EXCELLENCE IN LEARNING AWARDS 2025
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Judges’ Comments Judges evaluating the collaborations between learning solutions providers and corporate clients observed several strong and emerging trends. A clear shift toward personalisation was evident, with training programmes increasingly tailored to the needs of individual learners, creating a genuinely learner-centric approach. This was underpinned by evidence-based programme design, often driven by structured processes and supported by agile, dynamic adaptations made in real time to ensure learner needs were addressed throughout, rather than only at the start and end of a programme. Many entrants framed learning and development as a strategic tool for talent attraction and retention, reinforcing its role in enhancing organisational appeal. Programmes frequently adopted applied, experiential, and action- learning approaches, ensuring that learning was relevant to real-world work and transferable to the workplace. Sustainability was another recurring theme, with content designed to be built upon and adapted for future iterations based on evolving contexts and circumstances. Collaboration itself was seen as multi- layered, with growing involvement from multiple stakeholder groups in ideation and co-design. Many initiatives were co-created with learners, aligning to the organisation’s strategic vision while drawing on participants’ lived experiences. Judges noted that authentic collaboration required time, trust, openness, and consensus- building, alongside respect for each partner’s expertise, encouraging constructive challenge. A wide variety of tools and methods were deployed ranging from liberating structures and world cafés to gamification, webinars, peer learning, simulation,
and multi-sensory formats. These contributed to the transformative impact of programmes, often empowering learners with greater confidence, resilience, ethical awareness, and the ability to “challenge up” post-programme.
Finally, the best shortlisted collaborations were marked by sustainability, replicability, and
potential for broader roll-out. They demonstrated clear metrics of impact and solid evidence of achievement, reflecting an ongoing need across the sector to strengthen measurement and articulate the value of learning and development initiatives.
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