What this life looks like
You grow the capabilities of the people who make organisations work. Training and Development Managers design and deliver learning programmes for employees — building the skills, knowledge, and behaviours that organisations need to achieve their goals. In Africa's growing corporate and development sectors, investment in employee development is accelerating rapidly, creating significant demand for skilled learning professionals.
What she actually does
You assess organisational learning needs, develop annual training plans and learning budgets, design or commission training programmes for different employee groups, manage relationships with external training providers, facilitate training sessions yourself, evaluate the impact of learning interventions on employee performance, manage learning management systems, support talent development pipelines, and report on training effectiveness to senior leadership.
Where you can work
| Sector | Places in Africa |
|---|---|
| Corporates | All major African companies with 100+ employees maintain training and development functions: banks, telecoms, FMCG |
| Development Organisations | AfDB, UNDP, USAID, GIZ — development organisations invest heavily in staff capacity building |
| Consulting Firms | L&D consulting firms and management consultancies offering training solutions to corporate clients |
| NGOs | Larger NGOs have dedicated capacity building and staff development teams — Oxfam, Save the Children, Plan Africa |
Why it matters in Africa
African businesses are investing more in employee development as they compete regionally and globally for talent. Multinational companies require local training professionals who understand African workforces, learning styles, and cultural contexts. Development organisations and NGOs invest heavily in the capacity building of their staff and partner organisations. The shift to digital and blended learning has created new capabilities requirements for training professionals.
Your pathway in
- Study Human Resources, Education, Psychology, or Business Administration
- Pursue the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) Learning and Development qualification or similar professional certification
- Develop instructional design and facilitation skills alongside HR knowledge
- Build experience in both corporate training delivery and learning needs analysis
- Learn to use Learning Management Systems: SAP SuccessFactors, Cornerstone, Moodle — increasingly central to corporate L&D
Skills you will need
- Training needs analysis
- Learning programme design
- Facilitation skills
- Learning Management Systems
- Budget management
- Training evaluation (Kirkpatrick model)
A woman in this field
Amina J. Mohammed
Nigeria
Before her appointment as UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina served as Special Adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and as Nigeria's Minister of Environment — roles that required her to build the capacity and develop the skills of large, diverse teams across multiple African contexts. Her career demonstrates how investment in people's learning and development at every level — from school teachers to government officials to UN staff — is foundational to achieving large-scale institutional goals.
Take your first step
- Research the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) qualifications at cipd.org — they are the global gold standard for L&D professionals and have growing recognition across Africa
- Design a 30-minute training session on a topic you know well and deliver it to willing participants — facilitation is a skill that develops through practice
- Study the Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation (Reaction, Learning, Behaviour, Results) — it is the foundational framework for measuring whether training actually works
- Research what corporate learning management systems look like: explore the free version of Moodle at moodle.org to understand how organisations deliver and track employee learning
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