Online or in-person training: Which approach should you choose to develop soft skills?

Training teams in soft skills isn’t just about sharing information or checking a box in a professional development plan. We’re talking about deeply human skills — communication, collaboration, leadership, change management — that take practice, feedback, and time to develop.

That’s what makes the choice of training format so strategic.

Online training is appealing because of its flexibility. It lets learners move at their own pace, revisit specific content, and keep learning despite busy schedules. In-person training, on the other hand, offers something that’s hard to replace: the richness of human interaction, role-playing activities, immediate feedback, and collective engagement.

But do we really have to pick a side?

Pitting online training against in-person training often means asking the wrong question. The real challenge is to determine which format to use, when to use it, and for which learning objective.

This matters even more because human skills are central to the changing world of work. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, analytical thinking, creativity, resilience, agility, leadership, curiosity, and lifelong learning are among the skills considered important today or expected to grow in importance by 2030.

In other words, soft skills are not just a “nice little extra.” They are essential to helping organizations adapt, collaborate, and move forward through uncertainty.

Why soft skills require a different approach

Soft skills aren’t learned the same way as a technical procedure, a software program, or a compliance rule.

Of course, there are concepts to understand, useful models to explore, and key reference points to remember. But knowing the steps of a feedback conversation doesn’t automatically mean we’ll be able to lead one with calm, clarity, and courage when tensions rise.

Human skills are behavioural, relational, and contextual. They develop through action, with practice, reflection, feedback, and repeated attempts.

This is true for psychological safety, professional influence, change management, and managerial courage. These skills require us to observe our automatic reactions, try out new ways of doing things, and anchor learning in our day-to-day work.

That’s why soft skills training is best approached as an ongoing experience, not a one-time event.

The benefits of online soft skills training

Online training has come a long way. When it’s well designed, it’s no longer about distractedly clicking “Next” while thinking about your next coffee. It can become a real driver for developing human skills in the workplace.

Its biggest advantage is flexibility. Learners can complete training at their own pace, revisit specific content, and access resources right when they need them. This flexibility is especially useful for hybrid, multi-site organizations, or for teams with busy schedules.

The digital format also makes it easier to reach multiple teams while ensuring a common foundation: the same concepts, the same vocabulary, and the same reference points. This makes it especially useful for raising awareness, introducing new concepts, or preparing learners before a more interactive activity.

And that may be where it becomes especially valuable: online training doesn’t have to do everything on its own. Before an in-person session, it can lay the groundwork. After the workshop, it can reinforce learning through reminders, practical exercises, challenges, or additional resources.

In short, online training helps extend learning beyond a single training moment.

The limits of online soft skills training

Online training has major advantages. But it also has its limits, especially when it comes to human skills.

In asynchronous training, spontaneous interactions are less common. There are fewer informal conversations, fewer non-verbal cues, and fewer real-time reactions. And yet, soft skills rely heavily on these kinds of exchanges.

Online training can also make certain types of practice harder to contextualize. Every workplace has its own dynamics, tensions, and realities. Some questions are better explored in a group setting, with a facilitator who can add nuance, reframe the discussion, and support the reflection process.

Finally, to have a real impact, online training needs to be engaging. To develop skills like leadership, listening, or courage, it takes more than a video and a few questions. It takes exercises, moments for reflection, and concrete links to day-to-day work.

That’s why Boostalab’s online training includes built-in pauses, challenges, and learning consolidation activities.

Otherwise, the risk is that the training gets completed… without truly transforming behaviours.

The benefits of in-person soft skills training

While online training offers flexibility, in-person training offers a quality of exchange that’s hard to replace, as long as it provides participants with a truly interactive setting.

When that’s the case, it creates a space where participants can react, ask questions, clarify and refine their thinking, and learn from one another. This shared presence is especially valuable when addressing sensitive topics such as unconscious bias, difficult conversations, managing psychosocial risks, or inclusive leadership.

In-person training also supports hands-on practice. Role-playing activities, case studies, small-group discussions, and simulations allow participants to try out an approach, a phrase, or a way of responding, then receive immediate feedback.

This is essential for soft skills. There’s often a gap between understanding what we should do and actually being able to do it in a real situation. And that gap gets smaller with practice.

In-person training then becomes more than a learning moment: it becomes a space for exchange, experimentation, and collective engagement.

The limits of in-person soft skills training

Even when the experience is excellent, in-person training isn’t perfect.

It requires more organization: coordinating schedules, booking a room, bringing participants together, and freeing up time in calendars that are already packed. For hybrid, multi-site, or very busy teams, these constraints can become a major barrier.

In-person training can also lose some of its impact if it isn’t followed by opportunities to revisit and reinforce learning. A training session can be inspiring, but when day-to-day work picks back up — meetings, urgent requests, emails, competing priorities that start piling up — learning can start to fade. Without follow-up, reminders, or opportunities to practise, the impact decreases over time. That’s why practising the skills developed is an integral part of Boostalab’s in-person training, both during the time spent together as a group and after the workshops.

Finally, in-person training is less easily adapted to individual learning rhythms. The group moves forward together, which is valuable, but not everyone learns at exactly the same pace.

Why the hybrid approach is often the strongest option

So the real question isn’t: online training or in-person training?

The real question is: how can we create a learning experience that uses the best of each format?

That’s where the hybrid approach becomes especially interesting. It combines the flexibility of digital learning with the depth of human interaction that comes with in-person training, while also supporting learning over time.

Before the training, a short online module can introduce key concepts and invite participants to reflect on a concrete situation.

During the in-person training, the group can focus on what is best experienced together: discussions, role-playing activities, feedback, sharing experiences, and making the learning their own.

After the training, online resources can help maintain momentum: reminders, practical exercises, application challenges, or downloadable tools.

This approach is especially relevant for soft skills because it better reflects the reality of behavioural change: understanding, practising, receiving feedback, applying, adjusting… and then starting again.

Which format should you choose based on the objective?

Each format has its strengths. The idea isn’t to choose one approach once and for all, but to match the format to the objective.

This table clearly shows one thing: the formats are not in competition. They meet different needs.

Online training can be perfect for introducing a concept. An in-person workshop can be ideal for practice. Digital follow-up can help maintain momentum. And together, they can create a much more coherent learning experience.

Conclusion: The real question isn’t the format, but the impact

Online training and in-person training each have their own strengths.

Digital learning makes access, flexibility, consistency, and follow-up over time easier. In-person training supports human interaction, practice, feedback, and collective engagement.

But when it comes to developing soft skills, the most effective choice isn’t always to decide between the two. Often, the strongest approach is to combine them thoughtfully.

Because human skills don’t develop all at once. They are built through practice, reflection, feedback, and opportunities to try again.

The real question then becomes: what learning experience will help people turn their knowledge into concrete behaviours?

And that’s where combining online learning, in-person training, and follow-up over time can make all the difference.