How UKGI proved the value of learning beyond mandatory CPD

UKGI Learning Solutions provides specialist learning and development solutions for insurance professionals, delivering technical, regulatory and professional skills training across the UK financial services sector. Through its LMS, The Development Zone (powered by Totara), UKGI delivers a blended learning approach that helps learners develop practical capability, confidence, and customer-focused decision-making in complex regulated environments.

The Challenge

In March 2025, the FCA (the main regulator for the financial services industry) announced a consultation on removing the minimum 15 hours of CPD required each year for insurance professionals. This proposal was subsequently implemented, placing greater pressure on the industry to demonstrate the value of professional learning. Without a mandatory CPD requirement, there was a significant risk that many organisations would de-prioritise learning, particularly outsourced learning, in an increasingly cost-conscious environment.

At the same time, with CPD no longer as tightly regulated and fewer stipulations around what counted as CPD in financial services, brokerages gained greater flexibility in how their employees could complete professional development.

This created an opportunity for UKGI to leverage this increased freedom of choice, re-engage directly with learners, minimise the impact of the regulatory changes, explore new commercial opportunities, and breathe new life into its learning interventions.

This shift also reinforced the need to help clients demonstrate the effectiveness of their learning. Rather than simply measuring compliance through hours completed, the focus moved towards outcomes — ensuring brokers deliver good customer outcomes. Evidencing this required organisations to demonstrate not only technical competence, but also behavioural change, ethical decision-making, and the ability for brokers to exercise fair judgement in real-world situations.

UKGI’s overarching aim was to deliver at least 150 sessions across a broad range of topics by the end of May 2026 as part of the programme’s first year. These sessions needed to be engaging, interactive and high-energy, while still achieving their learning objectives so that delegates left feeling confident in applying their new knowledge and skills in the workplace.

This meant taking highly technical insurance and compliance content and making it easy to understand without compromising important regulatory requirements. The programme also needed to combine technical learning with personal development, DE&I, wellbeing and leadership content.

It also needed to remain flexible enough to respond quickly to changing market conditions and emerging industry challenges, including succession planning, technological growth, emerging risks, increased regulatory oversight and greater consumer awareness. Ultimately, the programme needed to be an all-round learning solution that complemented UKGI’s wider learning portfolio.

The Solution

As this was a brand-new proposition, launched alongside an upgrade to Totara Version 19, UKGI had the opportunity to explore newly introduced functionality, make greater use of features that had previously been underutilised, and apply familiar functionality in new ways.

The organisation’s new Learning and Development Trainer also found it valuable to compare the platform with other LMSs she had previously used. She quickly adapted to the intuitive functionality of The Development Zone, enabling her to experiment with different features to create a highly effective blended learning experience, including:

• Feedback activities were used to benchmark learner confidence before and after each session by asking participants to rate their confidence out of 10. This enabled Lucinda to measure knowledge transfer, ensure sessions were pitched appropriately, and gather Level 1, Level 2 and early Level 3 evaluation data, particularly for programmes focused on behavioural change.
• Forums became an essential tool for reflection and peer-to-peer learning. Recognising that much learning is forgotten if it is not reinforced, UKGI introduced post-session reflection activities, typically completed within two weeks of attendance. These encouraged delegates to apply their learning in practice, reflect on the outcomes and share their experiences. This provided valuable evidence of behavioural change while also encouraging learners to support one another by commenting on discussion posts and answering each other’s questions.
• Seminar activities made it straightforward to manage live learning events. Sessions could be created and updated quickly, delegates could easily be added or removed, and automated calendar reminders reduced administrative effort. Notifications alerted trainers when minimum attendance numbers had been reached, while online classroom links could easily be added for platforms such as Microsoft Teams. The calendar block also provided an efficient way to manage upcoming events.
• Blended synchronous and asynchronous learning allowed delegates to engage with learning at times that suited them. Alongside forums, UKGI used File and Label Resources and Feedback activities to share videos, surveys and supporting resources before and after live sessions. This helped maximise valuable live session time while providing additional resources and post-session assessments where evidence of competence or pass marks were required.
• An engaging learner experience was created through multiple dashboards. Live Learning was given its own dedicated section within The Development Zone homepage, leading learners to a separate dashboard. By combining tagging with the new Catalogue block, monthly learning events were displayed in chronological order using an intuitive, Netflix-style tile layout.
• Backup and Restore functionality proved invaluable for protecting learning content while significantly reducing administration. Courses could easily be duplicated for future delivery dates, enabling UKGI to rapidly scale the programme without rebuilding content from scratch.

Overall, Totara enabled UKGI to create a visually engaging, flexible and highly scalable live learning proposition.

The Results

Lucinda Roberts joined UKGI as Learning and Development Trainer in May 2025 and successfully launched the programme, including running a number of internal pilot sessions, within just two months. The intuitive nature of The Development Zone played a significant role in enabling such a rapid deployment.

The programme initially launched with nine distinct sessions and, just twelve months later, had grown to more than 45, with new sessions continuing to be developed each month. This continued growth is reflected in client feedback, with one Broker General Manager commenting:

“It’s always great to see that these courses are evolving the more they are delivered, and new courses are being added all the time. The catalogue has increased so much since it was launched.”

The programme has delivered significant, measurable impact at scale, exceeding its original target with 152 live sessions delivered, representing 160 hours of training.

Across the reporting period:

• 1,502 learners registered
• 1,215 attended
• Attendance conversion reached approximately 80%, an exceptionally strong result for voluntary learning.

Overall, more than 520 unique learners participated in live learning over a ten-month period, with particularly strong repeat engagement. Around 40% of learners attended multiple sessions, while the most engaged participants attended more than 20 sessions.

The quality of the learning experience was evident from the very first sessions. One learner commented:

“That was my first online session, and I enjoyed it very much. Lucinda was very knowledgeable and kept motivation up by using interactive links.”

Learner feedback has remained consistently strong, with:

• Average Recommendation Score: 9.2/10
• Facilitation rating: 9.7/10
• Learning materials rating: 9.5/10
• Average learner engagement: 94.6%
• Feedback response rate: 34.7%, based on 421 respondents

Average learner confidence increased by 2.9 points, placing the programme within UKGI’s “excellent” impact range. This was based on an approximate 70% course completion rate, where learners attended the webinar and completed the post-session forum and confidence survey within The Development Zone.

These results demonstrate that learners not only valued the programme but were able to apply their learning confidently in their day-to-day roles. As one delegate commented:

“It was very informative, well delivered and I feel I can apply this to real situations.”