Building a Learning Culture: A supervisor's guide

A supervisor’s guide to building a learning culture

This guide provides a fundamental overview of what a learning culture is. It provides practical guidance for supervisors (or managers) to intentionally create and maintain a learning‑focused environment within their team.

Why the supervisor’s guide is important

The guide helps supervisors intentionally shape behaviours, systems and conversations that support continuous learning, adaptability and improvement. This leads to stronger performance, higher engagement and better outcomes for both individuals and the team.

Benefits

• Encourages continuous learning and improvement across the team.
• Helps supervisors consistently model and reinforce learning‑focused behaviours.
• Improves team performance by strengthening skills, knowledge and capability.
• Increases engagement and motivation by valuing growth and development.
• Supports adaptability and resilience in response to change and new challenges.

Learning culture

To build a learning culture in the APS we need a long-term shift. This shift is toward viewing learning and growth as part of who we are, how we do things and what we do. Making learning a habit increases our ability to: 

• rapidly evolve to change
• build resilience, retention, capability and future readiness. 

This guide defines what a learning culture means and how supervisors can purposely build a learning culture within their team.

Teams perform better when learning is expected, supported and visible.

A learning culture is a work environment where employees continuously build skills, share knowledge, reflect on experience, and improve performance as part of their everyday work.

Learning is not limited to formal training courses. It includes:

• on-the-job learning
• coaching and feedback
• problem-solving and reflection
• knowledge sharing and mentoring.

The Supervisor’s Role

Supervisors (or managers) are the key drivers of a learning culture.

Your role is to:

• Set clear expectations for learning
• Support skill development
• Create a safe environment to learn
• Link learning to team and organisational goals and outcomes

Key steps to building a learning culture

Step 1: Define what learning means in your team

Make learning clear and relevant.

Supervisors should:

• clearly explain what counts as learning
• reinforce that learning includes trying, reflecting and improving
• connect learning to performance and team goals.

Ask your team:

• What skills do we need to do our work well?
• How do we learn best on the job?
• What do you believe counts as learning?

Complete a learning culture self-assessment with your team. 

Step 2: Make learning part of what we do

Embed learning into everyday work.

How to do this:

• Use real work tasks as learning opportunities, such as stretch assignments.
• Include short learning moments in meetings.
• Encourage engagement in working groups or communities of practice.
• Support peer learning and job shadowing.
• Reflect after projects, tasks or incidents.
• Allow time for skill development.
• Share with your employees your own self-development journey.

Learning should feel like part of the job, not extra work.

Step 3: Coach, provide feedback and lead by example

Learning grows through guidance and role modelling.

Effective supervisors:

• provide timely, specific, constructive feedback
• coach employees to think and solve problems
• share their own learning and lessons
• ask questions instead of giving all the answers.

Suggested course: Coaching and Developing Others eLearning Module

Step 4: Map skills and capability needs

Understand core, current and future skill requirements.

Skills mapping helps to:

• identify strengths and gaps
• reduce reliance on single experts
• support development and succession planning.

Supervisors should:

• identify critical technical, behavioural and safety skills
• assess current skill levels
• identify priority and future skills
• review skills regularly.

Request each employee to complete an integrated leadership systems self-assessment relevant to their role level. (Note: More job family or occupation specific skills mapping tools may be available within your agency.)

Step 5: Create skills pathways

Show employees how they can grow over time.

Effective learning pathways:

• are aligned to roles and skills
• combine formal and informal learning
• progress from foundational to advanced skills.

Examples include:

• job shadowing and mentoring
• stretch assignments and projects
• coaching and feedback
• training and self-directed learning.

Using the performance system, document the learning and development outcomes.

Step 6: Review, adapt and adjust

Learning must evolve with changing work demands.

Supervisors should:

• regularly review skill needs and progress
• seek employee feedback
• adjust learning approaches as required
• respond to changes in priorities or risk.

Recomplete a learning culture self-assessment with your team every 6 to 12 months.

Step 7: Identify and remove barriers to learning

Remove obstacles that limit learning.

Common barriers:

• Time pressure and workload
• Fear of mistakes
• Unclear expectations
• Limited access to learning opportunities

Supervisor actions:

• Prioritise learning as part of work.
• Create psychological safety.
• Clarify expectations.
• Advocate for resources and support.
• Use short course and micro-learning to reduce time pressures out of the office.