Learning And Development Consultant Business Partner

On a learning and development consultant business partner apprenticeship course, you’ll help recommend what a business can or should do in training and education.

A consultant, often known as a business partner, is a professional who blends commercial impact with learning and growth. They typically collaborate with HR, influencing key stakeholders and making choices and suggestions about what the business can do regarding training and education while remaining true to its strategic commercial goals and objectives.

As an apprentice, you’ll most likely acquire expertise in a specific technical, vocational, or behavioural field.

Your focus and in-depth expertise in a specific area, such as organisation development, digital/blended learning, resourcing, or people management, may increase since your job may be a generalist or specialised.

This apprenticeship will give you a strong foundation in all areas of learning and development, regardless of your area of specialisation.

What you’ll learn

On a learning and development consultant business partner apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Work as a learning and development business partner or consultant, if needed, across the whole organisation or key functions and stakeholders to get insight into existing capacity levels against future requirements, identifying organisational skills gaps and risks.
• Use several techniques to obtain the first brief from internal stakeholders and investigate and analyse data to validate the need for a learning intervention.
• Provide a range of relevant and innovative ideas logically and convincingly to get buy-in from top stakeholders.
• Develop a growth, learning, and succession plan for the organisation that solves skill shortages and fulfils future leadership needs in the partner and business areas while considering changing internal and external environments, business, and learner expectations.
• Encourage and cultivate a culture of lifelong learning and growth (e.g. through communication campaigns).
• Control the learning and knowledge transfer process.
• Facilitate collaborative and social learning with cutting-edge technological solutions.
• Encourage all levels of management to work together and accept responsibility for learning initiatives.
• Make action learning sets, coaching and mentoring programmes, and manage them.
• Ensure the quality of learning and training delivery by providing feedback to colleagues to ensure continuous growth of self and others.
• Create and manage a learning and development budget, project, or intervention and the resources required to see it through.
• Identify and analyse potential cost reductions to provide the best value.
• Effectively engage, negotiate, and manage third-party suppliers.
• Establish strong working relationships with business managers (using business language), colleagues, other learning and development departments, and appropriate external organisations to deliver business results via learning and development strategies and solutions.
• Confidently communicate with people at all levels, including senior management.
• Collaborate on succession planning, organisational development, and talent pipeline initiatives with senior leaders.
• Stimulate and encourage dialogue, discussion, learning, and decision-making, establish rapport and demonstrate the use of language patterns.
• Use a range of questioning and listening skills to generate creativity, discussion and debate, learning, and choices.
• Effectively manage challenging learner and group behaviours.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• Depending on the employer, but likely A-levels or equivalent qualifications or relevant experience for a higher apprenticeship.

Assessment methods

The apprentice will be assessed using two end-point assessment (EPA) methods:

• Work-based project with Professional Discussion
• Presentation and Q&A based on Learning Journal

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 5 Learning and Development Consultant and Business Partner Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.