UK’s top 100 employers for workplace learning and future skills revealed
New national ranking highlights organisations leading on skills development as demand grows for AI and emerging capabilities
London, 30 April 2026 – The UK’s top employers for workplace learning and future skills have been revealed, with a new national ranking highlighting the organisations setting the standard for developing their workforce.
The UK Learning Power 100, developed by Lyceum Education Group in collaboration with FT Longitude, is the UK’s first ranking focused entirely on learning and development at work. The full report and rankings can be accessed here.
The index ranks 100 UK employers on how well they are building skills, supporting career progression and preparing their workforce for the future. Organisations are assessed across six key areas, including leadership commitment to learning, workforce and skills planning, how training is delivered, access to opportunities across the workforce, how impact is measured, and the overall culture of continuous learning.
Together, these areas provide a clear picture of how organisations are turning learning investment into real workforce capability.
The top 10 organisations identified in the ranking are:
Unilever
PwC UK
NatWest Group
Smith & Nephew
BAE Systems
Arriva Group
Savills Ltd
Lloyds Banking Group
Standard Chartered Bank
Freshfields
The ranking spans a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, professional services, technology and education, reflecting the strategic importance of learning and development across all sectors.
Skills ambition outpacing capability
Alongside the index, research of 2,000 UK employees highlights a gap between ambition and reality when it comes to future skills.
While 70% of organisations report planning for the skills and roles they will need in the long term, satisfaction with training in emerging areas such as AI, cybersecurity and sustainability remains significantly lower than for more established technical skills.
Nearly half (48%) of employees rate their skills in these areas as “adequate” or “poor”, and 29% say they are dissatisfied with their most recent training.
However, when training is delivered well, it has a clear impact – 79% say it increases their confidence and motivation, while 76% say it improves their ability to do their job and progress in their career.
“One of the biggest things we hear is that people don’t have time to learn. But the real question is: what will make learning feel worthwhile? We are trying to tap into people’s intrinsic motivation – what they want to learn, why it matters to them, and how to make it easy to access and genuinely relevant.” commented Gavin McQuillan, Head of Learning and Development at NatWest Group.
What top employers do differently
The highest-ranked organisations show a more structured and measurable approach to learning and development.
Among the top 30 organisations, 97% have learning strategies owned at a C-suite or Board level, and 87% ringfence dedicated learning and development budgets, compared to just 53% of lower-ranked employers.
They are also far more likely to track and evaluate performance. Almost all (97%) measure learning through clear metrics, versus 57% of lower-ranked organisations. Similarly, 87% benchmark against competitors (compared to 60%), and 77% actively measure the success of new learning initiatives, versus 47%.
This suggests the gap between leading organisations and those falling behind is less about ambition, and more about how learning is governed, measured and embedded across the business.
Graham Gaddes, CEO at Lyceum Education Group: “The organisations recognised in the UK Learning Power 100 demonstrate what is possible when learning and development is treated as a strategic asset rather than a support function. They are setting the standard for how investment in people can drive performance, resilience, and long‑term growth, and they deserve real recognition for the progress they are making.
At Lyceum Education Group, we are proud to have commissioned this research. As the parent brand of BPP Education Group and a global portfolio of specialist education businesses, we work at the intersection of education, skills, and workforce transformation, and our experience gives us a unique vantage point on what great learning looks like in practice.
Our ambition is that the UK Learning Power 100 sets a new standard in learning and development, inspires continued progress across the market, and raises expectations for what a good skills-first organisation looks like.”
