What's Trending in Workplace Learning: August–September 2026

Every 60 days, we look at what people across our network are actually choosing to watch and learn on LearningPlanet. This is the second instalment of that series, and it's our biggest yet: we've expanded from four regions to six, adding Canada and India alongside Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.

The headline finding hasn't changed from our first report: the specific topics vary widely by region, but the underlying drivers behind them are remarkably consistent. Below is a region-by-region look at what's trending, and our read on why.

United Kingdom: Cybersecurity, Managing Stress, Environmental Sustainability

UK learners are prioritising cybersecurity as AI-generated phishing and deepfake scams continue to evolve faster than most annual training cycles can keep pace with — pushing teams toward shorter, more frequent refreshers instead. Alongside that, stress management content is seeing sustained interest as economic uncertainty and return-to-office friction weigh on day-to-day wellbeing, while tightening ESG reporting expectations are turning sustainability literacy into a workplace-wide requirement rather than a specialist topic.

United States: Listening Skills, Communication Skills, Customer Service Excellence

As AI absorbs more routine tasks, human-centred skills are becoming the differentiator — and it shows in what US learners are watching. Listening and communication both sit in the category of skills analysts expect to keep growing in demand through the rest of the decade, and customer service excellence is getting fresh attention as organisations look for ways to strengthen the human layer of the customer experience.

Australia: R U OK?, Communication Skills, Sexual Harassment at Work

Australia's top course this period is R U OK?, and the timing isn't a coincidence — R U OK? Day, the country's national day of action for checking in on mental health, falls on 10 September 2026, right in the middle of this reporting window. Sexual harassment prevention training also remains a priority as Australia's positive duty laws stay in full effect, while communication skills continue to trend as hybrid teams place a growing premium on clarity and confidence.

New Zealand: Managing Stress, Communication Skills, Showing Empathy

New Zealand's top three point squarely at workplace wellbeing. With a significant share of NZ businesses reporting stress as a major workplace issue, practical stress-management content continues to see strong demand. Interest in empathy training reflects a broader shift in 2026 wellbeing research, which consistently points to managers — not policy — as the biggest lever for employee mental health.

Canada: Attitude, Customer Service Excellence, Communication Skills

New to this report, Canada's top course is Attitude, which tracks closely with economic uncertainty and shifting trade conditions pushing employers to invest in positivity and resilience content for customer-facing teams. Canada is also one of the fastest-growing nearshore customer experience hubs in North America, which is reflected directly in demand for customer service training.

India: Listening Skills, Active Listening, Appreciation in the Workplace

Also new this period, India's results tell a single connected story. India's customer experience and BPO sector is currently the fastest-growing outsourcing market globally, which explains the strong demand for foundational listening skills as part of onboarding at scale. Active listening is trending as agents increasingly move into supervision and exception-handling roles that AI can't cover. And with attrition remaining one of the defining challenges for India's CX industry, appreciation and recognition training is being used as a practical, low-cost retention lever.

The Throughline

Six regions, twelve different top-line topics — and three shared instincts running underneath all of them:

• Staying safe and compliant, as regulation and AI-driven threats continue to rise

• Staying well, as wellbeing and resilience remain front of mind

• Communicating better, as human skills become the clearest differentiator in an AI-augmented workplace

If there's one takeaway from this edition, it's that "workplace trends" aren't really global. They're local, shaped by regulation, labour markets and cultural moments specific to each region — and they shift fast enough that a 60-day window is often enough to see the movement.

[Download the full regional breakdown — including course rankings and supporting data — here: DOWNLOAD LINK]