The policy priority of management development in the past 20 years appears to have been overshadowed since the new millennium by the goal of widening participation in learning of low-skilled and excluded groups. This change of emphasis could potentially be damaging if efforts to increase management participation in learning are relaxed, because Britain's managers are still poorly qualified in comparison with other countries and managers play a key role in widening participation in learning at work. Research into barriers to learning amongst life assurance managers in Scotland has identified intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting participation, suggesting a need for renewed efforts to ensure that management development remains a priority and that appropriate support is provided for learning at work.