For over 15 years, Instinct have worked closely with Universities, Colleges, Chartered Institutes, and Professional Education providers across the UK to support and consult on digital learning recruitment – from Instructional Designers and Learning Technologists to Data and AI specialists.
Hiring challenges are always evolving, which is dependent on a number of factors. However, we’re often asked the same core questions by clients. So, we’ve pulled together a quick Q&A based on the most common client queries.
What roles are most in-demand in 2025?
Right now, we’re seeing the highest demand for:
- Learning Technologists (Primarily Canvas and Moodle)
- Specialists within Data, Analytics & AI Fluency
- Learning Designers (both generalist and subject-specific)
- eLearning Developers (Articulate, Rise, Storyline)
In truth, the core positions we get asked to provide most regularly has largely remained the same over the last 5-10 years. By this I am referring to Learning Designers, Digital Learning Developers and Learning Technologists. However, recently we have seen a marked increase in the demand for Data & AI specialist.
What are the going rates and salaries?
We recently published our 2025 Salary & Day Rate Guide, which benchmarks average pay for digital learning roles across the education sector.
Want the full breakdown? Just get in touch and we’ll send you a free copy!
What’s the current market like for contractors?
The contractor market is going strong. Due to sector wide redundancies, many Institutes are operating with very lean structures, and therefore when there is a particularly busy period, organisations simply don’t have enough resource to cope. Especially for business-critical projects such as platform migrations.
Education providers are increasingly using contract resource for flexibility, especially where budgets are tight or internal approvals for permanent posts take so long to get approved.
IR35 compliance and ease of onboarding remain important to clients – which is why we’ve built processes that minimise admin and risk.
How quickly can we get someone started?
Contract hires: We can source suitable candidates within 24 – 48 hours of receiving a brief. Permanent roles typically take 1 working week to source, depending on how niche the requirements. For very specific skill sets, this may take slightly longer.
In terms of getting somebody started in post, you can expect to wait 6-8 weeks depending on notice periods, interview stages, and salary competitiveness.
All candidates are fully vetted and pre-screened meaning they can hit the ground running.
Can you provide teams for larger digital learning programmes?
Absolutely. We regularly support:
- Institution-wide LMS rollouts
- New online course launches
- Digital transformation and AI-led learning projects
- Content digitisation and accessibility improvements
We can provide a blend of contractors and permanent hires, or fully contract-led delivery teams with embedded PMs as an Statement of Work (SOW) contract
What we’re looking for is a bit of a ‘Unicorn’ can you help?
Yes, we frequently get asked to provide Unicorns. After all, if Unicorns were easy to find, we would be out of a job!
As an example, we have experience placing:
- VLE migration consultants, with specific VLE’s
- SC-cleared instructional designers, Digital Learning Developers etc
- Accessibility specialists – WCAG 2.2
- Multilingual Learning professions: Mandarin, Dutch, Arabic etc.
- Learning analysts with Power BI/Tableau skills
- AI and Chatbot learning developers
We maintain deep networks within the sector, meaning we can often find talent others miss.
Have a question we haven’t covered?
Feel free to get in touch – whether you’re benchmarking, planning, or just exploring options, we’re always happy to help.
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