• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

The benefits of continuous learning in the ever-challenging world

businessday-icon

The only constant in this world is change. So, why don’t businesses and governments realize that the only way to keep up with the times is to promote a lifetime of learning? Civic engagement can be enhanced through constant learning, and companies that make a point of ensuring that their employees keep learning can go nowhere but up.

Benefits of Lifelong Learning

A lifelong learning culture promotes creativity, teamwork, problem solving skills, improved productivity and job satisfaction. Not surprisingly, these are the very same things companies need from their employees to survive the increasingly challenging and dynamic business world we live in today.

It Worked for Ford Motors

When Ford Motor Company decides to dedicate 0.3% of its wage bill to learn, absenteeism decreased, resistance to change was reduced, employee retention levels were improved, and strikes came to an end. This is despite the fact that the employees were allowed to choose the skills they wanted to learn, whether it be a new language, or a skill like painting or maths. The company also improved its profitability after introducing the learning scheme.

READ ALSO; Learning will be hybrid forstudents as schools physically reopen – Lai Koiki

Benefits of Lifelong Learning to Individuals

Even on an individual level, learning has profound benefits. True independence can only be achieved through a process of continuous learning. There are even studies showing that people who commit to a life of learning end up improving their health, wealth, and importance in civic causes. Families have also fared better when members make an effort to learn throughout their lives.

 

Many people are taking the matter into their own hands and investing their time and money in additional learning after completing formal learning stages. However, only a few do this; specifically those who did well in school. But this needs to change, since lifelong learning should be for everyone, not just those who did well in school. But for this to happen, the government has to be involved and provide the necessary support and incentives.

Benefits to Government

Governments too, have a lot to gain from embracing and promoting a continuous learning culture. As the people age, their dependency increases, and this puts a burden on the government. And, as mentioned above, learning improves independence. Therefore, governments that promote learning, even later in life, are sure to reduce the burden the aging population puts in their hands.

 

But countries like Singapore are doing what many governments are yet to give any importance to be supporting drastic changes to its educational paradigm. The country is currently offering training to teachers and adult coaches and is working with various bodies to enhance workplace learning. In particular, the government is helping come up with ways workplace learning activities can be made more effective.

A Different Approach to Learning

Learning should not last for a generation, but for all generations. Communities that are committed to continuous learning can overcome challenges such as inequality and social exclusion and other divisions that come between society members due to differences in educational achievements. Simply put, learning at all stages of life ensures that communities prosper and that societies enjoy an increased level of togetherness.

Studies Back Prove the Importance of Lifelong Learning

Even the UN, following a 1972 UNESCO study titled “Learning to Be”, admitted that lifelong learning had a significant impact on a variety of global development needs. This also explains why lifelong learning was even part of its 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, where the international body advocated for the promotion of learning and the provision of learning opportunities for all people.

 

It is not just the UN that has realized the benefits of learning throughout someone’s life. In the World Economic Forum Dialogue Series paper, it was revealed that learning would go a long way in improving our society, especially at a time when robots and artificial intelligence could wipe out many of the white collar jobs people rely on at the moment.

 

According to this latest study, it has been shown that problem-solving skills in the technology age will become increasingly important. It is only through learning that people can adapt to changes in the labor market to avoid disruption of economies when digital technologies change the labor markets in drastic and unexpected ways. In fact, the study showed that lifelong learning is now a matter of urgency. Without it, inequalities within our society will keep growing, with some societies losing out substantially from the changes.

Countries Still Not Promoting Lifelong Learning

But regardless of all this evidence that lifelong learning is the way to go, few countries are taking appropriate action. These countries are not doing much to make changes to their educational systems to help establish the concept of lifelong learning.

 

Additionally, while learning beyond typical learning stages is more common in developed countries, governments are not doing much to promote it. Companies and other organizations that would stand to benefit from life long learning are also not concerned enough about this new take on learning.

 

This should be a serious concern. Research shows that earlier engagement is the key to a life of learning tendencies. Companies need to stop focusing their training programs on senior staff and the most skilled staff and include everyone working for their organization in these programs.

Lifelong Learning Still not a Priority

As things stand, in less developed countries, adult literacy and lifelong learning is not even a priority. This is despite the fact that nearly a billion adults in the world lack basic literacy skills. At the moment, only civil-society establishments can help meet this dire need, and it’s overwhelming.

 

The problem is not that governments fail to realize the importance of lifelong learning. The problem is that making lifelong learning and adult literacy a priority is a challenge when mainstream educational needs of schools and universities weigh quite heavily on them. The other challenge is that the progress of lifelong learning is not as easy to track. Schools and other learning institutions have administrations that make evaluating progress and impact much easier. Informal learning, which is essentially what lifelong learning amounts to, does not have such statistics to motivate governments to invest in it with greater confidence.

Stakeholders Need to Rally Around Lifelong Learning Schemes

Lifelong learning programs to get full support from key stakeholders, it is necessary to change the way we think about learning. Today, learning is focused on the early stages of life. And yet, the skills and knowledge acquired at this stage in life are expected to last a lifetime. So, even though learning beyond formal schooling might not cost as much, it does not get the attention it needs; which needs to change.

 

Governments that are having trouble making lifelong learning work should consider devolving the process. Cooperation with relevant bodies can make the process of creating lifelong learning easier to roll out. China and South Africa are already doing it, and it is making a difference.

 

Corporations have to play a role in this process as well and do their part, and civil societies should strive to bring under-represented communities on board. Similarly, learning institutions should work on evaluating their curricula to meet the learning needs of the population outside of formal learning systems. Already, institutions are making online learning more accessible and credible, and this greatly improves the concept of online learning. Examples include JCU Online, which offers flexible online learning for professional courses that focus on an ever-changing digital world.

 

Conclusion

Lifelong learning is the solution to making progress in this highly dynamic world. A lot of things need to change before this becomes part of our culture. However, this will take time and cooperation from different stakeholders, including governments, companies, civil society organizations and others. Even individuals need to take the initiative to become lifelong learners, since that is truly where the changes begin.

 

Evidence that lifelong learning has a lot of benefits is mounting, and proves that we need this learning to have a better future is readily available. So, let’s all do our part to make lifelong learning the only form of learning. In today’s highly dynamic world, it’s the only option we have, really.