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Marius Vennemann
Managing Director
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In this blog post, we look at the future of learning in a corporate environment. But before we look more closely at what the future of learning in companies will look like, we should first look at why we should change anything in the first place.
Future learning is a term that refers to the concept of continuous learning and development to adapt to and stay ahead of the rapid changes and advances in technology and society. It highlights the importance of staying curious, open-minded and proactive in order to acquire new skills and knowledge so that you remain competitive and relevant in the future job market. Future learning may also relate to the use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, in general and corporate continuing education.
New Work describes a new way of thinking about and approaching work. It is based on the idea that work should be flexible, collaborative and focused on personal growth and fulfillment. New Work values individual autonomy and creativity and tries to dismantle traditional hierarchies and corporate structures in favor of a more decentralized and agile approach. It underlines the importance of balancing work and private life and the need for companies to adapt to the changing nature of work in the digital age.
The last few years have clearly shown us that the half-life of skills is getting shorter and shorter. Skills that we are building today are only relevant for a few more years before we have to dedicate ourselves to new skills again. The pandemic in particular has once again shown us how important it is to develop digital skills.
At the same time, however, the ability to build new skills hasn't really improved.
In other words:
In their day-to-day work, our employees are still getting qualified at the same pace as they were a few years ago, even though the demands placed on us and our skills are completely different.
As a result, we are seeing more and more skill gaps among our employees, and these are getting bigger over time.
At the same time, however, we see that employees are increasingly struggling to tailor continuing education specifically to their own goals and skill gaps.
Put simply, employees don't really know what they should learn and what they should learn with. The options are simply too diverse, and unfortunately we as companies and managers are not yet doing enough to provide the necessary orientation.
So when we ask ourselves what the future of learning looks like and how we can improve the current situation, we should definitely address this issue.
In most areas, there is a great deal of disagreement about what future learning actually looks like. Not so in continuing vocational training. We talk to companies of all sizes every day, and almost all experts agree:
We need more self-directed learning — employees belong in the driver's seat and must be able to take control of themselves.
It is no longer enough that we only learn during training or during our studies. Continuing education must take place over a lifetime if we want to close the emerging skills gaps.
But it is also clear that employees cannot start learning without orientation.
It is necessary to carefully consider which skills are relevant; the result should come from a meeting of all parties involved in order to meet the various requirements. Continuing education must therefore be in line with the corporate strategy, but also with one's own personal goals. However, this also requires a clear development perspective for each individual employee.
Imagining the future is therefore not really the problem. As is so often the case, this project fails due to the concrete implementation, the path to the goal. As companies and employees, we must meet a number of requirements so that we can make the future outlined above a reality.
Many companies believe that it is failing because of the quantity or quality of learning content. This is rarely the case. So we don't need more content, but more relevant content. Employees lack good curation, i.e. a contact person who recommends the right materials to learners based on previous knowledge and goals.
Today, the average employee continues their education for just under 8 to 16 hours per year. This can't really be described as continuing education, but perhaps mercifully as maintenance.
We must increase the willingness of employees to learn. However, it often fails not at all because of a lack of willingness, but because of a prioritization that simply does not regard learning as important enough. Employees are so busy with projects, administrative tasks and regulatory tasks that there is simply no time for learning.
When learning becomes more effective and learning content becomes more relevant, employees will recognize the emerging benefits of continuing education and will therefore also attribute greater relevance to the topic. In our guide”3 ways to analyze the efficiency of continuing vocational training“Let us show you how you can measure the effectiveness of training.
As with sport, the same applies to learning: Good results take time.
“When you do the work, you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” - Michael Jordan
But that is not the end of the story. Leaders and management must also ask themselves what can be done to increase learning activity. An important step is the involvement of managers in continuing vocational training, which can be a good motivation for employees.
It is important to make learning a priority and to allocate enough time.
However, the return on investment must also be guaranteed here, which is why continuing education measures that are as effective as possible are absolutely essential. Because only then are managers prepared to give employees the time they need.
We have already talked a lot about the lack of effectiveness of continuing education.
One reason for this is the frequent lack of practical relevance of continuing education measures. As a result, the methodological knowledge learned in the seminar fizzles out the moment you try to implement it in the much more complex cosmos of your own company.
But what does that mean for employees in concrete terms? What can you expect with a view to the future?
While we are now very free to decide what we actually want to learn or often only learn what is needed NOW, in the future, when choosing the skills to learn, we will focus much more on corporate goals, new job profiles, Skill profiles and orient specific use cases and projects. Learning content and frequency will therefore be increasingly tailored to the company's overall strategy.
For most employees today, learning means a time-consuming, less popular process of selecting videos and seminars from a sea of one-size-fits-all trainings.
There is no sign of individualization. That will change in the future. With the help of personalization technology, the learning paths are linked directly to the previous knowledge and goals of employees through Skill assessments adjusted. This makes learning much more efficient, as only really relevant content enters the learning path.
Where we learn new skills in sandbox mode today and don't apply them in complex day-to-day business, we will learn a lot more directly at work in the future and receive direct support from mentors and experts. This ensures that what has been learned is actually relevant for daily work and is not just learned for the sake of learning.
Today, we mostly learn in single player mode, watch videos alone and rarely share our knowledge. The future will be much more collaborative — we will be much more focused on working in groups towards common learning goals and sharing the results in specially created learning communities. Learning among like-minded people (peer learning) will be practiced much more frequently than today, making the learning process even more interactive.
The learning culture in companies must and will change. The reason for this is the existing skill gaps. Experts see the solution to this problem in self-directed learning. However, due to the large amount of available content and the lack of personalization, employees lack the orientation to do so. However, it is important to remember the basic principles of effective corporate learning. In our E-book Let's go over the basics of Corporate Learning 101, it contains a 10-step guide to get you started. Whether you're a seasoned training professional or new to the field, this e-book will teach you the basics you need to be successful in today's fast-paced business world.
edyoucated is funded by leading research institutions such as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
