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As 2022 comes to a close, organizations globally look forward to a new year, with new goals, new approaches, and new challenges. In anticipation of the new year, we’ve put together a helpful and insightful list of the top Learning & Development trends that business leaders and professionals should be on the lookout for (and take advantage of!). These trends should be used to inform your L&D strategy, helping you optimize your training, reskilling, and upskilling efforts in 2023 and beyond. 

It’s abundantly clear that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to learning isn’t the most effective or impactful way to train. With that in mind, personalized learning has proven to be a much more comprehensive approach to learning, one that keeps learners’ strengths, needs, skills, and interests in mind. By providing learning that’s specified to individuals’ strengths, needs, and skills, a personalized learning approach results in increased employee engagement and improved knowledge retention. 

As employees’ skills continue to become increasingly specialized, personalized learning will be critical in training, reskilling, and upskilling workers on these niche and nuanced technical skills, including ones needed for cyber security, cloud computing, and data analysis. Business leaders can expect to see more demand for (and delivery of) personalized learning in 2023.

It’s a bit of a misnomer to call AR and VR learning a trend, since that implies their use is temporary and more akin to a passing fad. AR and VR have been touted as the “future of learning,” and for good reason. Augmented reality allows for moment-of-need or just-in-time learning, giving learners the information they need in an immersive, immediate manner. Virtual reality simulations allow for learners to train for dangerous or high-risk situations, without encountering any real, physical danger. Hands-on training and training for situations that are expensive to recreate are two other effective ways that VR learning can be used. 

And the statistics behind VR learning are impressive. Employees in VR courses can be trained up to four times faster than in traditional classroom training, and VR learners are 1.5 times more focused than learners in classroom training. Additionally, learners using VR are 3.75 times more emotionally connected to learning content than their classroom counterparts. With AR and VR enabling superior opportunities for training, reskilling, and upskilling, you can expect to see more implementation of these immersive technologies for learning in 2023. 

In today’s business environment, soft skills are often overlooked in favor of technical or hard skills, despite research from Stanford indicating that 75% of long-term job success comes from these skills, while only 25% comes from technical knowledge. However, there has been a new focus on people skills in the past few years, with numerous headlines published each and every week touting the importance of these skills. 

Whether companies are returning to the office or managing hybrid or remote workforces, communication skills and other soft skills will become paramount to organizational success in 2023 and beyond. Organizational leaders should expect to see a lot more demand for this type of training as the global business landscape continues to evolve. 

The number and nature of skills required for jobs continue to grow every year, with research and advisory firm Gartner reporting that the number of skills required for a single job increases 10 percent annually. And with a competitive labor market persisting and the shadow of the Great Resignation looming over companies, businesses know that one of their greatest challenges for 2023 will be retaining talent while simultaneously closing both soft and hard skills gaps. 

Because of this, businesses worldwide will rely more and more on reskilling and upskilling of existing employees, as these businesses know they may not necessarily need to hire the perfect candidates to meet their skills needs, but rather, can offer learning opportunities to close skills gaps and retain employees. 

Gone are the days when learning was seen as a “one and done” event, when people went to a classroom, attended a training session, then resumed their day-to-day activities, largely forgetting the information covered in the training session. Today, workers want continuous opportunities to learn, grow, and develop themselves professionally and personally. This isn’t done in a single day or through a single training initiative, but rather, through a culture of learning.  

A “culture of learning” or “learning culture” is “one in which employees continuously seek, share, and apply new knowledge and skills to improve individual and organizational performance,” according to ATD. And with 86% of employees saying it’s important for employers to provide learning opportunities, a culture of learning is both in-demand by workers and critical to a company’s success. Coordinated efforts to develop organizational learning cultures will be a hallmark of L&D in 2023. 

Intellezy’s award-winning learning solutions help your organization continuously change, learn, and grow, especially in today’s fast-paced business world. Our award-winning training video library helps your team master the most in-demand software applications, including M365, Google Workspace, and Adobe Creative Cloud, along with crucial business and soft skills. Our custom eLearning development services provide your employees with personalized learning that is timely, relevant, and applicable to their roles, giving them the specific knowledge and skills they need to excel. And with AR/VR solutions to take your L&D offerings to the next level, we help you create a blended learning solution that includes eLearning, video, virtual reality, augmented reality, and other immersive technologies. 

Our partner-based approach always aligns learning objectives with your business goals to ensure truly transformative outcomes. We help drive the adoption of new technology, support digital literacy, narrow skills gaps, and allow you to maximize the full value of your company's investment. Get in touch with us at info@intellezy.com to discuss your business goals, objectives, and vision for the future, and let’s talk about how our vr solutions for learning and development can help get you there.