Describe the impact of your learning on the relevant groups. If you think the impact on one or more of the groups will be none or very little, then you may choose not to record this, instead recording the impact on those for whom you feel it will be more significant. If you don't think that your learning will have a significant impact on any of these groups, you might ask yourself why you are undertaking this learning.

The importance of a learning need is a measure of the likely impact of meeting that need. This impact may be upon yourself, your colleagues, organisation, and perhaps most importantly, the users of your services or products. When considering importance you might also want to bear in mind how frequently you will use what you will learn to do. So, if it's something that you do in your job on a daily or weekly basis, this might take precedence over something that is only an occasional aspect of your job. It is, of course, never as simple as this and the issue of importance is ultimately a matter of your professional judgement.

You can also give a rating of 1-5 on the scale of importance. This is not a substitute for a written account. The values you give the rating will be used to order the activities in any action plan you may create using this software.