NIHR: What does world-class live learning really cost?

The brief: research excellence needs digital fluency

NIHR is the UK's largest funder of health and care research. Like most research-led organisations, its outputs depend on the digital skills of the people behind them and those skills don't stand still. AI, data, modern collaboration tools: all moving fast.

The challenge was to keep a large, distributed research workforce current on the digital tools that increasingly underpin their work without locking them into static self-serve content that no one actually finishes. One-off training rollouts go cold. Recorded videos don't get watched. Questions don’t get answered. And per-seat licensing for "just in case" access wastes the budget on people who never engage.

Live LearningCo delivered an Enterprise Unlimited programme of live, instructor-led sessions across the topics NIHR actually needs AI fluency, data skills, and modern Google Workspace usage. It’s all bookable by any colleague and repeatable on demand. The bet: when learning is live, social, and relevant, people show up, finish it, and come back for more.

An entire organisation, learning together

Three years in, the numbers tell a story of genuine, sustained adoption not a one-off rollout that faded:

• 1,756 unique learners reached: distinct people who engaged with live sessions
• 9,759 course enrolments across 46 distinct courses
• 5,403 sessions completed: a 55% overall completion rate
• 4,867 live learning hours delivered: instructor-led, not pre-recorded

You licence everyone. What does each active learner actually cost?

Enterprise Unlimited covers the whole organisation. But the more interesting number is the one that divides the cost across the people who actually showed up to learn.

For NIHR, that figure isn't a per-seat licence fee, and it isn't a one-off training cost. It's the cost of giving an engaged learner unlimited access to live, instructor-led training, every month and it comes to just £6.63 per active learner, per month: a fraction of what every other major enterprise learning platform charges.

How does this compare to other learning platforms?

Typical per-user-per-month list pricing for enterprise learning platforms (annual contracts, converted to GBP). Live LearningCo is the only one offering unlimited live, instructor-led training rather than a self-serve video library and it's a fraction of the cost:

• Pluralsight Skills: £38.12/mo
• Skillsoft: £32.92/mo
• Coursera for Business: £26.27/mo
• LinkedIn Learning: £25.01/mo
• Udemy Business: £23.70/mo
• OpenSesame: £12.64/mo
• Live LearningCo (NIHR): £6.63/mo

All figures are per-user-per-month list pricing for enterprise/team plans. Sources: Vendr, Capterra, ITQlick (2026 enterprise list prices, USD to GBP). YouTube is free but offers no live instruction, structured curriculum, completion tracking, or accountability, making true comparison difficult.

AI fluency, data skills, modern work

Under the current contract, demand has clustered firmly around the capabilities a modern research organisation needs to build now. The five most popular courses:

1. An Intro to Gemini AI in Google Workspace: 735 enrolments, 76% completion
2. Bringing Gemini into your Daily Work: 595 enrolments, 65% completion
3. Using Gemini for Data Analysis: 472 enrolments, 60% completion
4. Create Your Own Topic Expert with NotebookLM: 323 enrolments, 67% completion
5. Mastering Project Management with Google Workspace: 119 enrolments, 58% completion

It's not just used. It's used better, by more people, every year

The clearest sign that live learning is working is repeat use learners voluntarily coming back to a platform that's already paid for whether they engage or not:

• 77% are repeat learners: 1,357 came back for two or more courses, averaging 5.4 courses each
• 755 power learners took five or more courses, treating the platform as an ongoing resource
• 60% completion under the current contract: higher than the 55% all-time average, so engagement quality is rising

Could live learning work like this for your team?

Book a 30-minute discovery call and we'll show you how Enterprise Unlimited could look for your organisation and what your per-active-learner economics could realistically be.