Yes, instead of installing WordPress at root– example.com/— you’d create the “programs”, “sales”, and “learning” directories on the server and install a seperate WordPress instance in each directory. There is nothing special you need to do to make this work.
I think you may end up happier if you create a network, though. Multisite, while not always appropriate, seems to me to be exactly what you are after, and you can create the same “path” based structure.