Learning and development activities: 16 types with examples

Skills at work now go out of date faster than most training calendars can keep up. Hiring new people for every gap is slow, costly and often not possible.

Learning and development activities are the structured and informal ways a company helps employees build the skills they need now and later. They range from onboarding and workshops to mentoring, job rotation and stretch projects.

This guide walks through 16 types with examples, a comparison table and a simple way to measure results. The best L&D programs mix several of them and pick each one to close a specific, measured skills gap.

TL;DR:

• Learning and development activities are the planned and informal ways a company builds the skills people need now and for later roles.
• Skills are going out of date faster than hiring can fix, so building skills from within is now a core business need, not a perk.
• The 16 activities fall into three groups: formal learning, social learning and learning on the job. Most strong programs mix all three.
• The right activity depends on the type of skill. Knowledge suits courses, judgment needs practice and coaching, and role readiness needs real work exposure.
• Start from a business goal and a measured skills gap, not from a content catalog. Then pick the cheapest activity that can close the gap.
• Completions and satisfaction scores do not prove learning. A skills test before and after shows whether anyone can do the job better.
• Managers decide whether new skills get used, so involve them and protect learning time.

What are learning and development activities?

Learning and development activities are any planned experience that helps employees gain knowledge, skills or habits they can use at work. Training activities usually close a gap in the current role, while development activities prepare people for bigger or different roles later.

Most L&D teams run both kinds side by side.

Activities fall into three broad groups:

• Formal learning: courses, workshops, certifications and programs with a set curriculum.
• Social learning: mentoring, coaching, peer groups and events where people learn from others.
• Learning on the job: shadowing, rotations, cross-training and stretch assignments inside real work.

A common rule of thumb for the mix is the 70-20-10 model: about 70% of learning comes from challenging work, 20% from other people and 10% from formal courses. Treat the split as a starting point, not a quota.

A compliance-heavy role in healthcare needs more formal training than a product manager does.

For the planning side, see how to create a learning and development plan.

Why do learning and development activities matter in 2026?

Learning and development activities matter because skills are going out of date faster than most companies can hire for them. The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025 says workers can expect 39% of their existing skill sets to change or become outdated between 2025 and 2030.

Put another way, if the global workforce were 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030, and 11 of them are unlikely to get it.

Executives feel this gap too. In the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2025, 49% of L&D professionals say their executives worry that employees lack the skills to deliver the business strategy.

Retention adds to the pressure. The same report finds that 88% of organizations are concerned about retention. Learning opportunities are their No. 1 retention strategy, and career progress is people's No. 1 reason to learn.

Yet time and money are tight. ATD's 2025 State of the Industry report shows formal learning fell to 13.7 hours per employee in 2024, from 17.4 a year earlier.

Direct spend was $1,254 per employee. With fewer formal hours, activities built into daily work carry more of the load.

Managers are the weak link in making that happen. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace reports that manager engagement fell from 27% to 22% in 2025.

Gallup links part of the drop to managers not getting the training they need to coach their teams. That makes manager support a core part of any L&D plan.

Types of learning and development activities

Learning and development activities work best when you treat them as a toolkit, not a checklist. Each one suits a different kind of skill, budget and timeline, so the goal is to match the activity to the gap.

The 16 activities below fall into three groups: formal learning, social learning and learning on the job. The table compares them on what each is best for, the effort to run and how fast results show. Use it to shortlist options, then read the detail on each one.

Formal learning activities

1. Onboarding programs: Onboarding teaches new hires the role, tools, policies and people they need in their first 90 days. Good programs pair a checklist with a buddy and clear 30, 60 and 90 day goals.

Our employee onboarding process guide covers the full sequence.

2. Instructor-led workshops: Live sessions, in a room or on a video call, suit skills that improve with practice and feedback, such as presenting, negotiation or a new internal tool. ATD found the live classroom is still the most common delivery method.

3. Online courses and e-learning: Self-paced courses on an LMS or learning platform cover knowledge topics at low cost per learner and work across time zones. Completion rates drop when courses are not tied to a real goal, so assign them with a reason.

4. Microlearning: Short lessons of two to ten minutes, often on mobile, suit frontline teams, product updates and refreshers before a task. Microlearning works best for recall, not for complex judgment.

5. Certifications and continuing education: Paid certifications, degree support and professional courses matter most in regulated or specialist roles such as finance, IT security and healthcare. Agree up front how the new credential will be used in the role.

6. Leadership development programs: Structured programs for new managers, high potentials and senior leaders combine courses, coaching and real assignments. LinkedIn found 71% of organizations offer leadership training, the most common career practice in its 2025 survey.

Teams building a manager pipeline can follow the steps to create a leadership development plan, which covers goals, activities and measures.

Social learning activities

7. Mentoring: A more experienced colleague guides a less experienced one over months. Mentoring passes on the unwritten rules of a company better than any course.

Reverse mentoring flips the usual roles. A junior employee mentors a senior leader on a skill they know well, such as AI tools or social media. Both sides learn, and leaders get a direct view of how newer team members work.

8. Coaching: Coaching focuses on a specific goal or behavior, led by a trained internal or external coach or by the manager. ATD reports that coaching is the most common on-the-job learning method, used by 72% of organizations, with mentoring at 67%.

9. Peer learning groups and lunch and learns. Employees teach each other in short sessions or small cohorts that meet regularly. Peer groups cost little and surface know-how that never makes it into formal training.

10. Conferences and external events: Industry events, webinars and professional associations expose people to new ideas and contacts. Ask attendees to share three takeaways with their team so the learning spreads.

Learning on the job

11. Job shadowing: An employee follows a colleague in another role for a few hours or days. Job shadowing is a cheap way to test interest in a career move or to understand a partner team.

12. Job rotation: Employees move through several roles or departments over months. Job rotation builds broad business knowledge and a bench of successors, but it slows output while people ramp up in each role.

13. Cross-training: Employees learn the core tasks of a neighboring role so the team can cover absences and peaks. The cross-training guide explains how to set it up without overloading people.

14. Stretch assignments and cross-functional projects: A project slightly beyond someone's current level, often with another team, builds new skills inside real work. LinkedIn found career development champions are 88% more likely than other companies to offer project-based learning or internal gigs.

15. Simulations and role play: Realistic practice of a sales call, a support ticket, a safety incident or a difficult conversation builds confidence before the real thing. Simulations also show exactly where someone still needs help.

16. Career development plans and internal mobility: A written plan agreed between employee and manager links the activities above to a next role. Champions in the LinkedIn report track the internal mobility rate as a core metric.

Our guide to internal mobility explains how to open internal moves.

Pro tip: Before you buy content or book a workshop, test the skill first. A short, role-based assessment shows who already has the skill, who is close and who needs the full program, so you spend training hours only where the gap is real.

How do you choose the right learning and development activities?

Choosing learning and development activities starts with the business goal and the measured skills gap, not with the content catalog. Work through five steps, then pick the cheapest activity that can close the gap in the time you have.

1. Start from a business goal. For example, cut ramp time for support agents from 12 weeks to 8, or prepare five team leads to step into manager roles next year.
2. Measure the skills gap. Use a skill gap analysis with skills tests, manager input and performance data instead of self-ratings alone.
3. Match the activity to the type of skill. Knowledge suits courses and microlearning. Judgment and soft skills need practice: simulations, coaching and stretch work. Role readiness needs on-the-job exposure such as shadowing or rotation.
4. Check constraints. Count the hours people can actually spend, the budget, manager time and whether teams are remote or on shifts.
5. Set the measure before you start. Decide which metric will prove the activity worked, and take a baseline now.

Which activities work best for each goal?

The right activity depends on what you need to change. The matrix below maps common L&D goals to the activities that usually fit them best.

How do you measure whether learning and development activities work?

Learning and development activities are measured on four levels, from how people felt about the activity to what changed in the business. The model most L&D teams use is the Kirkpatrick Model: Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results.

• Reaction: did people find it relevant? Use a two-question survey right after the activity.
• Learning: did the skill improve? Compare a skills test score before and after the activity.
• Behavior: are people using the skill at work? Ask managers, review work samples or quality scores 60 to 90 days later.
• Results: did the business metric move? Track ramp time, error rates, sales, internal mobility rate or retention for the group.

Most teams stop at completions and satisfaction scores. Neither one tells you whether anyone can do the job better.

A before and after skills test is the cheapest way to prove the Learning level, and it gives you a baseline for the next cycle. For a list of metrics, read KPIs for evaluating training and development.

What mistakes should you avoid with L&D activities?

L&D programs usually fail for planning reasons, not because the content is poor. Watch for these five mistakes:

• One program for everyone. A single course for all roles wastes hours on people who already have the skill.
• No protected time. If learning has to happen after hours, only the most motivated people finish.
• Leaving managers out. LinkedIn found 50% of organizations say managers lack proper support for career development, yet managers decide whether new skills get used.
• Measuring completions only. A 95% completion rate says nothing about skill change.
• Buying content before diagnosing the gap. Start with the skills data, then choose the activity.

How can Testlify support your L&D activities?

Testlify supports learning and development activities at the two points where most programs are weakest: finding the real skills gap before training and proving the change after it.

• Baseline and retest: pick from 3,500+ tests in the Testlify test library, covering role skills, software, coding, cognitive ability, situational judgment, language and personality, including a coaching and mentoring test.
• Custom checks fast: the AI test builder creates an assessment from a job description, so you can test the exact skills a role needs.
• Per-skill reports: automated scoring and per-skill breakdowns show which people need which activity, and benchmarks show how a group compares with others who took the same test.
• Fits your stack: 100+ ATS and HRIS integrations, with 25+ question types and 15+ languages for global teams.

Ready to test skills before you train? See how Testlify assessments can set a baseline for your next L&D program. Book a demo with the Testlify team.

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