What is "Learning and Development" (L&D)?

The acquisition and refinement of skills, knowledge, and competencies through a structured process is commonly known as learning and development, which ultimately contributes to an employee's enhanced work performance.

Specifically, learning is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Development is the broadening and deepening of knowledge in line with one’s development goals.

The goal of learning and development is to develop or change the behavior of individuals or groups for the better, sharing knowledge and insights that enable them to do their work better, or cultivate attitudes that help them perform better (Lievens, 2011).

When employees undergo proper learning and development process, it improves their skills and knowledge of the job and builds their confidence in their abilities. This will improve their performance and make them work more efficiently and effectively. These improvements will positively affect the productivity of workers, which can increase the profits and efficiency of an organization.

When a company needs people with different or specific skills, they don't have to find new employees from outside the company. They can choose good employees from within the company and train them to have new skills. Then, those employees can be given higher positions.

We sometimes use the words "learning", "training" and "development" to mean the same thing. But, there are small differences between these ideas.

Learning

Learning is when we gain knowledge, learn new things or skills, or adopt new attitudes through different ways like experience, studying, or being taught. To learn new things, people can do training, development, or education.

Training

Training helps you learn things you can use right away, like skills and ways of thinking, for a particular job. Training can help you do your job better now or prepare for new challenges in the future.

The value of working experience as part of a platform for skills development towards job finding and career development is widely accepted. The training responsibility of employers in supporting the work-based element of skills development is represented by Anne Walker of Springboard who argues (Anon, 2000)

Development

Development focuses on the future. This is about learning more and getting a better understanding of things. This needs to match your own growth plans and what the organization wants to achieve in the future. People usually choose to develop.

Education

Education is a more formal way to broaden one’s knowledge. Education is often non-specific and applicable for a long time and is especially relevant when a person has little experience in a certain area.

Conclusion

Everyone should prioritize learning and development, no matter what kind of business you have, how good your employees are. To keep up with industry standards, it's important for your employees to keep learning throughout their lives. If your workers are pleased with how well they are doing and the effort they are putting in, they will want to keep in touch with your company. Everyone in your company benefits with learning and development.

References 

Aguinis, H., & Kraiger, K. (2009). Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 451–474.

Anon (2000) Work Experience Key to Recruitment, LeisureWeek, 5th October. 

Crush, J. S. (1995) Power of development. London; New York: Routledge.

Lievens, F. (2011). Handboek human resource management: back to basics (6th ed.). LannooCampus.

Maslow, A. (1943) ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 370-396.