📰 The latest L&D news, reports, research and updates, personally compiled by TJ’s Editor, Jo Cook.

This week: 🔍 AI and immersive tech are reshaping training and performance at scale. 📊 Insights from 400+ execs – new report on emerging technology; and why strategy is a game-changer for future-focused businesses 🚀

Embracing emerging technology critical to future-proofing businesses

CGS Immersive™, the leader in enterprise learning that is modernizing training and development with AI and XR technologies, has released its 2025 Operational Excellence Report. The report highlights how AI, immersive tech, and human-AI collaboration are essential to operational excellence and are priorities on the roadmaps of business leaders seeking to bridge the gap between technological promise and business reality.

More than 400 Fortune 1000 executives, operational leaders, and IT professionals contributed to the Operational Outlook report. Within it, CGS Immersive reveals that to compete most effectively, the future of training and development must be intelligent, immersive, and agile, with success hinging not just on adoption but having a strategic vision.

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Majority of employees ‘would quit for more purposeful work’

The vast majority of workers (70%) would consider purpose to be very or extremely important in their career choices, with 66% saying that they would leave their job for more purposeful work, according to new research.

The report from  Tomorrow University, which explores how lifelong learning and personal development can help professionals achieve greater satisfaction in their careers, found a growing demand for meaningful careers. Over half (52%) of professionals have shifted their career priorities in the past five years to focus on impact and purpose.

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New research shows significant improvement in workplace performance and quality of life for employees with ADHD after treatment

The ADHD Centre has released new research demonstrating the transformative impact of its evidence-based treatment and coaching services on professionals with ADHD. According to its findings, 72% of clients report a substantial improvement in their overall quality of life, while 67.6% experience a significant boost in workplace performance.

These results emphasise the importance of early diagnosis and tailored support for individuals with ADHD, not just for individual well-being but also for business success. With an estimated 540,000 office-based professionals in the UK potentially living with undiagnosed ADHD, many struggle with focus, organisation, and time management.

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Just 48% of companies offsetting National Insurance costs with salary sacrifice, according to Towergate Employee Benefits

With increases in National Insurance contributions due to take effect from 6 April, businesses and employees are both likely to feel the pinch. Towergate Employee Benefits’ annual research shows that less than half (48%) of UK companies offer salary sacrifice on their pension provision and they and their employees are therefore missing out on offsetting the costs.

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Fosway Group Launches the 2024 DIGITAL LEARNING Realities Survey

Now in its 10th year, the research explores how L&D teams rise to the challenge of a fast-changing business environment and tech landscape. Crucial to L&D teams has always been the support of the C-Suite. But, the long-standing priorities of compliance, mandatory and regulatory training have now been supplanted in 2024 by the need to upskill and reskill the workforce. This represents a paradigm shift in strategic priorities for learning teams and the C-Suite, as well as a welcome opportunity for every employee, organisation-wide.

“That compliance and regulatory training has finally dropped off the top spot in L&D priorities is a huge signal”, says David Perring, Fosway’s Chief Insights Officer and lead analyst on this latest research.

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Major report predicts ‘uphill struggle’ for UK government’s AI ambitions

Significant issues in areas including skills, legacy technology, and public trust mean that government faces an “uphill struggle” to deliver adoption of artificial intelligence across the public sector, the Public Accounts Committee has found. The influential group of MPs has published its Use of AI in Government report, which flags up various challenges – and sets out urgent recommendations to address them.

The first of the report’s conclusions is that “out–of–date legacy technology and poor data quality and data–sharing is putting AI adoption in the public sector at risk”. PAC found that, of the 72 “highest-risk legacy systems” identified in the cross-government digital roadmap published three years ago, 21 have yet to be given funding to support upgrades.

Read more on our sister publication Public Technology.

A shortage of work coaches at the Department for Work and Pensions has led to reduced support for unemployed people

According to the public-spending watchdog, DWP had around 2,300 fewer work coaches than the department estimated it needed in 2022-23 – a 13.2% shortfall on its target of around 17,400 to meet total demand.

The NAO said that while the work-coach shortfall dipped to 1,400 in 2023-24, it increased to an average of 2,100 in the first six months of 2024-25. The watchdog’s report says DWP secured funding for fewer work coaches than it needed to meet demand. 

Read more on our sister publication Civil Service World.