Q01
Message
All templatesEducation & Academic
Professional Development Needs & Learning Preferences Survey
Measures where employees feel skill gaps, which learning formats and time investments actually work for them, and how their career goals should shape the L&D roadmap. Built for HR and L&D teams planning training budgets and programs. An AI follow-up digs into the specific skill gap and career goal each person names to surface concrete blockers, not just checkbox preferences.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
13 questions · ~7 min
Q02
Multiple ChoiceRequired
Which of the following skill areas feel weakest for you right now?
- Technical/functional skills for my role
- Leadership & people management
- Communication & collaboration
- Data & analytical skills
- Strategic thinking & business acumen
- Digital tools & AI proficiency
- Project management & prioritization
Q03
Slider MatrixRequired
How confident do you feel in each of these areas today?
6 rows, one slider each
- Technical/functional skills
- Leadership & people management
- Communication & collaboration
- Data & analytical skills
- Strategic thinking
- +1 more
Slider 0–10Min:Not confident at allMax:Extremely confident
Q04
Best–Worst Trade-off (MaxDiff)Required
If your company could only fund a few learning priorities next year, which would matter most to you?
- Leadership & management training
- Technical/functional certifications
- Communication & presentation skills
- Data literacy & analytics tools
- AI and emerging technology skills
- Project & time management
- Cross-functional/business knowledge
Pick best & worst per setBest:Most important to meWorst:Least important to me
Q05
Multiple ChoiceRequired
Which learning formats actually work best for you?
- Instructor-led workshops or classes
- Self-paced online courses
- 1:1 mentoring or coaching
- On-the-job stretch assignments
- Peer learning groups or communities
- Conferences or external events
- Reading, research, or self-study
Q06
Multiple ChoiceRequired
In a typical month, how many hours can you realistically dedicate to professional development?
- None right now
- Less than 2 hours
- 2-5 hours
- 5-10 hours
- 10+ hours
Q07
Opinion ScaleRequired
How much does your manager actively support your professional development (e.g., time, budget, encouragement)?
Scale: 1 – 5
Min:Not supportive at allMax:Extremely supportive
Q08
Multiple ChoiceRequired
Which best describes your primary career goal for the next 12-24 months?
- Advance to the next level in my current track
- Move into people management
- Pivot to a different function or team
- Build deeper expertise in my current role
- Not sure yet
Q09
AI Interview
Explore the respondent's self-identified weakest skill area and their stated career goal in detail: ask for a specific recent moment where that skill gap held them back, and probe what's actually stopping them from closing it (time, access, manager support, unclear path). If they said their career goal is 'not sure yet', explore what options they're weighing and what information would help them decide. Anchor follow-ups on their own answers rather than generic prompts.
Q10
Long Text
What's the single biggest thing holding you back from doing more professional development right now?
Q11
Multiple Choice
Which best describes your current role level? (For planning purposes only — never linked to your individual responses.)
- Individual contributor
- Team lead / supervisor
- Manager
- Senior/director level
- Executive
- Prefer not to say
Q12
Multiple Choice
How long have you been with the company?
- Less than 1 year
- 1-3 years
- 3-5 years
- 5-10 years
- 10+ years
- Prefer not to say
Q13
Message
That's everything — thank you! Your answers will shape which training programs, formats, and time investments we prioritize this year.
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Includes a dedicated AI follow-up interview block that explores each respondent's self-identified weakest skill area and their stated career goal together, surfacing concrete blockers instead of stopping at checkbox answers
- Combines quantitative prioritization (best-worst trade-off for budget-limited learning priorities, slider grid for confidence-by-area) with open-ended probing (open-text on what's holding people back) in one flow
- Ties skill gaps and format preferences directly to planning variables L&D teams need: realistic monthly time investment, manager support level, role level, and tenure
- Ends with a transparent conversational message explaining exactly how answers will shape training programs, setting clear expectations for respondents
Jotform
Professional Development Needs Assessment Form TemplateA static, fielding-ready form for gathering professional development needs, built on Jotform's drag-and-drop form builder. It covers standard needs-assessment fields but has no mechanism to adapt questions based on an individual's answers. Good for quick deployment, not for deeper qualitative follow-up.
What it does well
- Fielding-ready and easy to deploy quickly
- Customizable via Jotform's widely-used form builder
- Likely integrates with Jotform's broader form/workflow ecosystem
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI follow-up — every respondent sees the same fixed question set regardless of their answers
- No automated per-response quality scoring
- No voice AI interview option for richer qualitative input
SurveyMonkey
Professional Development Survey Template (14+ Questions)A ready-to-use, multi-question static survey template from a well-established survey platform. It's built for broad distribution and benefits from SurveyMonkey's analytics and benchmarking tools, but the question set is fixed and doesn't probe further into an individual's specific skill gap or career goal.
What it does well
- Backed by SurveyMonkey's mature analytics and reporting suite
- Fielding-ready with a substantial (14+) question bank
- Broad brand trust for large-scale employee distribution
Where it falls short
- Static question flow — no AI-driven follow-up to dig into individual skill gaps or career goals
- No guided task or screen-share capability for deeper diagnostics
- No transparent prompt methodology since there's no AI layer to begin with
Typeform
Professional Development Feedback Survey TemplateA conversational-style, fielding-ready template leveraging Typeform's one-question-at-a-time UX for a smoother respondent experience. It's focused on feedback collection rather than a full needs assessment tied to career goals, and like other form builders it lacks any adaptive follow-up intelligence.
What it does well
- Polished, conversational UI that tends to improve completion rates
- Fielding-ready out of the box
- Easy embedding and branding via Typeform's platform
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI interview to explore the reasoning behind a stated skill gap or career goal
- No automated quality scoring of open-ended responses
- No auto-generated analytical report — results still require manual interpretation
Frequently asked questions
What questions are in the “Professional Development Needs & Learning Preferences Survey” template?
The template includes 13 ready-to-use questions, starting with: “Thanks for taking a few minutes on this! We're building out next year's learning and development offerings and want to d…” · “Which of the following skill areas feel weakest for you right now?” · “How confident do you feel in each of these areas today?”. The full set is previewed above, and every question is editable.
How long does this survey take to complete?
Respondents typically finish the 13 questions in about 7 minutes.
Can I customize this template?
Yes — every question, answer option, and the ordering is editable before you launch. You can add or remove questions, or ask the AI editor to rework the survey around your research goal.
Is this template free to use?
Yes. Open it in the editor and start customizing right away — no account required to try it, and the free plan covers launching your survey.
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.
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