Key figures: US organisations spent $102.8 billion on training in 2025, or $874 per learner (Training Magazine). ATD reports average direct learning spend of $1,254 per employee in 2024. The global train-the-trainer market was forecast to grow by about $1.15 billion over 2020–2024 at around 12% CAGR (Technavio). Instructor-led classroom training is still the largest single delivery mode at 28% of hours. Employers expect 39% of workers' skills to change by 2030 (WEF). US training and development specialists earned a median $69,280 in May 2025 (BLS).
Training spend and market size
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| US training expenditure rose 4.9% to $102.8 billion in 2025. | Training Magazine, 2025 Training Industry Report |
| US companies spent an average of $874 per learner in 2025, up from $774 in 2024. | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| Per-learner spend: small companies $1,091, midsize $782, large $468 (2025). | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| 41% of US organisations increased training budgets in 2025; 16% cut them. | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| Average direct learning spend was $1,254 per employee in 2024 (2023: $1,283). | ATD, 2025 State of the Industry |
| Average cost per learning hour used was $165 in 2024 (2023: $123). | ATD, 2025 State of the Industry |
| The global train-the-trainer market was forecast to grow by about $1.15 billion over 2020–2024, at a CAGR of around 12%. (This is the projected increase, not the total market size.) | Technavio, Global Train-the-Trainer Market 2020–2024 |
| Technavio named 7 leading vendors in the global train-the-trainer market in 2017: Langevin, The Ken Blanchard Companies, The Training Clinic, TrainSmart, Bodhih Training Solutions, Dale Carnegie Training and Velsoft. | Technavio via Business Wire, 12 Jul 2017 |
| The global corporate training market was forecast to grow by $56.92 billion over 2023–2027 at a 9.69% CAGR. | Technavio via PR Newswire, 2024 |
Training hours
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| US employees received an average of 40 hours of training in 2025 (2024: 47). | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| Employees used an average of 13.7 formal learning hours in 2024 (2023: 17.4), across 539 organisations. | ATD, 2025 State of the Industry |
Note: Training Magazine and ATD use different samples and definitions, so their hours figures are not directly comparable.
How training is delivered
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 28% of training hours were delivered by an instructor in a classroom in 2025, the largest single mode (2024: 27%). | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| 34% of training hours were delivered online or via computer-based technology. | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| 24% of hours were delivered by virtual classroom or webcast (2024: 27%). | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| Blended learning accounted for 22% of training hours (2024: 24%). | Training Magazine, 2025 |
| More than 60% of organisations used live in-person classrooms in 2024, and nearly 60% used live virtual classrooms. | ATD, 2025 State of the Industry |
| 37% of organisations use AI in their learning technologies, up from 25% the year before. | Training Magazine, 2025 |
What this means for trainers: live facilitation, in the room and online, still delivers about half of all training hours, which is why facilitation skill is the core of every train the trainer program.
L&D priorities and the skills gap
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| Employers expect 39% of workers' existing skill sets to be transformed or outdated over 2025–2030. | World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025 |
| If the world's workforce were 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030. | World Economic Forum, 2025 |
| 85% of employers plan to prioritise upskilling their workforce. | World Economic Forum, 2025 |
| 49% of L&D professionals say executives worry employees lack the skills to execute strategy. | LinkedIn Learning, 2025 Workplace Learning Report |
| 71% of L&D professionals are exploring, experimenting with or integrating AI into their work. | LinkedIn Learning, 2025 |
| 84% of employees agree that learning adds purpose to their work. | LinkedIn Learning, 2025 |
| Only 15% of employees say their manager helped them build a career plan in the past six months. | LinkedIn Learning, 2025 |
| 94% of employees said they would stay longer at a company that invested in their career development (2018 survey; often mis-cited as recent). | LinkedIn, 2018 Workplace Learning Report |
| 87% of executives and managers said their organisations had or expected skill gaps within a few years (2019 survey). | McKinsey, 2020 |
Learning science every trainer should know
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| Ebbinghaus measured forgetting as "savings" in relearning time: about one-third saved after roughly 9 hours, one-quarter after 6 days and one-fifth after 31 days (nonsense syllables, 1885). | Ebbinghaus, Memory, ch. 7 |
| A 2015 replication reproduced Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve over about 70 hours of learning. | Murre & Dros, PLOS ONE, 2015 |
| After one week, students who were tested recalled 56% of a passage versus 42% for those who restudied it. | Roediger & Karpicke, Psychological Science, 2006 |
| Repeated testing produced 61% one-week recall versus 40% for repeated study. | Roediger & Karpicke, 2006 (Exp. 2) |
| A meta-analysis of 317 experiments found spaced practice beats massed practice for long-term recall. | Cepeda et al., Psychological Bulletin, 2006 |
| Training professionals in 150 organisations estimated that 62% of employees apply training immediately, 44% after six months and 34% after a year (trainers' estimates, not measured transfer). | Saks & Belcourt, Human Resource Management, 2006 |
| Kirkpatrick's four levels (Reaction, Learning, Behavior, Results) were first published in 1959–60 in the ASTD's training journal. | Kirkpatrick Partners |
Why this matters: retrieval practice and spacing are the reason good programs include practice deliveries and a reinforcement journey after the classroom. Bodhih's TTT includes a 40-day micro-learning reinforcement journey for exactly this reason.
The trainer profession
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| US training and development specialists earned a median $69,280 a year in May 2025. | US Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| There were 472,500 US training and development specialist jobs in 2025, projected to grow 11% over 2025–2035, with about 46,000 openings a year. | US Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| US training and development managers earned a median $133,000 in May 2025; employment is projected to grow 6% over 2025–2035. | US Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| Corporate trainer salaries in India range from ₹2.2 lakh to ₹15.2 lakh a year, based on about 2,000 self-reported salaries. | AmbitionBox (updated Jul 2025) |
| India's PMKVY skilling scheme had trained or oriented 1.48 crore candidates since 2015 (as of 30 June 2024). | Government of India, PIB, Feb 2025 |
More on Indian pay: corporate trainer salary in India.
Statistics to avoid
- "People forget 70% within 24 hours" or "90% within a week". These are not Ebbinghaus's findings; he measured relearning savings for nonsense syllables.
- The "learning pyramid" (10% of what we read, 90% of what we teach). These retention rates have no research basis.
- 70-20-10 as a measured ratio. It comes from executives' recollections in 1980s research; treat it as a rule of thumb.
- Technavio's $1.15 billion as a market size. It is the forecast growth over 2020–2024.
How to cite this page
Please cite the original source for each figure and, if useful, this compilation: "Train the Trainer and Corporate Training Statistics (2026), Bodhih, trainthetrainercertification.in/train-the-trainer-statistics/".
Frequently asked questions
How big is the train the trainer market?
Technavio forecast the global train-the-trainer market to grow by about US$1.15 billion over 2020–2024, at a CAGR of around 12%. Estimates from other firms vary widely, so always note the source and period.
How much do companies spend on training per employee?
Training Magazine reports US companies spent $874 per learner in 2025. ATD reports average direct learning spend of $1,254 per employee in 2024. The two surveys use different samples and definitions.
What share of training is still delivered in a classroom?
28% of US training hours were delivered by an instructor in a classroom in 2025, the largest single mode, with a further 24% in virtual classrooms (Training Magazine 2025 Training Industry Report).
Is it true that people forget 70% of training within 24 hours?
No. That figure is a distortion of Ebbinghaus's 1885 research, which measured savings in relearning nonsense syllables. Forgetting is real, which is why spacing and retrieval practice matter, but the exact percentages are a myth.