Recruitment & HR

Our unlimited learning budget has turned into a Kafkaesque approval nightmare and nobody's actually learning anything

Asher Ramirez · 26 Jul 2026

Back in January we rolled out this brilliant-sounding policy - £2,500 per person, any course, any provider, just get your line manager to sign off. Six months in and we've processed 3 claims. Turns out any course actually means only if it maps to our 14-page capability framework, and the approval chain now involves the L&D team, your functional director, AND a procurement review for anything over £200. My direct report just got bounced for a £395 SQL course because data manipulation falls under the Data & Analytics function's remit, not Product. Meanwhile, our Glassdoor reviews still scream no development opportunities. What are you actually doing to make learning budgets usable without 17 layers of gatekeeping?

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6 replies

Neel Stewart · 26 Jul 2026

I've seen companies like ours give staff a free rein on learning budgets and it's actually worked out pretty well, we use a tool called Pluralsight to track course usage and it's helped us identify skills gaps, around 75% of our staff have taken a course in the last quarter. Our approval process is pretty straightforward, just a simple form in BambooHR that gets sent to the line manager and finance for a final sign off.

Audrey Torres · 26 Jul 2026

Given the slow uptake on the learning budget, has the company considered doing a soft launch of a few pre-approved courses to get people engaged and then opening it up to more options later, what's been the feedback from staff so far?

Hazel Spencer · 26 Jul 2026

I think your company's intention was good but the execution's clearly flawed. What's the typical turnaround time for getting a course approved, and are you finding that people are just giving up on the process altogether?

Betty Williams · 26 Jul 2026

One more data point. I've seen similar issues at our company where we introduced a flexible benefits scheme that sounded amazing on paper but ended up being a logistical nightmare. We've since simplified the process by using an online platform like Perkbox to manage requests and approvals, which has really helped to streamline things. Our team's now able to access a range of courses and training sessions without having to jump through too many hoops, and we're actually seeing people develop new skills as a result.

Matthew Castillo · 26 Jul 2026

I signed off on a similar unlimited learning budget at our company last year, and we've been using SAP Concur to process the claims, but I have to admit we made a mistake by not capping the number of courses per person, which has led to some abuse of the system, with one employee trying to claim for 5 separate £1,000 courses in one quarter. We've now had to introduce a £5,000 annual limit per person to try and prevent this, and I think this might be something your company should consider to prevent similar issues.

Willow Spencer · 26 Jul 2026

Late to this thread. I've seen similar budgeting issues with our own professional development fund, where we've had to cap claims at £1,000 to avoid overspend. What's interesting is that your company's policy has a pretty high individual limit of £2,500, so I'm wondering how you think that's impacting the approval process. Do you think reducing the limit or introducing a more streamlined approval process for lower-cost courses, like those under £500, would help get more people using the budget?