academy+ launches Performance hub: skills-based learning for UK workplaces

academy+ is pleased to announce the launch of the Performance hub, now live as part of the Staff Skills academy+ platform. Designed to close the gap between training completion and real workplace behaviour change, the Performance hub brings a new dimension to the academy+ learning offer – one built around the practical, everyday skills that shape how people actually work.

The launch reflects the group’s continuing investment in building a comprehensive, relevant learning platform for UK businesses – from SMEs to enterprise organisations – and its commitment to addressing the real challenges that HR and L&D teams face.

Skills-based learning, built around how people really work

The Performance hub sits alongside the existing Staff Skills academy+ Course hub and is designed to complement – not replace – its compliance and knowledge-based training. Where traditional LMS learning handles the what – certifications, compliance, knowledge transfer – the Performance hub addresses the how: the communication habits, management behaviours and team dynamics that determine performance in practice.

Content is delivered across three formats, each designed for time-pressured workforces:

• Scenario-driven videos: showing real workplace behaviours in context, using relatable situations that reflect the challenges teams encounter every day.
• Expert podcasts: thought-provoking, jargon-free conversations with industry experts, exploring the mindset shifts and practical techniques that underpin lasting change.
• Interactive Skills Challenges: short, focused activities that sit alongside video and podcast content, helping learners apply what they’ve seen and heard before they need to use it at work.

All content is bite-sized and built to be revisited at the point of need – not just completed once and left behind. Learners can return to material when it’s relevant to a real situation they’re facing, making the learning far more likely to translate into changed behaviour.

Addressing a clear and growing need

The scale of the challenge facing UK employers is clear. 

• Research found that soft skills gaps – in areas like communication, interpersonal skills and problem-solving – cost the UK economy around £22 billion a year. 
• 54% of UK organisations are currently experiencing skills shortages, with 32% expecting this to continue worsening over the next five years, placing increased pressure on existing staff and limiting capacity for growth.
• And upwards of 13% of British workers already have significant deficiencies in essential employment skills – a figure that’s expected to rise to 22% by 2035. 

Improving access to training is part of the answer. But training that doesn’t translate into changed behaviour at work is only part of the solution. 

The knowing-doing gap

Knowledge is acquired but rarely applied. This isn’t a content problem – it’s a design problem. Learning that’s delivered once, in isolation, without reinforcement or application, is unlikely to shift how people work.

For many UK organisations – particularly in sectors like care, education, construction, manufacturing and the public sector – finding flexible, accessible development that employees will actually engage with and return to has remained a genuine challenge. The Performance hub has been built specifically to meet that need.

It covers four key areas:

• Personal Effectiveness: helping individuals get the best from themselves.
• Communication & Teamwork: building stronger ways of working together.
• Managing Performance & Productivity: equipping the workforce with practical, applicable tools.
• Culture & Wellbeing: supporting the conditions in which people and organisations thrive.

These aren’t peripheral topics. They’re the skills that sit underneath everything else – and that make the difference between a team that’s technically trained and one that genuinely performs.

Continuing to build for UK organisations

The Performance hub is the latest development in ongoing investment in the academy+ portfolio. Alongside the SCORM-compatible course library (launched in December 2025), the Wellbeing hub (launched in October 2024) and its core catalogue of 750+ CPD-certified courses, the Performance hub further strengthens the group’s position as a comprehensive learning partner for UK organisations.

Together, these developments demonstrate the company’s commitment to building a platform that moves with the needs of the market – not just meeting compliance requirements, but supporting the broader development of people and performance across UK businesses.

About academy+

academy+ provides compliance training alongside development and wellbeing resources to UK SMEs, public sector and enterprise organisations through Staff Skills academy+, and to individual learners through New Skills academy+.

To explore the Performance hub, please visit the Staff Skills academy+ website.

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