What Does it Mean to Be a Learning Consultant?

Here at Instinct, we help our clients recruit for a wide range of roles within the Digital Learning sector.

As part of our ongoing "What it Means to be a .." series, we are sharing our internal definitions of learning roles and what responsibilities we would attribute to them.

This week we are looking at Learning Consultants, specifically what it means to be one.

Before we begin, it is important to acknowledge that different companies will have different definitions of the role and the related responsibilities. Whilst the following definition is our take on it, it doesn’t mean that other definitions aren’t also correct!  

What is a Learning Consultant?

A Learning Consultant is someone whose primary objective is to help an organisation improve its ways of learning. They look at what it is that needs to be taught and use their professional expertise to plan effective learning modules and packages to achieve this goal.

Role Responsibilities 

Assessment and Analysis: 

A Learning Consultant will start the process by identifying the skills and knowledge gaps in the organisation, and then start thinking about how best to address these issues.

Strategy:

They will then consult with their primary contact in the organisation they are working with to formulate ideas and decide on a plan to help the organisation with its learning needs. In this phase, a learning consultant defines the best learning tools and methods. For instance, a purely digital or a blended approach might work better.

Content Creation:

In the content creation phase, the Learning Consultant will oversee the creation of the learning content to ensure it adheres to the strategy that has been devised. To do so, they will either work with professionals such as Learning Designers and Developers to create the learning content or create it themselves in an end-to-end capacity. The responsibility of who creates content can even be a mix of the two, such as the Learning Consultant doing the learning design and then passing the work over to a developer to complete.

Project Management: 

As well as managing the creation of the content, a learning consultant will also manage the project in its entirety. This responsibility can include managing timelines, budgets or even resources to ensure the project stays on track. Responsibilities can also include ensuring seamless implementation of the learning program into the organization once it is ready to be deployed.

Evaluation: 

In this final evaluation phase, the Learning Consultant will use feedback and data to see how well the learning program is working. Based on the outcome of this they will then adjust to make the program even more effective.

Conclusion

A learning consultant is a dynamic role which sees the individual play a crucial role in enhancing learning in an organisation through the expertise they bring in assessment, strategy formulation, content creation, project management and evaluation.

By utilising varied skill sets, learning consultants ultimately ensure that the most effective learning program is both created and implemented for their clients to drive success in their organisation.