Learning vs Training: What is the Difference?

By: kathryn-stewart

On: March 29, 2022

If you’re responsible for employee development, you’ve likely wondered about the real difference between learning vs training—and why your programs don’t always change behavior, even when completion rates look great.

To make this distinction clearer, let’s start with a quick activity. For each situation below, would you label it as learning or training?

Susan’s job performance improved after she attended a conference on industry trends.
Sixty-seven employees completed their company’s annual biohazards compliance course.
Alan is now able to handle customers’ common objections because, after several months on the job, he has gained experience doing so successfully.
Lupe created an eLearning course to educate employees on the features of their company’s new product.

Here’s how these examples break down:

Situation 1: Learning
Susan attended a formal development opportunity and then applied new knowledge on the job. Her improved performance signals that learning actually occurred.
Situation 2: Training
We know that employees completed a training course, but we don’t know if anything changed in their behavior, confidence, or performance. This is training without proven learning.
Situation 3: Learning
Through informal, on-the-job experiences, Alan has learned how to achieve his performance goals. He may not have taken a course, but he has clearly developed skills and capabilities.
Situation 4: Training…hopefully leading to learning
Lupe created a training course, but her goal is for employees to truly learn about the new product and use that knowledge effectively. The course is training; whether it results in learning depends on how it’s designed and delivered.

So, what exactly is the distinction between learning vs training?

Is It Training or Learning?

In the context of workplace training, we can define these two concepts as follows:

Training is a tool, process, or structured experience designed to help people learn—most often in the workplace.
Common training topics include:
- Role-specific or company onboarding
- Compliance requirements such as safety practices
- Skill-based content like how to perform key job functions
Learning goes deeper than attendance or completion.
Instructional expert Connie Malamed, the eLearning Coach, shares multiple definitions of learning, including this one from Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel:

“Acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities.”

In other words, learning vs training can be summarized this way:

Training is what you deliver.
Learning is what your people retain and apply.

Training can—and should—lead to learning. But learning is not an automatic outcome of training.

When Does Training Actually Lead to Learning?

Learning happens when people are:

Mentally and emotionally engaged
Able to see relevance and value in the content
Encouraged to apply what they’ve learned to real situations

Unfortunately, much workplace training fails to meet these criteria. Think about the last compliance course you completed—maybe it was bloodborne pathogen awareness or preventing sexual harassment.

You might remember:

The general topic
That you had to complete it by a certain date

But can you recall:

The specific learning objectives?
Any meaningful changes you made in your behavior or decisions afterward?
A moment when you applied that training in a real scenario?

If not, that’s a sign the experience was training without true learning.

Workplace training is already a common part of employees’ experience. With better design and delivery, workplace learning—actual, measurable behavior change—can become just as common.

Is Learning the Result of Your Training Program?

If you’re evaluating your training programs, a key question is:

Are we measuring training or learning?

In our previous article, we explored how to:

Identify clear business goals
Write and follow measurable learning objectives
Focus on the right metrics to evaluate success

These elements are essential if you want your training to result in learning. Programs designed without them may deliver content, but they rarely deliver change.

Remember:

Just because training exists does not mean that learning has taken place.

Common, easily tracked metrics such as:

Number of course participants
Number of video plays
Number of resource downloads
Number of people who passed a test

do not automatically correlate with learning. They tell you what was completed, not what was understood, retained, or applied.

To bridge the gap between learning vs training, learners must be cognitively active.

From Passive Training to Active Learning

Take a closer look at what your learners are actually doing during your programs:

Are they passively sitting in a classroom?
Simply watching videos?
Clicking “Next” in an eLearning course with no interaction beyond completion?

If so, ask yourself:

How are these activities teaching your content?
Where are learners being asked to reflect, practice, and apply?
How do you connect the material to their real work and responsibilities?

To turn training into learning, your programs should:

Include opportunities for practice, feedback, and reflection
Use realistic scenarios and job-relevant examples
Encourage learners to connect concepts to their daily tasks
Measure performance outcomes, not just completions

When you design with these principles in mind, the difference between learning vs training starts to disappear—because your training is finally doing what it was meant to do: create lasting learning and better performance.

One Final Thought on Learning vs Training

We’ll leave you with one final situation to consider that will help distinguish learning vs training. Think back to a place where you have experienced a truly impactful learning culture. Maybe it was a favorite teacher of yours from school days, or a job that truly prepared you for the demands of your role, or a coach who gave you new skills that led you to victory. Reflect on the culture of that environment; you felt supported, encouraged, mentally challenged, you could take risks and you likely succeeded and were rewarded when you did so.

Now ask yourself, does your workplace training create an impactful learning culture? Or does it simply exist?