If you work in a frontline role, think back to when you first started.

What actually helped you learn how to do your job?

Was it the official training? Working alongside someone experienced? A good manager? Figuring things out as you went?

We spend a lot of time thinking about how companies can better prepare frontline employees for the job, and we're curious what actually made the biggest difference for you.

Hey everyone, I hope this helps someone because it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

I recently sat through a 40-minute corporate training session where the presenter spent almost the entire time reading paragraphs straight from the slides. It reminded me how often we treat PowerPoint like a document instead of a presentation.

When learners are busy reading full paragraphs, they're usually not listening. Instead of reinforcing the message, the slides end up competing with the presenter. A few simple guidelines have made a noticeable difference for our team:

1. The 5x5 Rule. No more than 5 lines of text per slide, with a maximum of 5 words per line. If you are using complete sentences on a slide, you've already lost the audience. Put the sentences in the Presenter View notes.

2. Strict font minimums. If your body text is smaller than 18pt, you are doing it wrong. Headers should be 20pt minimum. If your text doesn't fit at that size, you have too much text.

3. Stop using raw screenshots. A naked screenshot pasted onto a white slide looks terrible and chaotic. Drop it into a device mockup (like a simple laptop or tablet frame). It immediately grounds the image and makes it look professional.

4. Kill the transitions. Nobody needs to see a slide "dissolve" or "fly in." It's distracting and looks incredibly dated. A simple cut is all you need.

PowerPoint is actually a highly capable design tool, but we let subject matter experts turn it into a word processor. How do you guys handle SMEs who refuse to cut text from their slides? Do you force them to use a specific template, or do you just end up redesigning everything they send you?

Hi all — I've been developing Verbalu (verbalu.com), a browser-based platform of interactive tools built specifically for trainers, HR professionals, and L&D teams.

For basic usage it is free.

The idea: instead of juggling five different apps for icebreakers, simulations, quizzes, and whiteboarding during a session, you get one place with everything ready to go — Kanban boards, a wiki for documentation, a whiteboard for group work, training games (like a project-management simulation and an AI transformation simulator), and AI features built in.

It's still evolving so any ideas of new tools are welcome. I need to add that current tools and games were ideated by my friends - professional business trainers.

Would love feedback from people who actually run sessions for a living: what tools do you reach for most during a live training, and what's still missing from platforms like this?

I recently had a conversation with a colleague about handling complex projects, and they mentioned that one of the biggest improvements they made wasn't learning a new tool, it was changing the way they approached problems. They suggested looking into systems thinking because it helps you see the bigger picture instead of focusing on one issue at a time.

After that conversation, I spent some time looking into systems thinking training. One of the websites I see is SystemsThinkingAlliance.org, which offers systems thinking training programs, certifications, and micro-credentials for professionals looking to build practical systems thinking skills and there are many useful resources available on their website for new beginner who are starting their systems thinking learning journey.

That made me interested in knowing how individuals choose training programs that are worth participating in. How do you choose a system thinking training program?

I’ve been looking at the challenge of assessing practical skills remotely, particularly for students or workers in regional locations.

Written quizzes and course-completion records can show that someone understands the theory, but they don’t necessarily demonstrate that the person can perform the task. Live video assessments can also be difficult to schedule, while videos sent through email or shared drives can create privacy, recordkeeping and consistency problems.

A Brisbane developer I know has created a platform called Remote Reviewer, where candidates record or upload evidence of performing a task and a qualified reviewer assesses it against defined criteria. The comments, timestamps, evidence and assessment decision are kept together.

Disclosure: I know the developer, so I’m not presenting this as an independent product review. I’m interested in the broader problem it is trying to solve.

For people working in vocational education, workplace training or competency assessment:

How do you confirm that remotely recorded evidence is authentic, sufficient and suitable for an assessment decision—and what would you need to see before trusting a platform-based approach?

I’ve been looking at the challenge of assessing practical skills remotely, particularly for students or workers in regional locations.

Written quizzes and course-completion records can show that someone understands the theory, but they don’t necessarily demonstrate that the person can perform the task. Live video assessments can also be difficult to schedule, while videos sent through email or shared drives can create privacy, recordkeeping and consistency problems.

A Brisbane developer I know has created a platform called Remote Reviewer, where candidates record or upload evidence of performing a task and a qualified reviewer assesses it against defined criteria. The comments, timestamps, evidence and assessment decision are kept together.

Disclosure: I know the developer, so I’m not presenting this as an independent product review. I’m interested in the broader problem it is trying to solve.

For people working in vocational education, workplace training or competency assessment:

How do you confirm that remotely recorded evidence is authentic, sufficient and suitable for an assessment decision—and what would you need to see before trusting a platform-based approach?

I’ve invited the developer to join the discussion and explain how he has approached those issues, including evidence integrity, human review and recordkeeping.

Hey all. So I'm going to be running some in-person workshops for our teams soon. Would love some suggestions on genres of music to use in the background as people come into the room, and during reflection activities where there won't be talking but some light background music would help the room feel less awkward.

Ideally music without lyrics.

I've previously tried "BEATstrumentals", and the kinds of 'rainy afternoon study session' music you'd fine on Youtube study channels. Those genres tend to feel a bit *too* melllow though.

Any ideas for something upbeat that isn't distracting?

Hello Reddit family, is there any app that can be used by L&D professionals to learn about L&D, Dor example Skill share for most
Of creative stuffs.

Thanks

This could be a really cool resource for people in training and L&D to share and help each other, but instead the mods have allowed it to turn into an AI slop subreddit. I've really tried to ignore it and pick out the threads that seem human, but it's just endless slop on my home page now. At this point I think it's 80% bots replying to 80% bots.

Are there any alternative subreddits that haven't been hijacked?

Free resource - https://sandgroper.net/clow

Clow is a framework webapp for creating methodological decision-making tools (Flows) that guide investigations and training. Build simple or complex branching Flows with conditional routing - IF/THEN/ELSE rules—so answers direct people through the right scenarios, outcomes, instructions, and checks. Each Flow is like a procedural rule book: a consistent, validated method for investigators and learners to follow. By showing investigation gaps and steering toward the most appropriate next action, Clow supports consistent investigation and training outcomes.

Hi everyone,
I’m planning to build my skills in **Identity and Access Management (IAM)** and am looking for a good training institute (online or offline) that offers a structured, hands-on program.
I’m specifically looking for a course that covers:
Windows Server Administration
Active Directory
Networking fundamentals
Microsoft Azure / Microsoft Entra ID
PowerShell basics
Identity & Access Management (IAM)
Authentication & Authorization
SSO, MFA, RBAC, Conditional Access
SCIM, SAML, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect
Privileged Access Management (PAM/PIM)
Identity Governance
SC-300 certification preparation (preferred)
If you’ve attended a training institute or know of one that provides practical labs, real-world scenarios, and placement support, I’d really appreciate your recommendations.
Thanks in advance!

Having recently moved into a program manager role in the training field, I'm becoming more invested in proving the usefulness of training programs, but I'm struggling to pin down a good metric for this. Of course there are things like user surveys, but that's hard to translate into anything but... vibes, really. What hard metrics are you using? I'm limited in the sense that we are not the only trainers providing training to our clients (I know, I don't understand it either, but they have in-house mixed with our contractor training), and I have very limited access to client hire information (like I have no way of seeing, for example, how long someone stays employed at the client's business). Any input welcome!

I talk to a lot of people who run training for multiple clients, and the same story comes up almost every time.

The goal is simple: build a course once and offer it to different clients, each with their own branded space. A training company selling to a few corporates. A continuing-ed provider licensing courses out to different facilities. Same shape.

The reality is messier. One person described her setup like this: every time a new client wants in, she sets them up in a sub-account and manually transfers the courses over. Her words, not mine: "I know that's not ideal, it's not a clean way to do it." Another one I hear constantly is "I'd rather pay for one thing than multiple," because people are stitching a CRM, a course tool, and hosting together and paying for all three.

And when the setup is clunky, it leaks into delivery. One provider put it well: clients keep "sending people to us and it's a lot of inconsistencies because people can't get to us." The admin mess quietly becomes the learner's problem.

So I'm curious how the people actually running this solved it. Did you find a genuinely clean multi-client setup, are you still living with the workaround, or did you just cap how many clients you take because the manual side wasn't worth it?

For context, I work on the software side of this, so I've got a slant. I'm asking because I keep hearing the exact same workaround and I want the unfiltered version.

Currently working in F500 as a training manger/sales enabler/experiential marketer. I’m trying to find innovative training practices in companies more progressive than mine. Any of you work for a company that has amazing training programs or know which companies to study for inspiration?

Hello!

I am a brand new trainer within the security industry where I was selected because I exceed the current expectations of my job.

Within my first two days of my first training session with the new hire, I can’t get the thought of “how did this person get hired” out of my head. I feel like the person in front of me is incompetent though they state 10 years of experience on their resume and have certification higher level than I do.

I am trying my absolute best to stay open minded and change my training style to what will help them as an individual instead of just a copy and paste based training format.

Am I being too harsh or immediately judging too hard? Any tips on how to overcome this or possible sharing of experience of your experience with feeling like this?

Thank yall I appreciate it!

Sorry for the long read but I couldn't make it any shorter!

I have an M.A. in Clinical Psychology (2020) and have spent the last 5 years working across private practice, corporate, technical consulting and EAP wellness programs, training delivery and coaching.

I have crossed 5000 hours of 1:1 clinical and consulting work across the industry. On the group side, I have done over 2500 hours of training sessions, workshops, seminars, fortnightly, resilience sessions, group wellness sessions for companies. Most of this has been as an independent contractor rather than a single employer, working with multiple organisations at once.

This is not someone starting from zero, it is someone with real hours and real delivery experience, just not a corporate HR or L&D title on paper yet.

Honestly, in psychology and therapy work, there is a real ceiling on what you can earn no matter how senior or experienced you get. At my peak, combining private practice and consulting work across companies, I was making around 1.5 lakh a month, but that was patchwork income stitched together from several sources, not one stable role.

I am looking to move into Learning and Development or Organisational Development because I believe that industry has real room to grow well past that number over time, in a way psychology on its own does not.

I am open to starting lower than what I was making before, closer to 80k-90k a month, specifically because I would rather enter an industry with a longer runway than stay capped in one that does not grow much further.

What I am looking for is hybrid or remote work, five days a week, based in Navi Mumbai or Mumbai, but genuinely open to remote roles anywhere in India or even globally if the fit is right. Open to startups or mid-size companies, not attached to a big name.

A few honest questions for anyone who has made a similar move or hires for these roles. Does a psychology and clinical consulting background actually read as an asset for L&D or OD hiring, or does it need to be translated into HR language first to be taken seriously? Is a short certification worth pursuing at this stage, or does real facilitation and delivery experience carry more weight than a certificate?

For people in L&D or OD, what does the actual growth trajectory look like in this field? What titles and pay ranges should I be aiming for at the 2 year, 5 year, and 10 year mark, and does it genuinely keep climbing the way I am hoping, or does this industry have its own ceiling too?

And for anyone who made this exact jump from psychology or therapy into corporate L&D, I would love to hear how it actually went, what helped, and what you wish someone had told you earlier.

If anyone here works in L&D/OD or knows someone hiring, I would genuinely appreciate a referral or even just a pointer on where to look. Happy to share my resume.

TLDR: M.A. Clinical Psych, 5 years in, 5000+ hours 1:1 and 2500+ hours group facilitation, mostly independent contractor work. Hit a pay ceiling in psychology and want to move into L&D/OD where growth potential is higher. Open to 80-90k to start, hybrid/remote, Navi Mumbai/Mumbai or remote-friendly. Want to know if my background is an asset or needs translating, whether a cert is worth it, and what the real growth trajectory and pay look like in this field long term.

Looking for any development suggestions beyond a traditional training session.

As many know, L&D/Training is not top of mind for a client focused business. We are trying to establish, or more so re-establish, a strong L&D model but I trainings keep being paused/not attended since most employees don’t have the time, or don’t want to engage/sit in training since they are billable. We’d also like it not all to fall in L&D/HR to roll out as people get tired of hearing from us it seems. Also, something that doesn’t cost money since the L&D budget is basically non existent lol

I know this isn’t just happening at my company, and wondering what y’all are doing. A few ideas i’ve had (but also need buy-in which is tough) are:

-Resource hubs with How-to, FAQ. Also curious what you would include here. (we already have this but unsure if folks access)

-Lunch and learns

-AI prompt libraries inside an L&D/ID mindset to generate their own training/content, etc

-Tip of the week

We tend to focus more on Leadership development, since we’re top heavy. We currently have started a manager series where we hold sessions every couple months on topics that are heavily needed at the time. We seem to give no love to our individual contributors, and I’d love to do so!

Appreciate any and all suggestions!