As AI has become integral in everyday work, organisations need to develop a combination of technical and human skills that enable employees to work effectively alongside AI. For L&D, that means rethinking not only what people learn but how they learn and apply those skills over time. 

In this article, we’ll explore the AI skills organisations should be prioritising and how L&D teams can develop them across the workforce. 

What are AI skills? 

AI skills are the knowledge and capabilities people need to work effectively with AI in their day-to-day roles.  

Broadly speaking, these skills fall into two categories. The first is AI literacy and technical skills, such as writing effective prompts, understanding AI’s capabilities and limitations, recognising inaccurate outputs, and using AI responsibly. As AI becomes part of more workplace tools, these skills are becoming increasingly valuable across a wide range of roles. 

The second category focuses on the human skills that help people apply AI effectively. Critical thinking, communication, creativity, adaptability and professional judgement all become more important when employees are working alongside AI. While AI can help generate ideas or automate routine tasks, people still need to interpret outputs, and make informed decisions within the context of their organisation and role. 

Upskilling an AI-capable workforce means developing both sets of skills together.  

Why is there a gap between AI training and AI adoption? 

If we look at the numbers, job postings requiring AI skills increased by 2,000% between March and June 2023, yet only 13% of employees reported receiving AI training from their employer. As more organisations introduce AI into everyday work, many are still figuring out how to help employees use it. 

One reason is that AI is often viewed as a technology project rather than a people initiative. While IT teams may lead the rollout of new tools, L&D has an important role to play in helping employees understand how to use them effectively. Other organisations are taking a cautious approach, waiting for AI to mature before investing in training. However, PwC’s Global AI Jobs Barometer 2026 found that the skills required for the most AI-exposed jobs are changing more than twice as fast as those for the least AI-exposed jobs, making it harder to delay workforce development. 

Employees need the skills to question AI-generated outputs, understand when human judgement is needed and apply AI appropriately within their role. That’s where L&D can make the biggest difference, by building AI literacy alongside the critical thinking and professional judgement that help people use AI with confidence. 

Expert tip: Build AI skills around how people work 

Before designing any AI skills programme, map the workflows first. 

The most important guardrail is also the simplest: every employee who uses an AI tool should be able to answer four questions. What can this tool do? What are its known limitations? When does this output require human review before it is acted on or shared? What does our organisation’s policy say about using it? 

Organisations also need to think carefully about what AI should not do. AI can accelerate content creation, improve knowledge discovery, reduce administrative load and streamline operational workflows. It cannot understand organisational context, interpret business priorities, build trust with learners or ensure that learning addresses the right performance problem rather than simply generating more content. 

The 8 AI skills organisations should prioritise  

The skills employers are asking for have shifted considerably in a short period of time. Technical AI skills, including machine learning, data analysis and model evaluation, remain in demand in specialist roles. Alongside them, a broader set of capabilities is now appearing consistently in job postings across sectors: prompt engineering, data literacy, AI ethics, critical thinking and communication. Perhaps the most significant shift is the growing emphasis on judgement and strategic thinking in roles that have not traditionally required them; a direct consequence of AI taking on more of the routine cognitive work those roles previously involved. 

Below is a breakdown of the eight AI skills that matter most for a workforce that needs to work effectively with AI.

1. Data literacy

Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, question and communicate with data. 

As AI tools increasingly surface data-driven insights and recommendations, employees without basic data literacy will struggle to evaluate what they are being shown. They may accept outputs uncritically or, equally problematic, dismiss them without understanding why they are wrong. Neither response serves the organisation well. 

L&D teams can build data literacy incrementally, starting with the data sources employees already encounter in their roles and building up from there. Scenario-based learning works well here, particularly when it puts learners in situations where they have to decide whether a data-driven recommendation is sound before acting on it. 

2. Prompt engineering

Prompt engineering is the skill of writing clear, well-structured queries that get useful outputs from generative AI tools. It sounds straightforward, but it has a meaningful impact on the quality of what AI produces and, by extension, on how much time employees save or waste. 

A well-constructed prompt specifies context, constraints, tone, format and purpose. A poorly constructed one produces generic, off-target or unreliable output that requires significant rework.  

 3. AI ethics

AI ethics covers the principles and practices that govern responsible AI use: fairness, transparency, privacy, accountability and the protection of individual rights. For employees, this translates into practical questions they need to be able to answer in their own roles. 

What data am I putting into this tool, and does our privacy policy permit that? Is this output potentially biased, and what harm could that cause? Who is accountable when an AI-assisted decision turns out to be wrong? Is this use of AI consistent with our values and our obligations to the people affected by it?  

4. Critical thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate information objectively, identify assumptions, assess evidence, and reach well-reasoned conclusions.  

Generative AI can produce plausible-sounding content that is factually incorrect or subtly misleading. Employees who accept AI outputs without scrutiny create real risk for their organisations, whether that is a manager acting on a flawed performance analysis, a communicator publishing inaccurate content, or an L&D professional deploying a course built on incorrect information. 

5. Developing a growth mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that capabilities can be developed through effort and learning. In the context of AI adoption, it matters for a specific reason: the skills required for AI-exposed roles are changing faster than any static training programme can address. Employees who approach that pace of change with curiosity rather than anxiety are far more likely to keep developing than those who experience it as a threat. 

L&D leaders can support this directly by designing learning experiences that normalise not knowing, reward experimentation and make it safe to make mistakes while practising new skills. AI-powered roleplay and simulation environments are particularly well-suited to this because they allow learners to practise difficult or unfamiliar tasks in a low-stakes setting before applying them in real situations. 

For example, a new manager can rehearse giving constructive feedback to an AI-powered employee, while a customer service adviser can practise handling a difficult conversation. The AI responds naturally throughout the interaction before providing structured feedback, helping learners build confidence and refine their approach before applying those skills in the workplace. 

6. Creativity

Creativity is one of the capabilities that AI adoption consistently elevates rather than replaces. AI can generate options, suggest combinations, surface patterns and accelerate iteration. It cannot originate ideas that are genuinely novel, contextually appropriate and aligned with the specific needs of the organisation or the customer. 

For L&D professionals, this is particularly relevant. AI tools can help create content at scale, but the judgement about what learning experience will work for a specific audience, in a specific organisational context, to address a specific performance gap, requires human creativity and professional knowledge. 

Building creativity as a workforce capability means creating space for it. That involves protecting time for reflective practice and encouraging employees to experiment with AI tools as creative aids rather than replacements for thinking. 

7. Communication

As AI takes over more routine drafting, summarising and formatting tasks, the human contribution to communication shifts towards the things AI cannot do well: reading the room, understanding the emotional context of a message, navigating organisational politics, and building relationships. 

8. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence, the ability to recognise, understand and manage one’s own emotions and those of others, is another capability that AI adoption makes more valuable. The more routine cognitive work AI handles, the more visible the distinctively human moments become: difficult conversations, leadership under pressure, trust-building, empathy in customer or colleague interactions. 

AI-exposed junior roles are now seven times more likely to require leadership and strategic thinking, according to PwC’s Global AI Jobs Barometer 2026. Much of what we mean by leadership in practice is emotional intelligence applied in context: knowing when to challenge, when to support, how to motivate, how to handle uncertainty and how to bring people with you through change. These capabilities cannot be automated, and they are not developed through information transfer alone. 

Which AI skills should be prioritised for different industries? 

Get on-demand insights into course and certification completion statuses, plus improved learner experience on pathway courses and certifications, and we’ve expanded Seminar API functionality.

Think beyond employee training for a moment. How do you make sure your customers, partners, suppliers, and contractors all have the knowledge they need to work effectively with your organisation?

Extended enterprise learning helps organisations deliver targeted training to these external audiences through a structured, scalable approach. Platforms such as Totara provide the flexibility to support these learning programmes.

In this article, with the help of our platinum partner, Synergy Learning, we’ll explore what extended enterprise learning is, the value it delivers, and how to build an effective strategy using Totara.

What is extended enterprise learning?

Extended enterprise learning is the delivery of training to learners outside of an organisation’s core workforce. Where traditional training focuses on employees, extended enterprise training offers learning to external stakeholders.

It extends an organisation’s learning and development strategy across its wider business ecosystem, bringing external training into the same connected framework as internal training. Rather than managing this external training through one-off programmes or separate systems, organisations can coordinate content, access, progress, certifications and reporting in one place.

Extended enterprise learning vs traditional training

Traditional workplace training is primarily aimed at an organisation’s internal employees. This means the core audience typically shares the same systems. While specific learning needs and content may be tailored by role or department, it’s relatively straightforward to deliver and track training through a single learning environment.

In comparison, extended enterprise training is more complex, as it needs to serve multiple audiences, each with different training needs. Customers might need product training, while your sales network requires partner enablement and compliance learning to ensure consistency across your wider organisation. As well as the varied content and delivery mechanisms, these different audiences can also require distinct branding, enrolment and access rules, and reporting.

An extended enterprise LMS built with Totara is equipped to address this complexity, using features such as multitenancy to deliver tailored, branded learning experiences for external audiences while maintaining central oversight, administration and reporting.

Where is extended enterprise training used?

In practice, extended enterprise learning is used for five common audiences and use cases.

Customer education

Customer training supports product adoption and customer onboarding, allowing users to quickly and independently get up to speed. Salesforce research found that 61% of customers prefer to use self-service resources to resolve simple issues. Well-designed customer training provides structured guidance, allowing customers to navigate and understand products without relying on your support team.

Partner and channel training

Partners and resellers all need up-to-date product knowledge, sales guidance and brand information in order to do their jobs effectively. When done right, partner training ensures that external representatives are aligned with your core messaging, and better able to recommend the right solutions.

For example, Samsung’s Totara-based Backstage platform demonstrates the commercial potential of effective channel training, helping third-party retail staff build their product knowledge and represent the Samsung brand more effectively.

Supplier and vendor training

Supplier and vendor training helps third parties understand your organisation’s quality standards, operational procedures, security requirements, and more. This training is essential for ensuring that your standards are upheld across your extended organisation.

Extended workforce training

Contractors, freelancers, temporary workers and distributed teams typically need rapid access to onboarding, health and safety information, systems training and role-specific resources. A central platform can provide this without giving external learners unnecessary access to internal systems or content.

Compliance and regulatory training

In addition to your core compliance training obligations, it may be necessary to demonstrate compliance across partner organisations or subcontractors. An extended enterprise training platform allows you to demonstrate that third parties hold the required certifications with consistent assignments and assessments, backed by verifiable audit trails and reporting.

Why does extended enterprise training matter for organisations?

An organisation’s external audiences have a significant impact on the customer experience, as well as its reputation, brand image, and revenue growth. Salesforce research found that 80% of customers say that the experience a company provides is just as important as their products and services.

Extended enterprise training can play an important role in shaping that experience, ensuring the entire network delivers sales and support experiences aligned with the organisation’s values.

A strong extended enterprise learning strategy can support:

Revenue growth: Well-informed customers are more likely to get more out of their products, while capable partners can support them and sell more effectively

Customer retention: Useful onboarding and product education reduce the friction experienced by customers, improving long-term adoption and customer loyalty

Partner alignment: Centralised training helps to ensure that partners are always informed about product updates, brand expectations, and strategic priorities

Consistency: Standardised learning delivered through your own central platform ensures alignment in messaging and service delivery

Operational efficiency: Self-service learning, centralised reporting and automatic enrolments minimise manual admin tasks, as well as the burden on your support team

Scalability: A connected learning platform enables you to add new learners or partner organisations easily, without setting up new infrastructure each time

When learning is relevant to each external audience’s goals, context, and working relationship, it is more likely to drive engagement, influence behaviour and deliver measurable value for both learners and the organisation.

How to build an extended enterprise learning strategy

1. Define the business objectives

Start by setting out what you’re hoping to achieve with your strategy. Are you trying to improve product adoption, reduce the demand for your support services, improve sales partner performance, or create a new training revenue stream?

A set of clearly defined objectives will guide you when making decisions about your content and how it’s delivered, as well as how you measure success and demonstrate value to other stakeholders.

2. Identify your target audiences

The key with extended enterprise training is that it serves different external audiences with unique requirements and desired outcomes. The next step is to map out every external group that requires training and define their relationship with your organisation.

Consider what each group needs to know, how they will access your platform, who owns the relationship internally, and whether you need to assign delegated control for local administrators.

3. Assess learning needs and barriers

Next you need to understand the specific learning requirements of each audience. Start by reviewing known knowledge gaps, support data, learner feedback, and relevant compliance data. It’s also important to speak to the teams that deal directly with these audiences, as they can provide deeper insight into the challenges they face.

You should also consider practical factors that can affect external audiences, such as low-connectivity work environments, limited time for training, or language barriers. Identifying these challenges early allows you to take a more pragmatic approach to your training design.

This principle is demonstrated by Save the Children, which uses Totara to deliver face-to-face and online learning to 20,000 staff across the world, including teams in remote locations with unreliable internet access and other logistical challenges.

4. Choose the right extended enterprise LMS

When selecting your learning platform, you need to confirm that it supports the complexity you require today, and the scale you’ll need going forward. The exact requirements will depend on your strategy, but typical functional requirements include:

• Multi-tenancy for separation of users and content
• Custom branding for individual tenants and portals
• Flexible authentication and enrolment to suit different user groups
• Automated assignments to minimise manual administration
• Certification management for tracking ecosystem-wide completion and compliance
• Delegated administration for user audiences
• Granular, audience-specific reporting

Additionally, the selection process needs to account for accessibility, ease of use, data security, and any integrations you may require.

5. Design relevant learning experiences

Next, you need to determine how best to deliver learning to each of your audiences. Whereas product updates might be effective as short videos and knowledge checks, certifications may require structured programmes, formal assessments and recurring training.

Depending on each audience’s requirements and goals, training programmes might contain self-paced learning, synchronous virtual or in-person sessions, social discussions and searchable resources. Learner journeys should be kept clear and deliberate, ensuring that learners only access what’s important to them.

6. Establish meaningful measures of success

Completion rates are a useful measure, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle. You need to identify a broader set of metrics which you’ll use to evaluate the success of your learning platform and wider strategy. This can include:

• Product usage and adoption
• Certification status
• Support ticket volume
• Partner sales
• Customer satisfaction

By establishing these baselines before launching your platform, you can credibly assess the impact of your extended enterprise implementation.

7. Launch, support and improve

A successful launch is only the first step of a longer-term programme. Starting with a priority audience, validate the experience by testing thoroughly from the learner perspective. Make sure it’s easy to access the system, find support, and understand what to do next in order to minimise friction for your external audiences.

Use learning data and feedback from across the business to continuously improve the programme and adapt to evolving requirements.

The role of technology in extended enterprise learning

Bring internal and external learning together

Managing both internal and external learning on a single platform reduces the duplication of systems and administration, while also providing more consistent learner experiences. However, this doesn’t mean giving each learner audience identical content.

Totara’s multitenancy functionality allows organisations to create separate learning environments within a single platform for employees, customers, partners, and other audiences. Each portal can have distinct branding, content, and access rules, while site-level admins have oversight and platform-wide reporting.

Financial technology company Bravura Solutions, for example, consolidated its employee and client learning within a single Totara platform, allowing it to deliver product-specific customer training alongside internal employee development.

Automate training delivery and reduce administration

Extended enterprise learning often means training greater numbers of learners across multiple organisations and delivering a wider range of learning content. Compared to in-house employee development, the administrative burden can quickly make this difficult to maintain. In Totara, admins can use dynamic audience rules to assign relevant and required learning. Automated onboarding and account creation ensure learners are added to the correct tenant, while reminders and recurring assignments or certifications help ensure that audiences receive the right training at the right time.

LMS integrations provide additional opportunities for automation by connecting Totara with CRMs, identity management systems, e-commerce platforms, and other business systems. This allows data to flow seamlessly between platforms, reducing the need to manually synchronise data across your technology stack. For example, a new customer record could trigger access to onboarding training, while completion data could be automatically shared with external reporting tools for further analysis.

Strengthen compliance, reporting and accountability

Using the right technology also provides your organisation with greater visibility of how training is being delivered beyond your immediate workforce. Rather than relying on third parties to maintain and share separate training records, organisations can monitor key compliance metrics through Totara’s centralised reporting functionality.

Totara’s reporting engine allows your team to monitor completions, assessment results, engagement, and certification status across your internal and external audiences. In addition to supporting internal oversight with audit-ready evidence, these features can help you to identify learners or audiences requiring additional support.

Additionally, Totara’s certification functionality allows you to confirm that partners, vendors, or contractors are up to date with their training, with flexible, multi-year recertification paths, expiry tracking, and scheduled reminders. Instead of maintaining complex spreadsheets and chasing third parties to verify compliance, you can check that external audiences have the right credentials at a glance.

Support flexible and engaging learning experiences

For external audiences, training often has to be completed around learners’ full-time roles, across different locations, and using personal devices. Therefore it’s essential that your learning platform supports multiple delivery methods, providing flexible ways to access and complete required learning.

Totara can be used to create carefully curated learning journeys comprising self-paced courses, virtual seminars delivered through integrations with Microsoft Teams or Zoom, practical face-to-face training, structured programmes, mobile learning, as well as offering informal user-generated content. Assistive AI tools can also enhance the learner experience, for example by summarising course content, creating simple knowledge checks, or recommending relevant content.

Adapt the platform to your organisation

Every organisation is unique, so diverse functional requirements and business goals require flexible tools. Totara is highly configurable, meaning you can customise workflows, reports, branding and integrations around your strategy, instead of reshaping your strategy to fit within rigid platform constraints.

As a Totara Platinum partner, Synergy Learning can further extend the platform with custom development, integrations for your other systems, and tailored dashboards and reports.

Conclusion

Extended enterprise learning isn’t just about distributing training to wider audiences. When done right, it is an essential part of your learning strategy that improves the customer experience, strengthens partner performance, supports compliance, and brings consistency across your entire business ecosystem.

It’s important to consider whether your current learning approach gives external audiences the relevant content, accessible experience and ongoing support they need. Totara makes it possible to deliver tailored learning to multiple external audiences while retaining central control.

If you want to see how Totara works as the foundation of your extended enterprise strategy, get in touch with our specialists.

Totara V20.1 introduces further enhancements to certifications, smarter gathering and reporting of learner feedback, plus new email delivery options. 

Improvements to core compliance workflows  

In the recent Totara V20 release, we refined our multi-year recertification pathway functionality, giving administrators greater flexibility and control over compliance management and learner progression.  

In V20.1, we’ve added some polish to further enhance the admin and learner certification experience.  

Certifications – Improved learner experience

Learners will have benefit from more intuitive navigation, making it easier to understand their progress and status: 

Direct linking to view the next path when certified 

This makes for a more intuitive learner experience to access or preview the next steps in their pathway. 

Improved navigation from certification requirements to courses 

This enhancement makes it easier to navigate directly to the courses within the certification. 

See Help Docs on the learner certification experience. 

Certifications – Intuitive admin workflows 

We’ve refined the certification management interface to make configuration faster and more intuitive for site admins. This offers a more effective way of handling complex recertification pathways. 

More consistent action buttons and editing behaviour 

These UX improvements bring consistency to expected behaviour for site admins, based on feedback from our initial rollout.  

Improved repeat-loop handling for re-certification paths 

It’s now easier for admins to set the first steps of a recertification pathway. A drop-down option now allows admins to easily and intuitively assign the first steps of a reassignment pathway.   

See our Help Docs on creating multi-year recertification sequences.    

Totara users can also access this Totara Community course on programs and certifications. 

Analyse learner feedback at scale 

There is a new ‘feedback responses’ activity report source feature within report builder. This allows you to capture, analyse and improve your learning experience with powerful new insights from site-wide feedback data – all in one place. 

Move beyond isolated course reports and unlock a complete view of learner sentiment across your organisation. Aggregate responses from multiple courses into a single report, identify global trends, or drill down to compare performance at an individual course level. 

This is a major step forward from previous versions, where feedback could only be analysed course by course, requiring time-consuming manual consolidation. 

Now, administrators can: 

• Track satisfaction and engagement across all courses 
• Analyse responses from shared feedback templates at scale 
• Group and aggregate data using consistent question labels (e.g. “course rating”) 
• Surface trends quickly for stakeholder and executive reporting 

This eliminates the need to piece together fragmented reports. Instead, you get a clear, consolidated view of what learners think – helping you make faster, more informed decisions. 

This is especially valuable for customers managing high volumes of feedback activities, where manual reporting was previously a significant barrier. The new ‘feedback responses’ report source enables effective enterprise reporting on customer feedback: 

• Create site-wide feedback dashboards out of the box 
• Deliver scalable survey reporting for enterprise clients 
• Reduce reliance on bespoke reporting solutions 

See Help Docs for more information.     

New API options for email delivery 

We’ve made it easier to select your outgoing email provider, offering a simpler experience that:  

• Allows you to choose your method (default SMTP, or choose new Amazon SES and Microsoft Graph APIs) 
• Offers simpler setup 
• More reliable and future-ready delivery 

See Help Docs for more information.   

How can I get these features?

The items in this blog are part of a minor release, which means they are available immediately if you are on a progressive pathway (where your site is upgraded multiple times a year). For all other Totara users, these items will be available in the next major release (V21 – due in early 2027).

If you’re not sure what release pathway you are on, please contact your Totara partner. You can learn more about upgrade pathways here.

From complex compliance management to workforce upskilling, Totara Version 20 (V20) delivers new features and intuitive workflows that streamline administration while elevating the learner experience.

This is one of our largest releases of new features in recent years. This blog provides a brief summary of the main release items, with useful links allowing you to explore our key features in more detail. V20 includes: 

• Flexible multi-year recertification pathways 
• New compliance insights reporting block 
• Learner self-enrolment for programs & certifications 
• Enhanced skills functionality and reporting 
• AI features that enhance the learner experience and boost L&D efficiency 
• Multi-Factor Authentication for all users 
• Time-saving administration workflows that support compliance management 
• Content discovery and search enhancements 
• Plus Mobile App enhancements and new APIs 

See all these new features in action – watch our V20 demo webinar recording. 

Download the What’s new in Totara V20 PDF.

This blog post explores how the latest recertification workflows launched in Totara Version 20 (V20) help you efficiently manage recertification cycles and maintain compliance over time. 

Why do recertification cycles matter for compliance and risk management? 

In highly regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, hospitality and manufacturing, L&D certifications are essential for maintaining compliance. They provide clear, auditable proof that employees have completed required training and meet regulatory standards. 

They help standardise competence across roles, support ongoing compliance through recertification, enable accountability and traceability, and reduce organisational risk – ensuring organisations can demonstrate compliance confidently during audits and inspections. 

Why are multi-year recertifications so important in highly regulated environments? 

Achieving a certification is a great way to document and prove your staff have the knowledge to stay compliant in a specific field or topic. But certifications are rarely a ‘once and done’ event. 

This is because maintaining compliance over time is critical. Whether for patient and staff safety, or for continued operational success, certifications often have an expiry date and need renewing to meet either your internal or regulatory needs. 

How do recertification workflows help L&D increase compliance and reduce regulatory risk? 

Compliance requirements can be complex – they can span many roles, timeframes, and even multiple regulatory bodies.  

Without structured, automated workflows, organisations risk missed renewals, inconsistent training records, and increased administrative burden. Managing complex certification requirements, for numerous roles and large numbers of staff, is challenging without the right technology to back you. 

Well-designed recertification workflows ensure that certifications are renewed at the right intervals, refresher training is delivered proactively, and evidence is retained over several years – supporting audit readiness, patient safety (for example, for a healthcare-focused LMS), and workforce continuity.  

They also reduce manual tracking, free up L&D and compliance teams, and provide leaders with confidence that staff remain qualified to practise on an ongoing basis, rather than a single moment in time. 

What are certifications? 

A certification is a series of learning activities, often covering several topics that relate to a particular theme, e.g. Health and Safety in the Workplace.  

In Totara, a certification is a learning pathway that typically contains a series of courses, and sometimes seminars. An individual course may contain multi-modal learning activities, including interactive SCORM content, videos, scenario setting, quizzes and more. 

Certifications allow you to adapt the pathway to the individual learners, keeping content relevant and focused. For example, new starters may be mandated to complete all learning activities within a course, and all courses within a certification. 

More experienced learners, or those who demonstrate knowledge with high-pass rates on the initial course activities, may be able to skip other introductory-level topics. 

Learners can be automatically assigned and enrolled onto certifications to maximise L&D efficiency. This could be by job role, region, or by creating custom audiences, e.g. to assign onboarding to new starters.  

Crucially, certifications have an expiry date, which allows your certifications to be time-bound. This makes certifications an essential tool for compliance management. 

How do recertifications work in Totara? 

Totara V20 introduces recertification workflows that offer flexible solutions to the challenge of managing multi-year certification cycles. 

Admins can now automate and select an appropriate recertification path for learners. 

Before: Admins had to create separate certifications for each group or expiry pattern. 

When a certification expired, learners were always reassigned to the primary path. To reassign a certification expiry to a recertification path, admins had to manually intervene (requiring a status change to ‘certified window is open’ and then changing the due date). 

In Totara V20: A single certification can manage multiple paths, expiry rules, and reinstatement behaviours. 

1. Tailor certification renewal requirements to your exact requirements

You can now define which courses are required as refresher training to complete a recertification. For example, learners may complete an introductory path and full training in year one, then shorter, focused refresher paths in following years – or progress through paths as levels, building deeper knowledge over time. 

This maximises compliance efficiency – freeing up staff time by focusing on the essential topics that matter most. 

2. Improved visibility and progress status keep deadlines in mind

Improved UI means key certification milestones are visible to learners, with prompts to guide actions and accurately track progress.  

Learners now benefit from a redesigned certification experience that makes it easy to see progress and what’s coming up next at a glance. Learners can clearly see what training they need to progress, preventing early or unnecessary training, ensuring all progress is correctly tracked and completed. 

This reduces the chance of deadlines being missed. This is important as in sectors such as healthcare, where lapsed certifications can cause a drop-off in overall compliance rates. Managing this is an essential way of maintaining compliance. 

3. Flexible reinstatement options if a deadline is missed

Reinstatement controls – If a learner misses a recertification deadline, you can now choose what happens next: 

• Stay on the current path – the learner continues where they left off. 
• Go back to the initial path – the learner restarts from the beginning. 
• Choose a specific path – the learner is reassigned to specific location within the recertification path. 

These options give compliance teams full control over how lapses are handled. 

4. Improved admin workflows help manage complex requirements – efficiently and at scale 

Managing certifications is now faster and clearer. Admins can now combine previously separate certifications into one structure, reducing duplication and ensuring consistent setup across teams.  

5. Integrates into existing certification practices 

The new workflows are fully compatible with Totara’s existing reporting, analytics, and notifications. This helps admins benefit from the new recertification cycles with minimal disruption integrating them into daily workflows. 

See our Help Docs for more details on using certifications in Totara.

We’re excited to introduce a new certification compliance reporting block. This out-of-the-box option provides managers and decision-makers with instant insights into these essential compliance statuses.  

Launched in Totara Version 20, this blog post covers everything you need to know about our new reporting block. 

Managing compliance in large, complex organisations can be challenging at the best of times. Totara’s reporting block is designed to give busy Heads of Departments and Compliance leads quick oversight to see which areas are on track, and those that need attention, improving accountability and response time. 

Get an instant snapshot of certification compliance status without manually creating reports each time. The block format provides easy access to drill down insights that provide a visual overview of certification compliance across teams within your organisation. 

This block provides managers with clear, actionable insights that can be added to dashboards – for example to a manager’s ‘My Team’ dashboard.  

Once added to a dashboard, this report then updates with live time data. Set it up once, and return to it time and time again – without the need to create custom reports each time. 

Learn more about certifications and how to efficiently manage recertification cycles at scale.

Compliance completion rates at a glance 

The certifications – current compliance block provides a quick, visual overview of certification compliance across teams based on the certification compliance overview embedded report source.  

Designed to give managers and compliance-focused roles instant visibility of certification status, the top of the report highlights: 

• Overall compliance (%) 
• Overall non-compliance (%) 
• Target compliance rate* (%) 

*If a target is applicable to your organisation, team or department. 

Drill down into the details to boost your compliance rates 

The reporting block allows you to drill down and explore the reports underlying data. This helps you understand which teams or individuals within your organisation are up to speed, and which areas need a little prompting. 

This report fields can be filtered by organisation, or filtered by certification type (up to 10 certifications in one report block). 

This allows you to group your report by team or by certification type. This means the report block can be of use to a variety of key roles – those managing a team or group within the organisation (e.g. Department Head, Team Manager etc), or those overseeing or needing insights into certifcations grouped by type (e.g. Compliance and audit roles). 

As with all Totara reports, you can control who has permissions and rights to view the data. To display the correct data to the right people, both role-based capabilities and report content restrictions can be fully configured.  

See our Help Docs on setting up your certification compliance reporting block. 

39% of today’s workplace skills may be obsolete by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum. With this pace of change, organisations need learning environments that help employees continuously adapt and apply new knowledge in real time. Formal learning still provides the structure and foundational knowledge every organisation depends on. But to keep capability growing, it needs to be supported by collective learning where people connect and co-create knowledge together.

At Totara, we see this blend as the foundation of resilient learning cultures. It’s why we’re exploring how organisations can design collective learning that is both structured and social, enabling employees to learn from one another as well as from formal programmes. To help with this, we invited Anamaria Dorgo, learning consultant and founder of L&D Shakers, to share her knowledge with our totara.community as a specialist in building communities 

This article is part three of Totara’s social learning series. Part one, featuring Charles Jennings, explored how collaboration drives continuous development. Part two showed how Mitchells & Butlers used their Totara LMS to create safe, scalable social learning spaces. In this final part, we look at how to design collective learning experiences that bring people together, sustain engagement, and turn shared learning into lasting performance. 

Why organisations need social learning to keep pace with change 

L&D teams are rightly moving from being content publishers to becoming enablers of performance through rich learning ecosystems, while the shelf life of skills continues to shrink. Formal learning still matters because it sets standards and supports compliance. The challenge is helping people keep developing between and after courses, when the real work happens. 

Several signals point to this shift. One comes from Jane Hart’s long-running survey on workplace learning behaviours, which asks employees how they learn best at work. Although formal learning remains important, respondents often place greater emphasis on learning through Doing, Discovery, and Discussion.  

Across thousands of responses, Didactics were reported at 14%, compared with 31% for Doing (job-based activities, manager feedback, coaching), 34% for Discovery (web search, articles, videos, podcasts), and 21% for Discourse (interacting with colleagues, communities of practice). 

Anamaria Dorgo emphasises that in a complex environment, relying on a single perspective is limiting. Collective learning allows organisations to tap into diverse viewpoints and problem-solving approaches that no individual could provide alone. When people learn together, they build capability faster and adapt more effectively to new challenges. 

Types of social learning in the workplace 

Collective learning is not a single activity but a range of approaches that bring people together to share knowledge and build skills. Understanding these different forms helps L&D teams design experiences that match their organisational needs. 

Peer learning 

Peer learning happens when equals support each other and learn from one another. Examples include action learning sets, peer circles, communities of practice, show and tell sessions, lunch and learn events, peer coaching circles, internal podcasts, and book clubs. These formats work well when employees need space to share experiences, ask questions, and develop together without hierarchy. 

Collaborative learning 

Collaborative learning involves peers working together towards a shared goal to produce or solve something collectively. This could take the form of hackathons, group project-based learning, team retrospectives, garage sessions, incubators, or use case libraries. The purpose here is not just to learn but to create something, with learning happening as a natural part of the process. 

Mentoring and guided social learning 

Guided social learning involves learning from someone more experienced, such as a mentor, senior colleague, or expert. Examples include one-to-one mentoring, coaching, expert show and tell sessions, ask-me-anything sessions, case clinics, expert panels, lightning demos, shadow-the-manager days, and expert critique sessions. These approaches help employees access knowledge that might otherwise be difficult to reach. 

Informal social learning in organisations 

The broader category of social learning includes any learning through observation or interaction with others. This often happens informally through job shadowing programmes, apprenticeships, job swaps or short rotations, a day in the life programmes, role plays with feedback, call-listening sessions, or analysing business cases in training and debating options together. 

How organisations are implementing collective learning successfully 

Organisations across industries are applying these principles in different ways. In her session, Anamaria highlighted three examples that show how collective learning can be designed to fit organisational culture and business needs. 

Bosch: Working Out Loud community 

Bosch created an open community on their internal digital collaboration platform called Bosch Connect, with more than 1,200 members who joined organically. The Working Out Loud concept involves small groups of four to five people coming together over 12 weeks to work through challenges and activities. Each group has a facilitator, and facilitators themselves have access to a support community. The platform hosts the circle registration form, media materials, events, activities, and helpful resources in a shared wiki. This approach scaled across the organisation without heavy central coordination. 

Stuart: Ambassador programme 

Stuart developed a gamified programme that allows employees to get involved in activities outside their normal role while building relationships with peers. Employees can choose from a menu of options: host a Stu-Talk, become an onboarding buddy, join a coffee roulette to talk with someone outside their department, become a mentor, or get involved in local committees or employee resource groups. The programme is incentivised with prizes, making participation visible and rewarding. 

Novartis: Curiosity Month 

Novartis launched a company-wide event to encourage learning beyond formal L&D offerings. It started with a crowdsourced ideation event that generated 13,000 ideas. Over 1,000 volunteers organised a month-long event on curiosity, hosting 500 events that reached 55,500 people globally and generated 145,000 learning hours. The success of the initiative led Novartis to allocate 5% of employee time, approximately 100 hours per year, for self-directed learning, curiosity, and development. 

These examples show that collective learning works when it is designed around employee interests, supported by clear structures, and given room to grow organically. 

Three design principles for sustainable communities 

Anamaria Dorgo’s work with communities of practice has identified three core principles that make collective learning sustainable and effective. 

Have a clear purpose: why do we gather and who do we gather? 

Collective learning only works when people understand why they are coming together and what they hope to achieve. Design should start with a common challenge or goal that is informed by strategic direction. 

Two questions help define this purpose: 

• What business challenges can we solve together? 

• What impact do we want to have? 

The purpose sits at the overlap of two areas: the expected value for the organisation (what stakeholders want) and the expected member value (why individuals should care). When both are clear, people understand why participation matters. 

For organisations where the culture is not yet ready for large-scale social learning, Dorgo advises starting small. Pilot collective learning by adding it to an existing project or programme.  

Relentlessly focus on the value that is created 

Purpose informs activity. Once the purpose is clear, ask: if this is our goal, what needs to happen when we come together to make progress towards it? 

Dorgo breaks collective learning into three components: 

• People: The group engaging in the learning 

• Transformation: The change or purpose they are working towards 

• Value: The activities and design that connect people to the transformation 

When engagement is low, the problem usually sits in one of these three areas. Either the wrong people are involved, the transformation is unclear, or the activities do not help people make progress. Dorgo emphasises that engagement is not something to hack or engineer. “Engagement is participation. There’s value? I engage. No value? Not participating.” 

Experimentation is a must. Listen carefully to feedback, gather data on what works, and be willing to stop activities that do not create value. 

Co-create it: the only way to build sustainably 

In ideal conditions, with the right culture and psychological safety, social learning emerges organically. But to build it sustainably and at scale, co-creation is necessary. L&D teams create the container and set the conditions where learning can happen, but they do not dictate every detail. 

Dorgo uses a framework built around five elements: 

1. Purpose: Why is this work important for you, us, and the larger organisation? (“We exist to…”) 

1. Principles: What rules and rituals will we create while pursuing our purpose? 

1. People: Who are we? What are we expecting? What do we bring? Who must be included so that we achieve the purpose? 

1. Structure: How do we organise ourselves? Can we divide responsibilities? How do we build and keep momentum? 

1. Practices: What would make this experience valuable to us? What activities make sense? What would make me return to this space every week? 

By workshopping these elements with early adopters, ambassadors, or core teams, L&D creates a space that people can make their own. This personal investment leads to deeper participation because employees recognise themselves in the design. 

Creating an effective social learning environment: bringing it all together 

Across this series, we have explored social learning from three angles: the foundational principles that make it work, the practical steps needed to scale it safely, and the design choices that make it self-sustaining. When these perspectives come together, they create a complete approach to building learning environments where collaboration becomes a natural part of work. 

Start with purpose and safety 

Before any collective learning initiative begins, two foundations must be in place: a clear purpose and psychological safety. 

As Anamaria Dorgo emphasised, purpose sits at the overlap of organisational value and member value. Ask what business challenges need solving and why individuals should care. Without this clarity, participation will remain low no matter how well the technology is designed. 

Psychological safety, as highlighted in the Mitchells & Butlers session, ensures that people feel comfortable contributing without fear of judgment. Clear participation guidelines and transparent reporting create trust. When employees know their input will be respected and any issues will be handled fairly, they engage more openly. 

Together, purpose and safety answer two important questions: why should we gather, and is it safe to participate? 

Design for diverse networks and broad participation 

Charles Jennings’ research shows that strong, diverse networks accelerate learning. People who connect across departments, levels, and locations gain access to a wider range of perspectives and problem-solving approaches. His Social Network Analysis tool helps individuals and teams identify where their connections are too narrow or too reliant on a few people. Read more about the SNA tool in the first part of this series. 

Mitchells & Butlers applied this thinking by creating larger, inclusive workspaces rather than niche groups. Broader spaces help messages reach more people, prevent information from becoming siloed, and encourage cross-team learning. As Todd Hotchkiss noted, posting every week keeps foot traffic high, while posting monthly causes engagement to drop off. 

When designing collective learning, prioritise spaces that bring together people with shared goals but different experiences. Use features within your LMS to make these connections visible, such as tagging resources, linking posts to projects, or creating discussion threads. 

Build through co-creation 

Sustainable collective learning cannot be designed entirely by L&D and handed to employees. It must be co-created. 

Dorgo’s five-element framework (purpose, principles, people, structure, practices) provides a way to workshop the design with early adopters. This process ensures that the learning space reflects what participants actually need rather than what L&D assumes they need. 

Jennings reinforced this principle by highlighting teams as the atomic unit of productivity. When teams set development goals collectively, integrate reflection into meetings, and share results with one another, learning becomes embedded in how they work. This shared ownership makes learning sustainable because it is driven by the people doing the work, not imposed from outside. 

Mitchells & Butlers demonstrated this through their approach to workspace ownership. Multiple group owners share responsibility for keeping spaces active, planning content, and responding to questions. When one person is unavailable, others maintain momentum. This distributed ownership prevents spaces from becoming dependent on a single individual. 

Integrate learning in the flow of work 

Collective learning only creates lasting impact when it connects to real work. Jennings outlined four ways to integrate learning and work: add learning to tasks, embed resources at the moment of need, extract lessons from completed work, and share insights with colleagues. 

Mitchells & Butlers applied this through their apprenticeship programme. When formal coaching reduced, social groups helped apprentices stay connected, share experiences, and support one another through independent learning. This bridging of formal and informal learning kept knowledge alive when structured support stepped back. 

Dorgo’s emphasis on value reinforces this point. If collective learning does not help people make progress in their work, they will not participate. Design activities that solve real challenges, capture lessons from live projects, or allow employees to test ideas with peers before applying them. When learning is tied to performance, engagement follows naturally. 

Sustain through rhythm, recognition, and reflection 

Collective learning requires ongoing attention to remain active. The three practices below help maintain momentum. 

First, establish a predictable rhythm. Mitchells & Butlers planned content several weeks ahead, mixing questions, polls, videos, and updates. Consistency makes social learning a habit rather than an occasional activity. 

Second, recognise contribution. Small acknowledgements, public highlights, or gamified rewards show that participation matters. Stuart’s Ambassador programme used points and prizes to make engagement visible. Even simple recognition, such as highlighting valuable posts or sharing learner stories, sustains interest over time. 

Third, build reflection into the process. Jennings’ Three Question Card provides a simple structure for teams to review what they have achieved, identify what they would do differently, and capture lessons for future projects. When reflection becomes routine, learning deepens and spreads across the organisation. 

Measure what matters: value, not activity 

Finally, shift measurement from activity to value. Jennings advised moving away from tracking course completions and towards indicators of real improvement, such as faster resolution times, higher quality outputs, or stronger collaboration between teams. In essence, what is the impact? 

Dorgo’s framework reinforces this by linking engagement directly to value. If people are not participating, the issue is not with engagement itself but with whether the activities create meaningful progress. Measure whether collective learning is solving the challenges it was designed to address. Gather feedback regularly, adjust activities based on what works, and be willing to stop practices that do not deliver value. 

Making social learning sustainable in your organisation 

Social learning becomes sustainable when it shifts from isolated initiatives to everyday practice. Across this series, we have explored how to make that shift happen. 

We examined how social learning is grounded in strong networks and diverse connections, how psychological safety and clear structure allow it to scale safely, and how co-creation with a focus on value helps it sustain over time. When these come together, learning shifts from something that happens in formal programmes to something that happens continuously as people work. 

To explore these principles in greater depth, join the totara.community (which is free to join) to watch back sessions from the Learning with IMPACT event.  There you’ll hear from Charles Jennings, Mitchells & Butlers, and Anamaria Dorgo, along with practical examples of how organisations are applying social and collaborative learning to strengthen performance. 

For a concise summary of all sessions, download the key takeaway guide. It brings together lessons and actions from across the series, making it a valuable resource for any organisation. 

According to recent industry reports, companies using collaborative technology see a 20 to 30% increase in innovation, while teams that collaborate effectively are 21% more productive. Yet these gains only materialise when collaboration is designed thoughtfully. In large or dispersed organisations, creating the conditions for meaningful peer learning becomes difficult.  

However, when social learning environments are built with psychological safety and clear design principles, they can connect thousands of employees in ways that improve both individual capability and organisational performance. To help with this, in this article, we examine what it takes to build social learning spaces that work for everyone, regardless of role or location. 

Later in this article, we’ll explore how Mitchells & Butlers, one of the UK’s largest hospitality groups, achieved this through MABLE, their custom LMS built on Totara. This article is part two of a three-part series on social learning, following insights from Charles Jennings on how collaboration shapes workplace development.  

If you haven’t already, read the first part here.  

Building psychological safety in social learning 

Psychological safety is the foundation of any successful social learning environment. It creates a sense of trust where people feel comfortable sharing ideas, asking questions, giving feedback, or admitting mistakes without fear of judgment or negative consequences.  

However, creating that level of trust is becoming harder in many workplaces. According to a study by Mental Health First Aid England and Henley Business School, there has been a steady decline in how many employees feel they can “bring their whole self to work” – falling from 66% in 2020 to 41% by the end of 2024. The same study found that while over 80% of employees believe this freedom is important, only 31% actually feel able to do so. This shows a widening gap between the culture organisations want to build and how employees experience it day to day. 

Social learning spaces can help close that gap when designed intentionally. Features such as clear community rules, visible moderation, accessible reporting tools, and ongoing communication about how issues are handled show employees that their contributions are respected and protected. Psychological safety also lays the groundwork for effective collaborative learning, helping employees move from passive participation to active knowledge-sharing across teams. 

Connecting social learning to daily work 

For social learning to have a real impact, it needs to exist within the flow of everyday work. Employees learn most effectively when they can share experiences and apply new skills directly to the tasks in front of them.  

Encourage learning through real projects 

Employees often learn most when solving genuine workplace challenges. Social learning tools can turn those moments into opportunities for shared growth. Teams can post updates about ongoing projects, ask for input on specific issues, or document how they approached a difficult task. These activities transform experience into knowledge that others can use. 

Creating digital spaces for this exchange means lessons are not lost when projects end. A discussion thread or short video summary can capture what went well, what could be improved, and what the team would try differently next time.  

Support reflection as part of team practice 

Reflection helps employees turn activity into learning. When people take time to discuss what they have done and what they might change, knowledge deepens and spreads. L&D teams can encourage this by adding prompts or short reflection questions in online workspaces. Managers can also make reflection part of team meetings or end-of-shift check-ins. 

These discussions help individuals understand their progress and recognise how their work connects to wider organisational goals.  

Link on-the-job learning with digital collaboration 

Online platforms extend what people already do at work. When employees solve problems together, the LMS can record that interaction and make it visible to others. This helps organisations capture the informal learning that often goes unnoticed. Employees who post examples, share templates, or comment on a colleague’s solution create a shared knowledge base that benefits everyone. 

Simple features such as tagging resources, linking posts to projects, or adding ‘lessons learned’ categories make these contributions easier to find. Over time, this builds a digital record of how teams learn through their work. 

As these practices become part of daily routines, social learning becomes a habit across the organisation. The next section explores how Mitchells & Butlers achieved this on a large scale through a strong learning culture and a clear design strategy. 

Applying social learning across large organisations: lessons from Mitchells & Butlers 

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), one of the UK’s largest hospitality groups, manages more than 45,000 employees across pubs, restaurants, and bars. Their LMS, MABLE, built on Totara, shows how a large organisation can design social learning that feels personal, safe, and engaging. The lessons from their experience highlight how structure and community design can make collaboration part of everyday work. 

Make the learning platform part of the culture 

M&B treated their LMS not as a system but as a living part of their brand. MABLE became a recognisable character with her own tone of voice, appearing in messages, updates, learning prompts, and internal communications. 

For other organisations, this approach highlights the value of humanising the learning experience. Giving your platform a clear identity or a familiar presence can increase recognition and encourage repeated engagement. Whether through storytelling, internal ambassadors, or branded communications, familiarity builds trust. 

“She’s the face, the brand, the tone of voice. She’s everything that represents this LMS,” said Todd Hotchkiss, LMS Operations Manager at M&B. “People really get on board with this character. She’s dotted across the system and even speaks to us through our communications cascade.” 

Create spaces that are open but structured 

When M&B first explored social learning, they faced the same challenges many organisations encounter: managing safety, maintaining professionalism, and preventing fragmented discussions. Their solution was to bring collaboration inside the LMS, where activity could be visible and moderated while linking directly to learning. 

They implemented: 

• Clear participation guidelines to set behavioural expectations. 

• Transparent moderation tools so content could be flagged and reviewed quickly. 

• A focus on larger, inclusive groups that encouraged diverse input. 

• Multiple group owners to share responsibility for keeping spaces active. 

Other organisations can apply this by setting clear boundaries for participation and moderation before launch. Define who manages community spaces and make sure employees know that any flagged content will be reviewed quickly and fairly. Visible moderation and consistent communication create the psychological safety that keeps people contributing. 

“Nine times out of ten, people want to share great ideas and what they’re proud of,” Hotchkiss explained. “And if something needs attention, the moderation tools handle it quickly.” 

Design for continuous engagement 

M&B kept their social spaces active by maintaining a predictable rhythm of posts and interactions. Group owners planned content several weeks ahead, mixing questions, polls, videos, and short updates. When someone was unavailable, others stepped in to keep the flow of communication steady. 

Over time, this consistency made social learning a regular practice. Employees began checking in regularly, just as they would on familiar social platforms. Over time, discussions expanded beyond training to include creative ideas and reflections from the workplace. 

Other organisations can achieve the same by: 

• Planning a balanced mix of content formats. 

• Encouraging team reflections after major projects. 

• Recognising consistent contributors. 

• Using small rewards or public acknowledgements to sustain participation. 

“It’s better to have bigger groups of people than super niche ones,” said Hotchkiss. “When you post every week, you get loads of foot traffic. Post every month, and people start to fall off.” 

Use social learning to bridge formal and informal learning 

M&B implemented an apprenticeship programme that shows how social learning can support learners through independent stages of development. When formal coaching reduced, social groups helped apprentices stay connected. Learners shared experiences and compared ideas as they prepared for their final assessments. 

This principle applies widely. When learners move from structured training to independent practice, social communities can keep knowledge alive and support continuous professional development across the organisation. L&D teams can open discussion threads for course alumni or encourage reflection journals that link learning to work performance. 

Tailor technology to your organisation’s needs 

M&B worked closely with their Totara partner to adapt their LMS to match how employees naturally communicate. They refined page layouts, made visual updates that reflected their brand, and added interactive features that rewarded engagement. 

Their adjustments included: 

• Pinning key resources in discussion groups. 

• Allowing anonymous participation for sensitive topics. 

• Adding recognition features such as avatars and visual badges. 

• Customising notifications so employees saw updates relevant to their roles. 

For other organisations, this shows the benefit of treating the LMS as a flexible tool rather than a fixed system. Technology should evolve alongside user behaviour. Even small adjustments like simplifying the interface or refreshing the design can improve engagement. 

“Totara is so flexible – we could adapt it completely for our brand,” said their implementation consultant. “From privacy settings to avatars and notifications, every change made it feel more like our space and less like a traditional system.” 

Moving social learning from intention to impact 

Mitchells & Butlers’ experience shows that social learning succeeds when it becomes part of how people work. By creating trusted spaces, encouraging active participation, giving employees visible ownership, and aligning design with how people already communicate, M&B turned their LMS into a living network of learning and connection. 

Every organisation can take a similar approach. Start by making learning spaces safe, link collaboration to real work, recognise contribution consistently, and use design to make participation feel natural. When people see that their input matters, social learning grows into a shared habit that strengthens capability and culture across the organisation. 

You can watch the full session featuring Mitchells & Butlers on the totara.community, which is free to join. To explore the wider lessons from all sessions, download the key takeaway guide for practical actions to help you use social learning to build stronger, more connected teams. 

Read part 3 here.

Think about the last time someone in your team really developed a new skill. Chances are, it didn’t just happen in a training room. It likely happened through social learning: watching a colleague work through a problem, asking questions, sharing ideas, or collaborating on a project. 

While technology and training programmes have their place, most workplace learning happens informally, through experience and interaction. The CIPD’s Learning at Work 2023 survey found that peer collaboration has risen from around 30% to 36% among L&D practitioners, and 63% now collaborate with other business functions on learning, showing that inter-team learning is becoming an established part of workplace development. 

To explore these concepts in greater depth, the totara.community recently welcomed Charles Jennings, co-founder of the 70:20:10 Institute, to their Learning with IMPACT event. Drawing on his insights, this article examines how social learning works in practice and how teams can use it to strengthen collaboration and continuous development. This is part one of a three-part series on social learning, with upcoming articles featuring insights from Mitchells & Butlers and Anamaria Dorgo, founder of L&D Shakers, on applying these principles to real workplace contexts. 

What is social learning in the workplace? 

Social learning refers to the process of learning with and from others to build a culture of shared growth. It happens when employees collaborate on a project, share ideas in meetings, or observe how colleagues handle situations. The concept builds on the idea that people learn best through observation and interaction. 

In a workplace setting, this could look like: 

• Watching a peer resolve a customer issue. 
• Asking a colleague for advice on using a new tool. 
• Reflecting as a team on what went well after a project. 
• Participating in discussion boards or communities of practice. 

Social learning can take place in both structured and unstructured ways. Structured approaches include mentoring programmes, workshops, or collaborative projects designed to build knowledge in a planned setting. Unstructured learning happens more naturally through day-to-day experiences, such as informal chats, shadowing colleagues, or working together to solve problems. 

Charles Jennings notes that social learning taps into our natural instincts to engage, observe, and develop. People learn in four main ways, he explains: through practice, through working with others, through reflection, and through building networks. 

Expertise grows when people become part of professional communities, Jennings adds.  

How social learning supports continuous development 

Continuous development is often spoken about in the context of lifelong learning or professional growth, but it begins with everyday experience. When employees are supported to learn while working, development becomes part of their routine rather than a separate activity. 

The 70:20:10 framework, which Jennings helped popularise, captures this idea. It suggests that: 

• Around 70% of learning happens through experience and practice in the flow of work. 

• Around 20% happens through collaboration and feedback from others. 

• Around 10% happens through formal training or structured courses. 

Jennings emphasises that these figures are not exact ratios but a reminder that learning takes place through a blend of experiences. 

For example, when an employee experiments with a new process, collaborates on a project, shares lessons from a recent challenge, or coaches a colleague through a problem, they are building capability in real time. Organisations that enable this kind of learning environment create a steady rhythm of improvement, where every task becomes a learning opportunity. 

By recognising that learning and performance are intertwined, businesses can foster a culture of continuous improvement rather than one focused solely on training attendance or completion rates. 

Building learning through social networks in your organisation 

Learning is never an isolated experience. Even when employees complete an online course, attend a virtual workshop, or take part in onboarding programmes, much of what they absorb and retain comes from the people around them. Social networks play an important role in workplace learning. 

They help new employees understand company culture more quickly and enable existing teams to develop through peer collaboration rather than relying solely on formal training. 

Why social networks matter for workplace learning 

Every employee builds a network of people they trust for information, support, and advice. These connections influence how effectively learning translates into real performance.  

For example, a new hire might take an onboarding course through an LMS, but their real understanding of how the organisation works will be consolidated by informal conversations with their team. Similarly, someone completing a leadership module may solidify their learning by discussing scenarios with peers or mentors. 

How to assess your learning network 

To help people understand how their relationships influence learning, Jennings has adapted a Social Network Analysis (SNA) tool originally developed by Professor Rob Cross and his colleagues. It is a simple but insightful exercise designed to help employees and teams review the shape and quality of their networks. 

Participants begin by listing around ten to fifteen people they rely on for advice or problem-solving. They then consider a range of factors, such as how often they interact, how long they have known those contacts, and whether those connections are within or outside their team or location. 

When plotted visually, these relationships often reveal patterns or biases. Some employees find that most of their connections are at the same level or in the same department. Others discover they rely too heavily on a few colleagues or rarely interact with people in other regions. 

By spotting these patterns, individuals can identify where their learning network could be stronger. Jennings notes that a balanced network, one that includes both close and distant colleagues, supports richer collaboration and more effective knowledge sharing. 

For learning teams using an LMS, this reflection can also help design collaborative features within courses, such as discussion spaces, peer feedback areas, or project groups that mirror the benefits of a diverse professional network. 

Taking action to strengthen collaboration 

Improving learning networks often starts with small, deliberate steps. Whether you’re an employee looking to expand your connections or a manager supporting your team’s development, here are some practical ways to strengthen your learning network: 

As an individual: 

• Reach out to someone with a different role or in another department 

• Join a community of practice within your organisation 

• Offer to mentor a new hire or shadow a colleague 

• Contribute to discussion forums within your LMS 

• Share short reflections after completing courses 

As a manager: 

• Encourage team members to reflect together after projects 

• Create shared workspaces where lessons learned can be posted 

• Support employees in building connections across teams 

Jennings emphasises that even short, regular interactions build trust and open pathways for knowledge exchange.  

For organisations, using tools such as Jennings’ SNA framework can help identify where collaboration is thriving and where it needs more support. Combined with the right learning platform, these insights make it easier to create learning environments where employees connect naturally and apply what they know to improve performance. 

Examples of social learning in action 

Social learning works best when it’s weaved into how teams already operate. The following examples show how organisations have used reflective practice, peer collaboration, and storytelling to strengthen learning and performance. 

Qualcomm 

Qualcomm introduced a programme called 52 Weeks, designed initially for new hires to help them understand company culture. Each week, employees received a story via email, interviews with colleagues working on interesting projects or in particular areas. These stories highlighted what the work involved, what challenges the person faced, and what they learned. 

What started as an onboarding tool quickly spread across the organisation. Employees at all levels signed up to receive the stories, not just new hires. The technology was simple (just text-based emails), but the impact was significant. By tapping into people’s natural tendency to share and learn through stories, Qualcomm created a low-effort, high-value way to disseminate knowledge, share values, and build connections across teams. 

Citibank 

Citibank ran a programme called the 30-Day Challenge, which flipped the traditional learning model. Instead of asking employees to learn first, then apply, Citibank encouraged them to take action first, then reflect and share. 

Participants were given small daily actions, such as connecting with someone in the organisation whose role they didn’t fully understand or trying a new approach to a familiar task. After completing the action, employees reflected on what they learned and shared insights with colleagues. The focus was on building habits of continuous learning through simple, consistent actions embedded in daily work. 

Other Approaches to Team-Based Learning 

Jennings also references examples from organisations like British Telecom, which has used peer-to-peer learning to support skill development, and healthcare bodies such as the NHS and Ministry of Health, where reflective team learning has been used to improve practice and patient outcomes. These examples highlight that social learning doesn’t require complex systems, just structured opportunities for people to learn together and share what works. 

How to strengthen social learning in your organisation 

Social learning only becomes meaningful when it changes how people work and interact. The following approaches draw on Charles Jennings’ work and can help you strengthen learning in your organisation. 

1. Bring learning into daily work

Jennings describes four practical ways to extend learning into the workflow, adapted from research by the Corporate Executive Board and Gloria Gery: 

1. Add learning to work. Combine structured learning with day-to-day tasks. For instance, follow a short e-learning module with an immediate work assignment or simulation. 

1. Embed learning within workflows. Offer quick-access resources and coaching at the moment of need, such as guides or brief peer discussions inside your LMS. 

1. Extract learning from work. Encourage reflection after a task or project. Add a prompt at the end of a course that asks learners to share what they applied successfully and what they would change next time. 

1. Share learning with colleagues. Use discussion forums, communities of practice and informal sessions for employees to exchange insights, stories and solutions. 

The aim is to help people build capability while solving real problems, not apart from them. Every interaction and project becomes an opportunity to practise, reflect and share. 

2. Strengthen teams as learning communities 

Teams are the centre of organisational performance; Jennings refers to them as the atomic unit of productivity. Yet many learning strategies still focus on individuals. You can close this gap by helping teams learn together and measure results collectively. 

Encourage groups to set development goals alongside performance goals. Integrate reflection or feedback discussions into existing team meetings. Build collaborative assignments within courses so that participants share results and compare approaches. When learning sits inside team routines, progress becomes visible and measurable. 

A focus on teams also changes how learning is valued. Instead of seeing training as a personal activity, teams begin to treat shared improvement as part of their culture. 

3. Use networks to support continuous development 

Strong networks accelerate learning by giving employees faster access to answers, advice and ideas. Jennings’ Social Network Analysis tool shows that people learn best when their networks are diverse and balanced. 

You can apply this thinking by mapping how knowledge flows across your organisation. Look at where collaboration already works well and where it could improve. Inside your LMS, create visible workspaces that bring together people with shared roles or goals but from different departments. Encourage peer reviews or problem-solving groups that cross traditional boundaries. 

At an individual level, invite learners to set development actions linked to their network, such as reaching out to a mentor, contributing to a professional community, or collaborating with someone new on a live project. 

4. Measure progress through performance, not completion 

Here Jennings advises moving away from counting course completions and towards tracking indicators of real improvement. These can include customer satisfaction, faster resolution times, higher quality outputs, or stronger collaboration between teams. 

Link course design and reporting features in your LMS to these outcomes. For example, pair learning modules with reflective prompts that capture practical impact or gather feedback from line managers on how new skills are being applied. Over time, these metrics show how learning contributes directly to organisational performance. 

5. Build a culture of shared improvement 

When learning becomes part of everyday work, employees no longer see it as a requirement but as a habit. This shift takes consistent reinforcement. Provide recognition for teams that share knowledge openly or demonstrate applied learning. Use stories, case examples and success summaries to show how collaboration leads to results. 

Managers play an essential role here. When they model curiosity, ask questions and share their own learning experiences, they make it safe for others to do the same. Jennings’ work reinforces that culture change begins with example and conversation. 

Final thoughts – putting social learning into practice 

Social learning helps people develop knowledge and confidence through shared experience. When learning is supported through collaboration and connection, it becomes part of how employees work rather than an activity that sits apart from it. 

Applying these ideas means encouraging employees to learn from real tasks, share what works and build networks that cross teams and roles. Over time, this approach creates a steady flow of learning that improves both individual and organisational performance. 

To explore these principles in more depth, you can watch Charles Jennings’ full session on the totara.community, which is free to join for everyone. For a concise overview of all sessions, download the key takeaway guide. It brings together the main lessons and actions shared across the series, making it a valuable resource for any organisation looking to utilise social learning in everyday work. 

Read the second part of the series here.