Learning Governance for Learning and Development Managers Training Course

Course overview

Learning and Development managers are expected to show that learning spend supports business priorities, meets compliance obligations, produces usable capability data, and delivers consistent experiences across business units. Yet many L&D functions operate through informal approvals, unclear ownership, fragmented learning technology, and reporting that measures attendance rather than capability or performance. This course equips managers to establish governance that makes decisions traceable, responsibilities clear, and learning investment easier to defend.

Participants build a practical learning governance framework covering decision rights, operating models, policy architecture, portfolio prioritisation, quality assurance, learning data, supplier oversight, and risk controls. They learn how to define a learning governance charter, assign RACI responsibilities, set stage gates for programme design and procurement, establish learning standards, and use dashboards to monitor participation, completion, capability evidence, cost, and business outcomes. The course also addresses governance for mandatory learning, accessibility, learner data privacy, and outsourced content or platform providers.

Delivery combines instructor-led briefings with governance design workshops, realistic case material, peer review, and applied use of reporting and operating-model templates. Participants work through a scenario involving a decentralised organisation with duplicated programmes, inconsistent compliance records, and disputed learning budgets. By the end of the week, each participant leaves with a draft Learning Governance Charter and implementation roadmap containing decision forums, role accountabilities, policy priorities, assurance measures, dashboard metrics, and a 90-day action plan ready to adapt for their organisation.

The course is designed for L&D managers who need to move from managing individual programmes to governing an enterprise learning system. It is equally valuable for HR leaders, learning operations specialists, talent professionals, and transformation leads responsible for improving control without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design a Learning Governance Charter that defines purpose, scope, principles, decision forums, and escalation routes
• Build a RACI matrix assigning accountability for learning strategy, programme approval, compliance training, data, and supplier management
• Apply a portfolio prioritisation scorecard to rank learning investments against business need, risk, audience reach, and expected value
• Create stage-gate controls for learning needs analysis, design approval, pilot testing, launch, evaluation, and retirement
• Draft governance policies for mandatory learning, content quality, accessibility, learner records, and learning-data privacy
• Construct a learning dashboard with participation, completion, proficiency, cost, quality, and business-impact measures
• Evaluate learning suppliers using service-level agreements, quality criteria, data-security requirements, and performance reviews
• Produce a 90-day governance implementation roadmap with owners, milestones, risks, and adoption measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Learning and Development Managers — who need to establish clear control over learning investment, standards, and decision-making
• Heads of Learning — who oversee enterprise learning portfolios across multiple functions, regions, or business units
• Learning Operations Managers — who manage LMS processes, learner records, administration controls, and service quality
• Talent Development Managers — who need learning governance aligned with capability frameworks and talent priorities
• HR Business Partners — who sponsor learning demand and need transparent prioritisation and impact evidence
• People Transformation Leads — who are redesigning HR operating models, learning technology, or shared-service delivery

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to planning, commissioning, delivering, or reporting on workplace learning. Familiarity with common L&D concepts such as needs analysis, learning objectives, programme evaluation, mandatory training, learning management systems, and learning budgets will help participants apply the material quickly. Participants should be able to work with basic spreadsheet data and bring examples of current learning policies, reports, or approval processes if available. No prior governance qualification, legal training, Power BI expertise, or experience with a specific LMS is required. Complete beginners to L&D should expect a demanding course and may benefit from introductory L&D experience first.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led sessions to introduce governance models, ISO guidance, decision-rights tools, and learning measurement methods. Participants then apply each method to a continuing organisational case involving inconsistent regional learning provision and weak compliance evidence. Workshops include building a RACI, scoring a learning portfolio, drafting policy controls, reviewing a supplier scorecard, and interpreting a learning dashboard in Microsoft Power BI. Small-group governance-board simulations test decisions under budget, risk, and stakeholder pressure. The final session converts course outputs into an individual implementation plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Learning governance foundations and operating models

• The purpose of learning governance in enterprise L&D
• Governance, management, administration, and assurance distinctions
• ISO 30422 learning and development guidance
• Learning governance principles and control objectives
• Centralised, federated, and shared-service learning operating models
• Governance forums, terms of reference, and escalation paths
• Learning Governance Charter structure and scope statements

Workshop: Participants diagnose the governance gaps in a decentralised L&D case and produce a first draft of a Learning Governance Charter.

Day 2: Decision rights, policies, and portfolio control

• Decision-rights mapping for strategic and operational learning decisions
• RACI matrices for HR, business leaders, managers, learners, and suppliers
• Learning policy hierarchy, standards, procedures, and guidance notes
• Mandatory learning governance and completion-accountability controls
• Portfolio prioritisation scorecards and weighted criteria
• Business cases for learning investment and funding models
• Stage-gate governance across the learning programme lifecycle

Workshop: Participants create a RACI and prioritisation scorecard, then use both to decide which case-study learning initiatives should be funded.

Day 3: Quality, risk, and supplier assurance

• Quality criteria for learning needs analysis and target-audience definition
• Design standards for learning objectives, content, facilitation, and assessment
• Pilot reviews, launch-readiness checks, and programme retirement decisions
• Accessibility controls for digital and classroom learning
• Learner data privacy, retention, and access controls
• Supplier due diligence, service-level agreements, and statement-of-work requirements
• Supplier scorecards, performance reviews, and corrective-action tracking

Workshop: Participants audit a proposed external learning programme against quality, accessibility, privacy, and supplier-control criteria and produce an assurance action log.

Day 4: Learning data, measurement, and governance reporting

• Learning data ownership, definitions, and data-quality controls
• LMS data flows and learner-record governance
• Participation, completion, assessment, proficiency, and application metrics
• Cost, utilisation, and portfolio efficiency measures
• Evaluation evidence using Kirkpatrick levels and business measures
• Dashboard design for governance boards and executive stakeholders
• Exception reporting for overdue compliance, low quality, and delivery risk

Workshop: Participants define a learning metrics dictionary and build a governance dashboard specification from a sample LMS and budget data set.

Day 5: Implementing and sustaining learning governance

• Governance maturity assessment and baseline diagnostic methods
• Stakeholder mapping and sponsorship strategies
• Change impact analysis for business units and learning teams
• Governance meeting cadence and decision-paper formats
• Control testing, internal audit preparation, and evidence repositories
• 90-day implementation planning and quick-win selection
• Continuous improvement cycles and annual governance reviews

Workshop: Participants present their Learning Governance Charter, dashboard measures, and 90-day implementation roadmap to a simulated executive governance board.

Tools & standards covered

ISO 30422:2022, ISO 10015:2019, Microsoft Power BI, SAP SuccessFactors Learning

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions