Skills gaps haven’t closed and AI is reshaping what people need to learn next, which is part of why career development has become one of L&D’s fastest-rising priorities. LinkedIn’s 2024 UK Workplace Learning Report found that aligning learning to business goals has stayed one of L&D’s top focus areas for the second year running, while career development jumped from ninth place to third in the space of a single year. Meeting that bar takes more than an in-house course library. It takes a mix of online learning and development platforms, tools and content sources working together.
Here we share a curated list of 27 L&D resources, grouped into categories, as well as when and why these resources would be most useful. You can use it to spot gaps in your current offer and find resources that plug straight into your wider learning and development approach.
In this article you’ll find:
- The main types of L&D resources to have in your toolkit
- Recommended online L&D platforms, tools and content sources
- Ideas for combining external resources with internal content
- Links to Let’s Talk Talent’s L&D strategy and people development support
What Types of L&D Resources Do You Need?
L&D resources cover anything that helps people build skills and apply them at work: platforms, content, tools, communities and internal materials, used together rather than alone. The right mix depends on your size, budget and the skills gaps you’re trying to close, but most organisations end up drawing from five types of L&D resources:
- Learning and development platforms and software, such as LMS, LXP and skills or content platforms
- General skills and knowledge platforms, covering MOOCs, course libraries, languages, coding and creative skills
- Career, habit and self-directed learning resources
- HR-specific learning resources and thought leadership
- Internal, user-generated and commissioned content
For the fuller picture of what L&D covers and why it matters, read our guide on what learning and development is and why it’s important.
The Best Online Learning and Development Platforms and Tools
This section covers the learning and development platforms, tools and software that can sit at the centre of your L&D ecosystem or plug into an existing LMS. They’re grouped by what they’re best for rather than ranked against each other.
General Online Learning Platforms
1. Udemy
Udemy offers thousands of courses across IT, software development, marketing, music and personal development, with most sold individually rather than through a subscription. It works well as a low-cost way to plug a specific skills gap without committing to a whole platform.
2. Coursera
Coursera ranges from free short courses to full degrees, with clearly defined learning pathways for people working towards a specific qualification. It suits employees who want structured, accredited progression rather than one-off skills training.
3. edX
edX partners with universities and employers to offer accredited courses and professional certificates, with a similar structure to Coursera. It’s a solid option where a recognised credential matters as much as the skill itself.
4. Khan Academy
Khan Academy offers free courses covering everything from maths and science to the basics of economics and personal finance. It’s most useful for foundational knowledge rather than advanced or business-specific skills.
5. LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning gives users access to thousands of courses taught by industry experts, on a monthly subscription model, with most content centred on business and leadership skills. It also surfaces LinkedIn’s own data on which skills are growing fastest, which is worth tracking when you’re planning future content.
6. Skillshare
Skillshare focuses on hands-on, creative classes, from design and illustration to writing and photography. It suits roles where creative or visual skills sit alongside the day job rather than at the centre of it.
7. BrightTalk
BrightTalk hosts free talks and webinars from experts across legal, marketing, HR, finance, IT, R&D and sales. It’s a good way to keep teams current on industry thinking without committing to a full course.
8. MasterClass
MasterClass offers video lessons taught by well-known practitioners across business, leadership, writing and other creative fields. It suits teams looking for high-production-value content alongside more structured training.
Specialist Skills Platforms
9. Duolingo
Duolingo is a gamified language-learning platform built around short daily sessions, which makes it easy to build into a regular routine. It’s a practical option for employees who need a new language for international roles or relocation.
10. Codecademy
Codecademy lets staff learn to code through free and paid interactive courses, covering everything from basic web development to data science. It suits employees building technical skills from scratch rather than topping up existing expertise.
11. Pluralsight
Pluralsight focuses on technology and IT skills, with assessments that help identify gaps before assigning content. It’s particularly useful for technical teams who need to track capability against a specific framework.
12. Google Career Certificates
Google Career Certificates offer job-ready training in areas such as IT support, data analytics, UX design and project management, with no formal prerequisites. They work well for reskilling programmes aimed at moving people into in-demand roles.
L&D Tools and Software to Support HR Teams
13. Looop
Looop is a learning platform built around short, practical resources rather than long courses, including blog-style articles, podcasts and whitepapers. It’s geared towards HR and L&D teams looking for ideas on running a leaner, more focused offer.
14. Degreed
Degreed is a learning experience platform (LXP) that pulls together content from multiple external platforms alongside internal material, organised around skills rather than courses. It suits organisations that already have several L&D resources and need one place to surface and track them.
15. Articulate 360
Articulate 360 is an authoring tool for building your own e-learning content, including interactive courses and assessments. It’s the right choice when you need bespoke training that none of the off-the-shelf platforms cover.
Resources to Support Skills, Careers and Habits
LinkedIn’s research shows that employees who set career goals engage with learning around four times more than those who don’t, which makes career development and habit-building resources worth building into your pathways rather than treating as a nice-to-have.
Career and Pathways Resources
16. Amazing If
The hosts of the Amazing If podcast also wrote The Squiggly Career, both focused on building a career that doesn’t follow a straight line. They’re a useful signpost for employees thinking about lateral moves or skills-based progression rather than a traditional promotion ladder.
17. Atomic Habits
James Clear’s Atomic Habits gives a practical framework for building small, repeatable habits, including the habit of regular learning itself. It’s worth recommending to anyone who finds fitting learning in harder than the learning itself.
Micro-Learning and Habit-Building Resources
18. Tiny Habits
The Tiny Habits website runs a five-day programme to help people build new habits in manageable steps. It’s a quick way to nudge employees towards treating learning as a regular part of their week rather than an occasional event.
19. Curated TED Talk Playlists
TED talks run from ten to twenty minutes and cover everything from communication skills to emerging technology, which makes them easy to slot into a short break. Building your own curated playlists, rather than leaving people to search, connects individual talks to the skills your strategy is actually trying to build.
20. Curated Podcast Playlists
Business and HR podcasts work well for learning during a commute or a walk, when sitting down for a formal course isn’t realistic. As with TED talks, the value comes from curating a playlist around a specific skill or theme rather than leaving the choice entirely open.
For more on what today’s learners actually want from L&D, see our piece on 7 tips to create L&D that appeals to the modern learner, which pairs well with the framework in 10 ways to modernise your learning and development strategy.
L&D Resources for HR and Learning Professionals
HR and L&D professionals need their own learning resources just as much as the people they’re developing, and it’s an area that’s easy to deprioritise in favour of everyone else’s training.
Professional Bodies and Journals
21. CIPD
The CIPD’s knowledge hub covers factsheets, guides and research on most current HR and L&D topics, written specifically for the profession. It’s a reliable first stop when you need an evidence-based view rather than a vendor’s take.
22. Harvard Business Review
HBR publishes regularly updated articles, podcasts and videos on leadership, strategy and organisational behaviour, available through a monthly subscription. It’s particularly useful when building the business case for your strategy, since the content speaks directly to the executives you’re trying to influence.
23. HR Magazine
HR Magazine publishes daily editorial features on HR news, policy and practice. It’s a quick way to stay on top of what’s shifting in the wider industry without committing to long-form reading.
24. HR Zone
HR Zone focuses on helping the HR community adapt to an evolving industry, with a resources section covering current trends in more depth. It works well alongside HR Magazine for a broader view of the sector.
HR/L&D Podcasts and Communities
25. Talent Tales
The Talent Tales podcast gathers stories from HR professionals bringing design thinking into their work. It’s a useful source of practical examples to bring into your own strategy conversations, rather than abstract theory.
Let’s Talk Talent Resources
26. Let’s Talk Talent’s Blog and Whitepapers
We publish free downloadable whitepapers, checklists and insightful blog content covering L&D strategy, careers and performance and more. They’re built to be used directly, rather than read once and filed away.
27. Let’s Talk Talent’s Webinars and WhatsApp Courses
We also run free HR Webinars and WhatsApp courses on topics including career progression, succession planning and current HR themes. They’re a low-effort way for HR and L&D professionals to keep their own development moving alongside everyone else’s.
If you want a deeper bench of support beyond what’s listed here, our people development consultancy work and performance development whitepaper go further into building these resources into a coherent programme.
Internal, User-Generated and Commissioned Learning Content
External platforms can only get you so far. None of them are built around your organisation’s specific products, processes or culture, which is where internal and commissioned content earns its place: videos from in-house experts, forums and discussion groups run by staff, employee resource groups, a shared wiki or intranet space, or content commissioned for a skills gap nothing off the shelf covers.
The aim isn’t to collect as many tools as possible. It’s to build a toolkit that actually gets used, which usually comes down to a clear process rather than more options:
- Start with your learning and development strategy and the key skills outcomes it needs to deliver
- Map your existing L&D resources, internal and external, and identify where the gaps are
- Select a handful of core platforms and tools that fit your size, budget and tech stack, rather than trying to use everything on this list at once
- Build curated content lists by priority topic and audience, pulling from both external platforms and internal material
- Make everything easy to find, whether that’s through your LMS, an intranet hub or simple manager signposting
- Track usage and impact, then adjust the mix as priorities change
Our piece on how to create high performance from your L&D goes further into turning this kind of toolkit into measurable results.
How Let’s Talk Talent Can Support Your L&D Ecosystem
We don’t sell software, and we’re not going to pretend one platform on this list will solve your L&D strategy on its own. What we do is help organisations design the ecosystem around it: the strategy, the pathways and the experiences that turn a list of resources into something people actually use.
- Designing learning and development strategies that blend platforms, internal content and experiences
- People development consultancy to turn resources into pathways, programmes and campaigns
- Performance and careers work that links L&D to progression and high performance
- Workshops for managers on using L&D tools and resources in day-to-day coaching
If you want to talk through where your current L&D ecosystem has gaps, get in touch with the Let’s Talk Talent team, or download our L&D strategy whitepaper to start mapping it yourself.
FAQs About L&D Resources and Tools
What are L&D resources and why do they matter?
L&D resources are the platforms, tools, content and communities that help people build skills and apply them at work. They matter because skill building rarely happens through one channel alone, so a useful mix gives people more ways to learn in a way that fits their role and schedule.
How do I choose the right learning and development platforms for my organisation?
Start with the skills gaps your strategy needs to close, then pick platforms that match your audience’s level, budget and existing tech stack rather than the platform with the longest course catalogue. A handful of well-used tools beats a long list nobody opens.
What’s the difference between an LMS and an LXP?
An LMS (Learning Management System) is built for assigning, tracking and administering formal training, while an LXP (Learning Experience Platform) is built around personalised, self-directed content discovery, often pulling in resources from multiple platforms at once. Many organisations now run both, using the LMS for compliance and structured learning and the LXP for everything more exploratory.
How can small organisations build a strong L&D toolkit on a budget?
Lean on free or low-cost platforms such as Coursera, Khan Academy or LinkedIn Learning for general skills, and put your budget towards the things that are harder to source externally, such as internal content or material commissioned for your business specifically. A small, well-curated set of resources gets more use than a large, generic one.
How do I measure whether my L&D resources are working?
Track usage alongside outcomes that matter to the business, such as skills applied on the job, performance change or internal mobility, rather than relying on logins or completions alone. Our guide on how to create high performance from your L&D goes into this in more detail.
