How to Curate Training- A Quick Overview
If you run a small business, training often feels like an all-or-nothing choice.
Either you invest time and money creating something new…
or you make do with whatever people can find themselves.
But there’s a third option that works particularly well for SMEs: curated learning.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, you identify high-quality resources that already exist and organise them so your team can actually use them.
This quick overview shows you how to get started without turning it into another project that never quite gets finished.
Here’s how I do it.
4 Tips for Curation
1. Hunt Smart: Where to Find Learning Content
This saves time and avoids spending money on content you don’t need.
Over the years, I’ve realised that some of the best training isn’t what you pay for, it’s what you curate.
My go-to sources include:
Free online courses and microlearning platforms: Coursera, LinkedIn Learning (even the free content is often surprisingly good).
Industry blogs, articles, and whitepapers: Practical insights from people actually doing the work.
YouTube and podcasts: Bite-sized learning your team can consume anywhere.
Government or professional body resources: These are usually credible and up to date.
Pro tip: Don’t grab everything. Focus on content that’s relevant, actionable, and current. It’s very easy to end up down a rabbit hole of information, and without presenting the right content, you and they will waste time on unnecessary or nice to know content that doesn’t focus in your needs.
2. Organise It Before You Share It
Because learning people can’t find doesn’t exist.
Once you’ve found the content, the key is making it easy to access.
I’ve tried a few approaches:
Shared drives or SharePoint folders: Easy, searchable, and everyone knows where to look.
Bookmark managers: Tools like Pocket or Raindrop let you tag and organise links.
Internal Slack channels: A dedicated “Learning Resources” space keeps everything in one place.
Simple spreadsheets: Include columns for topic, link, duration, and why it’s useful.
Pro tip: Make it visual. Categories, emojis, or short descriptions make it far easier for your team to scan and pick the right resource. And keep it organised! Without a regular sort through and rules of use, it can quickly become unusable and relegated to last year’s great idea.
3. Make Learning Simple and Engaging
If it takes effort to use, it won’t get used.
Even curated content won’t get used if it’s hard to navigate. A few small tweaks help:
Stick to consistent categories like “Customer Service,” “Compliance,” or “Technical Skills.”
Add mini descriptions for every resource so your team knows why it matters.
Update regularly- drop outdated links, add new ones.
Make it social if possible- encourage your team to share takeaways or run mini challenges.
Pro tip: Learning journeys or by Role are a great way to organise content. Get your experienced employees involved in developing and maintaining the content, it’s a great way to share knowledge and keep content relevant.
4. Keep Tabs on What Works
So you can stop guessing and start improving.
You don’t need fancy tracking, but it helps to know who’s engaging:
Shared drives often show views or downloads.
Slack reactions or quick polls give you a sense of usage.
If you want something more formal, even a low-cost LMS can track completions and engagement.
Pro tip: Knowing what’s used and what isn’t can give you great insights into gaps and needs. Consider a formal feedback cycle to gain ideas for new additions and content format or style preference.
The Takeaway
Curated learning works best when it’s intentional — not accidental.
A little structure upfront can save months of frustration later.
If you’d like a simple way to get started, I’ve put together a Curated Learning Starter Checklist for SMEs.
It walks you through:
identifying the learning that actually matters
choosing quality resources without overwhelm
organising them so people can use them in real work
avoiding the most common curation mistakes
👉 Download the Curated Learning Starter Checklist
And if you’d rather not set this up alone, Jessanol can help you design curated learning experiences that fit your business, your tools, and your time constraints.