The Rise of Professional Learning in Education and Business Sectors

Rockville MD – September 22, 2023

The report Professional Learning Market 2023 reveals the growth of the market for professional development (P&D) or learning and development (L&D) in both the education and the corporate sectors. The report shows that US PreK-12 professional development spending increased by 2.9% from $5.76 billion in 2021-2022 to $5.99 billion in 2022-2023. It also projects that the global corporate learning and development market will expand from $345.56 billion in 2021 to $493.32 billion in 2028, with a CAGR of 8.9%.

For those focused on corporate workforces, the report analyzes the impact of the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report on the professional learning and development sector. That report found that employers anticipate a structural labor market churn of 23% of jobs in the next five years, or a growth of 69 million jobs and a decline of 83 million jobs. Employers surveyed for that study estimated that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years.

Key drivers behind these changes include technology adoption--particularly the rise of generative AI, as well as acceleration of big data, cloud computing and cybersecurity; climate change, and shifting workforce demographics. Other drivers include the ongoing complexity of work; continued remote and hybrid working; more overseas online recruitment; interest in lifelong learning among employees; and the use of AI to generate data to identify company skill gaps.

To meet the trends, vendors of L&D are introducing or enhancing their training and reskilling products, focusing on meeting customer demand for products that offer personalized learning, such as hybrid and blended delivery, and integrating gamification. Also high on the list of client needs is options for microlearning and to obtain skills that are highly relevant and customized to their own organization or specific job requirements.

HR is a major buyer and decision maker when it comes time to identifying its company’s learning and development needs and choosing a vendor and spends about $1,300 per year per employee on workplace learning.  Surveys of HR professionals reveal that they expect their training budgets to increase, though there are still wildcards and uncertainty in the larger economy that could potentially negatively impact those expectations.

Generative AI in L&D will accelerate personalization, will be made more available to non-technical workers; used to cut labor costs and surface hidden patterns and business insights. It also offers new opportunities for HR professionals themselves ranging from creating training materials, to using analytics to identify skill gaps, perform more targeted talent recruitment, and more.

Also covered of specific interest to those in or following learning and development in the workplace in the report are the areas of largest current and anticipated job growth; critical employee skills and capabilities to meet future demand; a special focus on learning and development and IT; what employers say they need in professional learning; pros and cons of micro credentials; how vendors of professional learning can market and message their products; new methods and formats for delivery. There is also a special section on the trend to learning products with generative AI: why the surging interest; types of AI in L&D; challenges; current vendors of AI learning and development and how HR selects an AI L&D vendor.

A special directory at the end of the report also provides a selection of vendors of L&D in reskilling and learning areas forecast to be of greatest demand by companies. Companies profiled here are Amazon Web Services Training; Codecademy; Credly, Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, LinkedIn Learning; MasterClass; McGraw-Hill Professional; Microsoft Learn; Pluralsight; Skillshare; Udacity; Udemy, and Wiley.

About Simba Information
Simba Information is widely recognized as the authority for market intelligence in the education, media and publishing industries. Its extensive information network delivers top quality, independent perspectives on the people, events, and alliances shaping these industries. Publishers and investment professionals can trust Simba Information’s Professional Learning 2023 report to provide the inside intelligence needed to evaluate growth potential and understand the trends impacting the market for professional learning in the PreK-12, higher education, and corporate workforce markets.

Please direct all media inquiries to:
Corinne Gangloff
+1.440.842.2400
[email protected]