Imagine a world where everyone wants to learn. Unfortunately, overcoming resistance and apathy to learning is a daily struggle for many L&D professionals, but there is hope! Technology has opened up new ways to reach people, and as our speakers will demonstrate, online learning doesn’t have to feel isolating or overwhelming. When paired with carefully created programmes that maintain human interaction and personal touches, the opportunities to support self-directed learning and proactive learners suddenly appear tantalisingly within our grasp.

Self-directed learning: L&D’s holy grail?

As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. In L&D we can create and provide the very best resources and tools for people to learn, but if they are unwilling – or worse, unable – to engage in learning, then where does that leave us? Supporting our people to become self-directed learners is surely part of L&D’s progression as a profession. And here we will explore what it takes to work towards a utopia where everyone wants to learn.

• Getting over a command and control culture of learning
• Building ownership of individual’s progress and performance
• Making it easy to navigate multiple learning platforms and digital resources
• Mentoring and hand-holding – identifying key points of need
• Creating permission for people to reflect and plan what’s next