Lifelong Learning: Informative vs. Transformative

by Eileen Clegg

Nearly half of adults in the United States are pursuing coursework outside a degree program. What are the reasons? And what are the implications for organizations? We reached the following conclusions based on a compilation of our own research and some startling statistics:

Learning has been redefined. Learning plays a far different role in an information society, where the ability to navigate change is a differentiator of success in the workplace, than in industrial society where knowledge was harder to get but more static. New studies of cognition indicate that learning is less like consuming and more like exercising. Personal development courses that challenge people to change perspectives and create new brain pathways are as important as courses designed to improve specific skills and knowledge relevant to current work. Learning how to learn is as critical, if not more so, than learning specific content.

There are generational differences in corporate education/employee learning patterns. Corporations are trying to get an edge in the talent war by offering better learning programs, which are being weighed as essential perks by candidates along with salary and benefits. Thus more money is going into education and training of younger workers and elites, while typically older workers are challenged to seek out their own learning opportunities. The most likely workers to seek out their own learning are those who already have significant college experience – and they are likely to look for learning opportunities that help with personal growth and/or to seek knowledge/skillsets specifically to improve job performance.

Best practices involve both individual and collective learning. Leading edge corporate education includes individual opportunities to enhance innovation and the availability of highly evolved collaborative environments. For enhancement of individual workers’ productive creativity, innovative companies allow some time for nontraditional coursework and exploration of new ideas – as defined by the worker rather than the company. As the social aspect of learning becomes better understood, corporate learning is blending with knowledge management and information sharing systems, and the sweet spot involves learning tools that allow people to easily access information in an environment (face to face and/or virtual) where social exchange occurs in the same "space" as information access.

References:

• The very definition of learning is changing with new understanding of cognitive (the most pivotal change in education) and with increased complexity of society. Learning today is characterized as "constructive interaction with change" (Dr. Jan Visser, Learning Development Institute, in The Future of Global e-Education report by Institute for the Future with Vivendi Prospective) http://www.agilityfactor.com/docs/EEducationfm.pdf
  
  
• Opportunity for lifelong learning is a key factor in retention of employees, thus recruiting/staffing functions increasingly are linked to corporate education (Window into Talent and Learning, Institute for the Future and Global Learning Resources) http://www.newmango.com/01iftf/window.html
  
  
• 70 percent of learning experience in the workplace is informal or accidental (Formal and Informal Training: Evidence from NCSY. Lowenstein, M.A. Research in Labor Economics, vol. 18, 1999 pp.402-438)
  
  
• 70 percent of adult learning is self-directed (Cross, T., Adults as Learners, Jossey Bass: San Francisco, 1981)
  
  
• Of 150 adults studied about their second career, over one half started the most creative period of their lives began after age 50 (Bronte, L.Learning to Change: The Hallmark of a Long Lifetime" Adult Learning 8 Nos.5-6, May-August 1977)
  
  
• In a visual map tracking 120 years of corporate and executive education in the context of social, political, technological and organizational trends (Institute for the Future and Global Learning Resources) our forecast in 1999 was an educational divide between "how to do" and "how to think" (http://www.elearningforum.com/meetings/2001/november/index.htm)
  
  
• Sixty percent of future jobs will demand skills only 20 percent of people have (American Council on Education, "Lifelong Learning Trends in the United States, Risks and Challenges" by Susan Porter Robinson)
  
  
• People aged 55 and older receive an average of 23 hours of training annually compared to 57 hours for people ages 45 to 54 (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
  
  
• 80 percent of Baby Boomers expect to keep working beyond traditional retirement age (American Association of Retired People)
  
  
• In interviews with organizational innovators, Institute for the Future found anecdotal evidence that creative thinkers are likely to seek out courses/experiences that are deliberately outside their normal paths http://www.human-landscaping.com/agility/oldsite/nature-innovation.html
  
  
• The social aspect of learning is a factor in adults staying engaged with education (Vanderpool, N.M. and Brown, WE "Implications of a Peer Telephone Network on Adult Learner GPA and Retention," Journal of College Student Development 35 No. 2 March, 1994 125-128)
  
  
• Of the six categories of adult education, most in a 1999 survey of 6,977 adults fell into two groups: work-related (23 percent) and personal development (23 percent) -- 1999 National Household Education Survey, National Center for Education Statistics.
  
  
• Of four different categories of previous education, the group most likely to take lifelong learning courses were those with the highest level of education (no h.s. degree-22%; high school degree-37%, AA or some college-52 percent, B.A. degree above-62 percent) – 1999 National Household Education Survey, National Center for Education Statistics.