The Personalised Dilemma: Modularity vs Standardisation

If learning were on the menu, would you order the chef's special or build your own feast? Scarlet Woods explores a delicious dilemma shaping the future of workplace learning.

Key Takeaways

Should workplace learning follow a set path, or be built from modules? This article compares standardised learning, which gives everyone the same experience and a consistent baseline, with modular learning, which lets organisations add, swap or reshape content as priorities change. It argues the answer isn’t either/or: a core of standard learning, supported by flexible pathways, lets organisations adapt without losing sight of their goals.

It’s for L&D and HR leaders and learning designers deciding how to structure programmes for teams with different goals, especially in organisations moving towards skills-based ways of working.

Imagine you’re dining at a restaurant. One option is the chef’s tasting menu, where a carefully curated sequence of courses arrives in a specific order, designed to create a complete experience. On the other side of the restaurant there’s a table full of tapas, where diners are choosing the dishes that appeal to them, mixing and matching flavours to suit their tastes. Which one are you going for?

Learning design is facing a remarkably similar question. As change becomes the new normal, learning architects are under increasing pressure to become more agile. The question is no longer simply what people need to learn, but how the learning should be served.

So, which makes for better learning? A carefully orchestrated experience where every learner follows a consistent path, or a personalised framework that can be shaped around changing business needs?

It is a question that sits at the heart of modern learning design, and one that — unsurprisingly — has no universal answer.

The Set Menu Approach

For many years, standardisation has been the hallmark of workplace learning, and consistency has been its greatest strength. By giving every learner the same experience, organisations can establish a common baseline of knowledge, ensure compliance, and measure outcomes with confidence. For global organisations or highly regulated industries, that level of consistency is often essential.

Yet, just as a tasting menu cannot cater to every palate, a single learning experience — or even a pathway tailored to a particular role or career level — cannot meet every learner’s needs. While role-based and level-specific programmes offer greater relevance than one-size-fits-all solutions, they still assume that individuals within those groups share the same priorities. In reality, today’s organisations are made up of teams with very different goals: a finance team adopting new regulations, a marketing department experimenting with new workflows, and an operations function improving efficiency with AI all require different capabilities. Even within those teams, learners bring varied experiences. As a result, when everyone follows the same pathway, some content will inevitably feel more relevant than others, making it harder to sustain engagement and maximise impact.

The Freedom to Choose

Modular learning takes a different approach. Leveraging flexibility and personalisation, learning is designed as a collection of carefully crafted modules tailored to individuals, teams, or strategic priorities. Remember our delightful tapas table from earlier?  Each dish stands on its own, but together they create a meal that’s tailored to the table.

Need to support a new product launch? Add a module. Introduce new software? Swap in fresh content. Build up future leaders? Curate a pathway from existing learning assets alongside new specialist topics.

Instead of redesigning the entire programme, organisations can adapt individual components as priorities evolve. Agility doesn’t stop once the pathway has been designed, either. As learners progress, organisations gain valuable insight into what’s working and where confidence is growing. New modules can be introduced or priorities reshaped, allowing the learning journey itself to evolve rather than remaining fixed from day one.

This ability to adjust the experience as it unfolds is something traditional courses rarely offer. Rather than having a single opportunity to get learning right, pathways create space to further personalise the learning experience over time.

Research suggests this flexibility delivers tangible benefits. Organisations using adaptive, modular learning strategies have reported up to 40% faster upskilling and an average of 27% improvement in skill mastery.¹ When learners receive content that’s relevant to their immediate challenges, engagement and knowledge retention naturally become easier to achieve.

Of course, flexibility brings its own considerations. Without strong governance, modular programmes can lose their sense of direction. Learners may find it hard to connect individual learning experiences into tangible results, whilst organisations risk losing the consistency that underpins a shared learning culture.

The Best of Both Worlds

As organisations continue to embrace skills-based ways of working, the conversation is shifting from delivering learning to building capability. Deloitte research found that 81% of business leaders believe a skills-based approach increases their organisation’s potential for growth, highlighting the need for learning that is both consistent and adaptable.²

Rather than choosing between standardisation and modularity, many organisations are combining both. A strong foundation of core learning, supported by flexible pathways that evolve with business needs, enables organisations to respond to change without losing sight of their strategic goals.

Just like a great dining experience, success is not about choosing between the tasting menu and the tapas. It is about knowing when each belongs on the table.

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Written by

Scarlet Woods

Scarlet is a passionate learner who thrives both individually and as part of a team. After recently graduating with a BA in English, she particularly enjoyed pairing literature with a psychoanalytic twist, exploring why certain behaviours fuel certain outcomes.Scarlet is eager to channel her curiosity, passion, and creativity to embrace new opportunities and challenges.She’s excited about what lies ahead at Cegos and looks forward to contributing to the team’s success.

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