future-Gazing on AI
Finally, the elephant in the room. While no one expects wholesale job losses overnight, there seemed to be broad agreement that AI will redesign tasks more than eliminate roles. From “co-pilot” assistants to ethical frameworks, organisations really need to get their AI house in order. Again, as I’ve said before, we need absolute clarity on defining use cases, ensuring responsible deployment and equipping leaders with the mindset to ask “How will this transform our work?” rather than “Can we use it?”

Lastly, there was an interesting series of questions in one session which weren’t answered.

• We have an issue we call “the cobbler’s children” – our L&D colleagues are burnt out with arranging everyone else’s learning and forget about themselves. How do you engage L&D colleagues with their own learning?
• I’ve recently inherited L&D with limited prior experience; what basic skills and strengths would you recommend I look at developing to build a strong foundation?
• Any tips for forging time and selling the value of researching new L&D offerings over fire-fighting the need to “fix” perceived problems dictated by SLT?
• What kind of skills can I develop to help encourage buy-in from senior leadership to support our business’ L&D needs?
• We are in a world where employees Bring Your Own AI (BYOAI). What skills should L&D develop to make sure we are current and in the best place to inform the organisation to make intelligent choices?
• Is there anything you think L&D should STOP doing just now, so that we have the capacity to develop for the future?
• Data-driven decision making is a real buzz-word at the moment, but the leadership capabilities often lag. How do we as L&D professionals advocate for these softer skills and ensure internal capabilities match future direction?
• What is the best piece of career advice that each of you have received?
• As I am in a global role one of my priorities is to upskill and influence local L&D teams that are at different maturity levels – with some of them, for example, having L&D as well as talent-acquisition or generalist HR responsibilities in their scope. How would you approach this situation to ensure everyone is aligned and fully adopting the global strategy?
• What’s one skill we shouldn’t keep investing in because it has a shelf life?
• 70-20-10 still relevant with tech changing the way we work??
• What methods of measuring long-term impact of learning solutions do you deem effective from your experience?
• What are you using co-pilot for on a regular basis?
• What should L&D professionals be prepared to let go of in 5 years’ time?

I’m interested in your thoughts on these; I’ll offer my thoughts over the next few days.