The results of the survey, which involved over 1,000 delegates from major UK public and private sector organisations, enabled KnowledgePool to create 'national average' scores for post-training feedback, such as whether the learning has been transferred to the workplace, how it has impacted on the performance of the learner and the support provided by the line manager.

According to the study, 70% of training delegates claim they have the opportunity to apply their learning, regardless of the subject matter. Of the 30% who did not get the opportunity to apply what they learned, five out of six - that is, 25% of the total delegates - say they are not supported by their line manager.


"Most training delivery is evaluated at Kirkpatrick Level 1 using 'happy sheets' and the results are invariably good," said Kevin Lovell, Learning Strategy Director at KnowledgePool. "But Level 1 happens before delegates have the chance to apply what they've learned. Ask them two months later whether they've used what they learned, how much line manager support they've received, or about their perceived performance improvement, and you often get a very different picture. This survey clearly illustrates that line managers play a pivotal role because where their support is evident, there is a much higher transfer of learning to the workplace."

This trend is confirmed by individual performance improvement results. KnowledgePool's national average scores show that delegates who are given an opportunity to apply what they learned reported performance-improvement scores roughly double that of delegates who had no occasion to apply what they learned. Similarly, delegates receiving line manager support enhanced performance by around 30% compared to those without line manager support.