Education and Training Manager

Education and Training Managers design and run the systems that develop employees — from onboarding programs to leadership development, technical skills training, compliance certifications, and sometimes soft skills workshops. The role splits between designing curriculum (or sourcing it from vendors), delivering it when that's appropriate, and managing the organizational work of getting busy people to actually show up and learn. That last piece is often harder than the content itself.

Needs analysis is where the work starts. Good training managers don't just deliver whatever's been requested — they diagnose whether training is actually the right intervention for the performance gap. If people aren't following the process because the process is bad, training won't fix it. That consultative posture — helping business leaders understand what will and won't be solved by a training program — is a skill that differentiates effective L&D professionals from order-takers.

Vendor management is a constant. Most training programs involve external content providers, LMS platforms, video production companies, or facilitators. Managing those relationships — evaluating content quality, negotiating contracts, integrating platforms with HRIS systems, tracking completion rates — is the operational backbone of the role alongside the more visible facilitation work.