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Get the White Paper: Learning Debt — The Hidden Cost of Short-Term Training

This white paper introduces the concept of Learning Debt—a powerful framework for identifying how short-term training decisions create long-term costs, inefficiencies, and risk. It offers real-world examples, practical tools, and a decision-making model to help you design learning that scales and lasts. Whether you're an L&D leader or instructional designer, this is a must-read for anyone serious about sustainable learning strategy.
White Paper contents

What you'll find inside

Download your copy of our White Paper today and take a big step in managing your learning workflow.

A Definition of Learning Debt

Learn how short-term training fixes can quietly accumulate cost, complexity, and risk — and why this concept, widely used in IT as technical debt, is long overdue in L&D.


Real-World Cases of Hidden Debt

Read how even well-designed programs can create learning debt when they're built without reuse, scalability, or alignment in mind — and what that means for teams, tools, and timelines.

A Decision Framework for Managing Debt

Use our 3-question model to evaluate whether speed is worth the tradeoff, what rework will cost, and how to design with future flexibility in mind — so you can lead smarter, not just faster.
White Paper author

A word from the author

I wrote this white paper because I kept seeing the same pattern: well-intentioned training solutions that solve today’s problem but create tomorrow’s mess. Learning Debt gives us language, structure, and tools to spot those patterns early — and do something about them.

This concept isn’t widely recognized in L&D — but it’s foundational in IT, where technical debt is treated as a serious risk. It’s time we brought the same level of clarity and discipline to learning strategy. If you're responsible for training at scale, this paper will shift how you think.”

— David Stevens, Founder, Advanced Learning Strategies
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