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A new partnership between CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development and Towards Maturity, the learning and development research company, will deploy robust research to help drive better practice in the design, delivery and application of learning and development in the workplace.

The strategic partnership, unveiled today, is built around a commitment from the two organisations to jointly contributing to each others’ research on current practice and new innovation in learning and development.  This, they argue, is needed to ensure truly effective learning cultures are developed more consistently, contributing to organisational success and individual advancement.  Immediate priorities will include:

• CIPD urging its members to participate in Towards Maturity’s highly respected annual Benchmarking Survey. L&D leaders can use the Benchmark to confidentially review their current learning strategy athttps://www.research.net/s/TMBenchmarkCIPD14 before 31July. All participants will receive their Personalised Benchmark Report with comparisons analysis and activity recommendations in early September.
• Towards Maturity participating in a series of forthcoming CIPD research projects on the key drivers of change in learning and development.

Over time, the partnership will build on the shared vision and insight of the two organisations, driven by research, to develop the most effective tools for improving practice and closing knowledge and capability gaps in the delivery of learning and development.

Andy Lancaster, Head of Learning and Development at the CIPD, said: “CIPD and Towards Maturity are united by a shared commitment to using excellent research to drive better practice in learning and development, for the benefit of businesses and the people they employ.

“There is much good and even great practice in learning and development.  However, it can still be difficult for organisations to gain clarity on what their most effective activities and approaches to learning and development are, what gaps they have, and how best to address these gaps.  Some of the biggest challenges businesses and economies face right now involve skills shortages, and the consequent need to develop and better utilise skills in the workplace.  The pace of change and scale of global competition today means significant and ongoing changes are needed in the way we approach learning and development.  The necessary responses to this need for change must be based on the very best, deepest and most broadly based research available.  By working together CIPD and Towards Maturity bring an unrivalled level of collective reach and credibility, which will make a real difference to the speed with which innovative and effective best practice in L&D can be developed and promoted.

“This partnership with Towards Maturity is yet another clear signal from the CIPD of the importance we attach to doing more to support learning and development professionals to remain at the cutting edge of thinking and practice.”

Laura Overton, Managing Director of Towards Maturity, said: “Modernising L&D in today’s fast changing economic climate is not about redesigning the course, the model of learning or even the technology, it is about delivering results. For the last 10 years, the Towards Maturity Benchmark Study has provided independent evidence to help L&D professionals modernise their learning strategy in order to deliver those results faster.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with the CIPD who share our vision that rich research should be freely available to any L&D professional looking for an evidence-based approach to support learning innovation.

“We look forward to working together with CIPD, our Ambassadors and our wider industry supporter network to use research to encourage the ongoing professionalism of the L&D industry.”