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title: Learning & Development
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## Introduction

Welcome to the Learning & Development (L&D) page at GitLab! L&D is an essential part of any organization's growth, success and overall business strategy. We want to support the growth of our GitLab team-members' competencies, skills and knowledge by providing them with the tools they need and also the opportunities to progress their own personal and professional development.  

## GitLab Learning & Development Principles

1. **Meaningful and relevant content.** We deliver learning solutions that drive the development and growth of team members throughout their life cycle at GitLab.
1. **Values aligned.** Our learning solutions reinforce GitLab’s values, and foster continuous learning and curiosity.
1. **Diverse approaches to learning.** We apply a blended learning model for learning solutions, and adapt to various learning needs.
1. **Community.** We make our L&D offerings available to the public, aligned to our mission that everyone can contribute.

## Learning Sessions

### Live Learning 
Live Learning sessions will be conducted on a monthly basis. There will be a Zoom video conference set up for each session. Official dates and topics will be added to the [schedule](/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/learning-sessions/#live-learning-schedule) as confirmed.

Sessions will use the following format for 25 minute sessions: 
* 10 minutes - introduction/content 
* 10-15 minutes - Q&A 

Sessions will use the following format for 50 minute sessions: 
* 10 minutes - introduction/content 
* 20 minutes - breakout session
* 15 minutes - debrief
* 5 minutes - conclusion  

### Action Learning
[Action Learning](https://wial.org/action-learning/) sessions are designed to give team members a place to practice coaching skills by helping others work through specific challenges. Official dates and topics will be added to the [schedule](/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/learning-sessions/#action-learning-schedule) as confirmed.

Format for 25 minute sessions: 
* 3 minutes - introduction 
* 20 minutes - open up for attendees to present a current challenge they are facing. [Note: Other participants ask open ended questions about the challenge. No leading questions or advise is to be given. Once the person with the challenge feels they have received enough coaching, the group works on another participant's challenge 
* 2 minutes - conclusion 

### Leadership Forum
Leadership Forums provide opportunities for leaders to interact with peer groups in order to gain shared meaning and experiential learning on GitLab [leadership](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/leadership/) skills through a [storytelling](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984307000744) format. Each Leadership Forums is structured around one leadership topic and organized by leadership groups (e.g., Management Group, Director Group, S-Group, and E-group). 

Overview of the Leadership Forum design:

* Select a specific leadership topic (e.g., setting performance indicators, managing performance, creating an inclusive environment) for the Leadership Forum.
* Participants take an online test (e.g., Google Form) that is created for that topic and based on material in our Handbook.
* Organize the live Leadership Forum for participants who have completed the test for that leadership topic. The Leadership Forum is guided by an individual at the next level above the participants' leadership group (e.g., E-group member guides S-Group Leadership Forum, and so on).
* A 25-minute Leadership Forum should have a maximum of 5 participants.

Format for 25 minute Leadership Forum session:

* 1 minute for quick introductions
* 5 minutes for participants to ask questions about the leadership topic (from the handbook or from the test)
* 5 minutes for one participant to share one personal story about the leadership topic
* 4 minutes total for other participants (1 minute each) to share their reactions to that story ("This reminds me of..." This feels like....) Note: At no point in the Leadership Forum should participants give advice or ask clarifying questions of individuals who are telling their story.
* 10 minutes for other personal stories (3 minutes each)


## Career Development

Everyone's career development is different, but we have [outlined](/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/career-development/) what it can look like at GitLab. 

## Language Courses

If you have any language courses you would like to recommend or links to websites please add them to this section.

 - [The 8 Best Interactive Websites for Adults to Learn English](https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/best-websites-to-learn-english/)

There is also a way to practice foreign languages and ask for advice in several Slack channels, each dedicated to a specific language. You can find all these channels by searching for channels starting with #lang. If you're missing a channel for your target language, feel free to create one and mention it in #company-announcements so that fellow GitLab team-members can join too!

## New Manager Enablement Program

GitLab has a growing [resource](/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/manager-development/) to enable all team members transitioning to a manager role. It contains a link to a checklist, readings, and a form to help learning and development customize your development as a manager.

## Learning Management Systems

We are currently evaluating different learning management systems (LMS) to provide growth opportunities in a more structured, on-demand format. To help us continue to be [Handbook First](/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbook-first), course content should be structured in the following way:

- Text in handbook
- Video on Youtube
- Test and certification in an open source platform or something without a price per user/student so we can invite all our million of users without incremental costs.
- Don't put text or video in the platform itself, only link to the handbook and video, so we  have a [single source of truth](/handbook/handbook-usage/#style-guide-and-information-architecture) and don't end up with duplicate content that is hard to keep up to date.

## Common Ground: Harassment Prevention Training

All team members will be sent an invitation link from the people team to complete this training using [Will Interactive's LMS](https://learning.willinteractive.com/). Once you receive the email please do the following:

1. Underneath the green **Sign In** box, click on the **Sign Up Now** link (also in green) which is right after *Don't have an account?*
1. Enter in your name and GitLab email address
1. Create a password
1. You may be sent a link to verify your account
1. Once you have logged in successfully you will be taken to your home screen
1. Once there you should see the course title **GitLab for Supervisors: Common Ground Business for Supervisors** or **GitLab for Employees:Common Ground Business for Employees**, if you live in California the course title will include CA within it.
1. Click on that to begin the training.
1. For managers and leaders, this is 2 hours long, but you can stop and come back to it. For all other GitLab team-members, this is 1 hour long.
1. You can also use the navigation bar at the top right-hand side of screen for volume and screen settings
1. To the left and right of the center screen you should see this symbol: > which you can click on to move forward and back through the training
1. Once completed, please upload a copy of your certificate in BambooHR in the *verification* folder
1. You may also keep a record of the certificate for your own files. To create the certificate, click on *view* in the course title
1. Scroll down to *users* then click on *completion certificates* to download the PDFs

Our [Anti-Harassment Policy](/handbook/anti-harassment/?private=1) outlines guidelines, reporting and disciplinary action.  

If you have any questions or need further help please ping people ops in the `#peopleops` channels in slack.

## Performance Indicators

### Engagement Survey Growth and Development Score > X%

Questions related to growth and development on the semi-annual [Engagement Survey](/handbook/people-operations/engagement/) have a favorable score. The exact target is to be determined.

### Rate of internal job promotions > X%

Total number of [promotions](/handbook/people-operations/promotions-transfers/) in a rolling six month period/total number of employees. The target for this is to be determined.

### 12 month voluntary team member turnover related to growth < X%
This is calculated the same as [12 month voluntary team member turnover KPI](/handbook/people-operations/people-operations-metrics/#team-member-turnover) but is using the number of team members actively choosing to leave GitLab to growth and development related reasons only. The target is to be determined.