How to accelerate skills with personalised learning pathways
Personalised learning pathways build employees’ skills faster than traditional training methods. Learn how to put them into action in your organisation.
If you’ve ever sat through a generic training session and wondered why you were there, you already understand the problem personalised learning pathways are trying to solve. One-size-fits-all approaches can be convenient for administrators, but they’re rarely inspiring for learners, and tailored training is far more engaging and likely to stick.
So what exactly are personalised learning pathways, and how can you use them for better results?
Understanding personalised learning pathways
Personalised learning involves shaping training around an individual’s skills, needs, and goals to make the learning journey extra relevant and achievable. The main principles are straightforward:
- Start with the learner’s current abilities, objectives, and how they learn best
- Offer a flexible pace, format, and focus that aligns with all of this
- Give regular, meaningful feedback to keep progress on track
Even if you need to deliver training to a large cohort of employees, they each have different learning styles and challenges within their roles – so trying to train everyone in the same way is likely to have limited success.
On top of that, businesses face constant skills shifts, and what someone needed a year ago might not be the same as what they need today. People learn better with individualised training that meets their requirements and adapts along with their role.
Where traditional methods march everyone along the same path, personalised learning creates lots of different routes. Instead of prescribing someone’s training experience, you’re giving them control over how they develop the skills they need.
Why personalised learning pathways work so well
People pay more attention when learning feels relevant. It sounds obvious, but how often do employees disengage because they can’t see the connection between the training and their day-to-day role? Personalised learning methods cut through that.
You’re no longer asking your IT team to sit through long modules on manufacturing safety protocols (unless they actually need to know them). Instead, you’re delivering learning that fits their skills gaps and feels like an investment in their future.
The benefits of personalised learning are well-documented:
Engagement and motivation: People are far more likely to stay committed when the content feels like it was designed just for them. Plus, by giving employees the option to pick modules relevant to them, they’ll feel empowered to take control of their own progression and develop at their own pace.
Better retention: When you link new knowledge directly to someone’s work, they remember it – and put it into practice.
Flexibility: Learning can happen in different ways and at different paces, which means fewer bottlenecks and less frustration among busy team members.
There's also a cultural benefit; when employees see their development as personal and valued, they tend to feel more connected to the organisation as a whole.
How to bring personalised learning pathways into your organisation
You don’t need to rip up your current learning programme and start from scratch. You can build personalised training into what you already have, although it does require some planning.
1. Map your starting point
You can’t develop valuable training without knowing which skills employees already have. Skills assessments, self-evaluations, and feedback from managers give you a strong foundation to start from.
2. Define goals that matter
Think about skills outcomes that are tied to organisational objectives. For example, if your business is expanding into new markets, one of your goals might be for employees in multiple departments to understand these better so they can use their unique skillsets to contribute to this growth.
3. Offer different learning routes
Providing plenty of choice is fundamental to personalised learning. Some people thrive on video content, while others prefer hands-on tasks or discussion-based workshops. But it’s not just about formats; you also need a wide variety of topics (or angles on these topics) that cater to the different challenges and goals of employees throughout the business.
Going back to our example of expanding into new markets, while the marketing team will need to understand customer personas within these markets, operational teams should learn how to deliver products and services that meet their various needs.
4. Get leadership involved
Managers need to understand and support personalised learning. Without their buy-in, it risks becoming a box-ticking exercise rather than a lasting cultural shift.
5. Use the right tools
The latest technology is taking personalised learning to the next level. For instance, our AI-powered learning experience platform (LXP) lets you deliver an impressive range of content, tailor it to each employee, and build custom playlists with the help of recommended content. Rather than adding to your to-do list, the right software gives you advanced personalised learning while freeing up your HR team’s time.
Measuring whether it’s working
Because personalised learning can be used in so many ways, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your strategy and fine-tune it as you go along. The most useful metrics to track include:
Engagement: Are employees logging in, completing modules, and giving positive feedback?
Skills improvement: After completing personalised training, do people have more of the skills they need to do their jobs?
Application: Are those new skills translating into high performance?
At this stage, you need continuous feedback from employees on what is and isn’t working for them so that you can refine the learning experience. Remember, it’s all about giving people autonomy over their training so they can use it to reach their goals.
Our LXP makes it super easy to track engagement with your learning and report on the impact it’s having on your organisation… all without a spreadsheet in sight.
Examples of personalised learning pathways in action
Picture a healthcare organisation with staff ranging from administrators to specialist nurses. Traditional training might push everyone through the same compliance modules in the same way. But with personalised learning, the admin staff get bite-sized training focused on managing data, while nurses can access advanced clinical modules linked to their specialism. With this setup, both groups comply with requirements and boost their skills without being swamped with mandatory training.
Here's another example: take a retail chain rolling out a new inventory system. Instead of everyone sitting through the same four-hour webinar, store managers might get scenario-based learning on troubleshooting, while stockroom staff are given quick-reference videos for everyday processes. Each group prioritises the skills they need most so they can apply them quickly.
These sorts of approaches improve learning outcomes, but they also boost morale. After all, no one wants to feel their time is being wasted.
As personalised learning pathways are shaped by your goals, there are endless ways to put them to work in your organisation.
What’s next for personalised learning pathways
As we’ve seen, technology is making personalised learning smarter all the time. AI-powered platforms can curate learning playlists based on someone’s responsibilities, and it can even adapt content in real time based on their performance during a training module.
Learning systems now integrate with people management tools, meaning training pathways can automatically reflect evolving job roles and respond to performance metrics. You’ll also start to see opportunities for employees to co-create their own learning with AI assistance, choosing approaches that work best for them.
At MHR, we’re always looking for ways to use the latest innovations to enhance our learning solutions, so organisations like yours can keep employees ahead of the curve without overloading HR teams.
Ready to see how personalised learning could work for you? Download our People First Learning brochure to discover what's possible.
