Future of Work = Future of Learning

In all of the attention on the future of work, little is given to what it means for the future of learning. We’ve casually accepted the (over)use of the term lifelong learning as something that makes sense, but we have no idea what it looks like in practice. Our education systems, institutions, and policies aren’t organized to support working learners of all ages nor to prepare them to be lifelong learners. It’s time to acknowledge the massive impact that the future of work will have on learning and start working on the monumental redesign task ahead. 

The trends shaping the future of work - including the exponential growth of technological innovation and longer lifespans - will transform most jobs and require people to learn new sets and combinations of skills, in some cases for jobs yet to be discovered. People will change careers more often and have longer working lives than ever before. The physical workplace will be influenced by the new work, leadership, and behavioral paradigms of Gen Y and, soon, Gen Z, requiring new mindsets and workplace cultures to be cultivated. In this new world, those who learn will thrive. 

Creating success for people in the future requires designing the future of learning.

If life is no longer linear, then neither is learning. To succeed, people must invest in learning across a lifetime, starting early and extending into old age, not just between the ages of 18-24. They need learning that is continuous, outcomes-based, and supported by a distributed investment of time and money. 

Achieving this future requires changes to traditional notions of academic progression, new definitions of academic and personal success, and a willingness to bring the technologies that power the rest of our lives into learning. This has major implications for people, schools, universities, employers and learning providers.

We have a unique opportunity to design learning to support people, meet the needs of the new economy, and create a future we all want to live in - let’s get started.

Enable continuous learning

People don't stop learning at the end of a course, at graduation, when the bills are paid, or after a promotion; they learn continuously. They experience moments of need - change a job, grow a skill, develop a talent, build expertise - moments that will become more frequent in the future of work. In these moments they seek new knowledge and are compelled to learn. Continuous learning refers to a need for learning that is ongoing across life and always available. 

In moments of need today people might reach out to a teacher or colleague; contact a professional association; post a question on social media, or conduct a google search sifting through many options. Some of these may help them, and some may not. 

As learning experiences become powered by the same technologies that support the rest of our lives, they will be available with precision in those moments of need. Technology will widen access to these learning experiences; AI will ensure that they provide personalized support. A range of consumer-grade digital products and services will help people navigate their career or life through learning, keep track of the skills acquired across their lives, provide on-the-spot skills development and more. Investment in technology for learning is essential to powering continuous learning.

Give people outcome-based learning 

People today expect, as a baseline, that learning and educational experiences will provide them with the right skills to secure better jobs and fulfilling lives in a rapidly changing workplace. Although they may not think of it this way, people are essentially concerned about their learning outcomes. Importantly, getting a good job - or progressing to a better one in the future - is the primary outcome that they want from those learning and educational experiences.

Looking forward, people will turn to the learning tools and experiences that are most likely to help them succeed. As technology has enabled more personalization and informed choice across other parts of our lives, people will expect the same of learning tools. But these tools must do more: they must help people achieve their goals.

Three significant shifts go hand-in-hand with a movement towards outcome-based learning:

1. People and their employers will determine the learning outcomes that matter most for life and work, not educators or institutions.
2. Those outcomes will not necessarily be tied to traditional measures such as course completion, diplomas, or certificates.
3. People will expect assessments to serve as personalized learning tools that help them progress, not simply as a high-stakes exercise.

In the future of learning, learning tools and experiences that lead people to gain the outcomes they desire will be prized. 

Ensure a distributed investment in learning

A continuous system of learning implies a distributed investment of the time and money spent on learning. People will need learning support that is always available, on a slow burn, which could be accommodated by an ongoing subscription to a learning provider. They will experience periods of intensive learning: gearing up for a career change or promotion, for example, which can be supported by enrollment in a short course, apprenticeship, or certificate or degree program. People will invest additional time and money during these periods. An employer may require them to learn a new skill set; this also requires additional investment. 

This notion of learning being required across a lifetime changes the conversation about its cost. So, what should learning cost? How does that cost vary? Who pays? And, can society afford to have anyone be excluded?

Although the concept of a distributed investment in time and money spent on learning seems logical for our new economy, it’s clear that making it a reality requires a massive change to the existing cost structures of most learning experiences. People - and employers - simply will not be able to financially over-invest in learning at any single point in time, so the price point per instance must decrease. Existing providers, especially universities, will need to dramatically reduce the cost of acquiring knowledge, while new providers must design with this reality in mind.

Thank you to Laurie Forcier and Marco Annunziata for their contribution to the ideas in this article.