Although the official announcement will not come until next month, a breakfast briefing held in London on 17 February confirmed the move, which has been interpreted by some as a challenge to the CIPD for their members who work in learning and development.
 

The membership organisation, which hosts the biggest L&D event in the world annually (this year in Orlando, Florida with Marcus Buckingham as a keynote speaker), will be adding UK accredited qualifications focused on training, as opposed to the CIPD's human resource certificiation.

The ASTD wants to extend its reach into the UK training community and Reed stressed that the partnership was a continuous work in progress: they want the input of the learning and development community to deliver a certification and membership opportunity which works for training professionals.