Learning and Development Manager Skills: Education and Business Integration

Introduction. Despite the constantly increasing demand for employee training, there is a lack of research dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of employer requirements for the skills of Learning and Development (LD) specialists in Russian companies. This gap includes a consideration of industry specifics, regional differences, and the functional features of various business areas. The aim of this research is to investigate employer demand for the skills of specialists organizing employee training and development in Russian companies. Materials and Methods. The research involved: a review of scientific, analytical, and corporate publications by Russian and international researchers, including research findings, statistical data, and reports on corporate training trends; content analysis of Learning and Development specialist vacancies to identify professional and advanced skills using the Russian vacancy aggregator “Rosnavyk”; clustering of vacancies across different salary ranges using the HeadHunter platform; and an investigation into the correlation between the proportion of vacancies and regional gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Russian Federation subjects using open data from Rosstat. Results. It was revealed that there is an increase in demand for specialists in personnel training and development in large companies and the need to develop their professional skills. The analysis of vacancy data shows the presence of two salary groups: line specialist and manager. The study of sectoral demand for training and development specialists revealed the predominant share of such vacancies in the tertiary sector of the economy, which corresponds to the high renewability of personnel in these industries and the relevance to the training of personnel focused on the provision of services to the population. The study of territorial demand for training and development specialists identified the leading regions by the largest share of these vacancies and showed their compliance with the list of regions with developed economy. Discussion and Conclusion. The practical significance of this article lies in the opportunity for company managers, HR-specialists and training and development specialists to assess the current requirements for employees in the field of training and development in Russia and compare them with global trends. The study will be useful for educational institutions developing training programs for training and development specialists, and may serve as a basis for the development of a separate professional standard for a training and development specialist.