Why "The Future of Adult Learning" is a Challenging Subject

The Gravity

Adult learning, to be meaningful and productive, needs to serve the purpose of closing the gap between early childhood to varsity education and the needs of the post-academic world realities, particularly commerce and work.

The Future of Adult Learning therefore is really the subject of meeting the needs for learning, by adults, to fulfil the needs, that commerce, economy, market, work and employers will have in general, in the course of time and points in time ahead. Long and detailed, but simple enough and explanation.

The gravity here is, if The Future of Adult Learning is not adequately foreseen, anticipated, planned for and worked towards, anyone, whether the learner, the provider, the employer or any other stakeholder, that invests in it, must expect and deal with a negative Return On Investment (ROI), which in simplified terms, is either a loss or a waste.

Talk About The Future First

Time is non-linear, but when it has passed, it leaves behind evidence, even if often unclear, which is why historians can be wrong and often need to debate. Even in present as events occur, the reporting of those events, by journalists and media come with slants, therefore skewing accuracy. Such absence of objectivity being tragic, still somewhat, there is a linearity to the products of time that has passed or is evidently in play before us. Till then, somewhat, relatively, the dealing between humans and time, is somewhat, still simple, and straightforward, though this statement will justifiable mortify many, who indulge in the analysis of the past or present for a living, such as historians, journalists, etc. When we get to the future, the studying of it is absolutely non-linear, and studying it professionally is now an absolute necessity, given the phase humanity has now entered, in which, the pace of change and development have created a state of VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, thus creating a more pressing need than precedence exists for through past phases, to analyse possible scenarios, to have some degree of preparation, to continue on any trajectory of planning, development, sustainability, survival and growth, effectively.

The act of professionally studying the future is called Future Studies or Futures Studies, with pluralisation of the key word future, as there isn't a single possible future, but multiple, likely possibly infinite, futures, possible as scenarios, that may play out, of the chaos, that is the present. This is really not theory, nor is it philosophy. This is real life pragmatic practice. The person who engages in the act of professionally studying the future, is what you'd call, a Futurist.

While this day and age in recent years, where the long under-appreciated and under-developed profession has become a cool fad, you find many individuals who simply sit around imagining the future or "thinking" about it calling themselves "Futurists", genuinely professionally indeed, the ones who formally and systematically engage in methodical Future Studies, are far and few. Out of 7.4 billion human beings on earth at present, at best, at most, only 3,000 of us are alive, who are pursuing a living, a Professional Futurists acting on Credible Methods. Hardly enough to go around.

The problem within the field of Future Studies, is first and foremost, you cannot create or train them. While many universities have begun, some of them for some time, to deliver formal academic courses, from undergraduate to PhD levels, the problem academic teaching and learning, is that the system is predominantly still pretty linear, and linear models or methods of educating, cannot prepare individuals something as non-linear as Future Studies is. Most known or active practitioners of Future Studies today, have never attended a course in Future Studies and anyone who has, has never really gone on to successfully practice Future Studies, except those, who attended a course simply to add perceived credibility to a resume, after already being a Futurist. Future Studies is going to remain, as it has been always, an occupation that is strictly for autodidacts, because of its very fundamental nature. Now there is a guarantee for you, for having a permanent shortage, in actual Futurists. 

Then one may think, that even if the world has few futurists, one may just get anyone of them to answer the question of what The Future of Adult Learning is, and the problem will be solved. Now, that, is where things get truly tricky and challenging.

Studying The Future of Adult Learning

Every Futurist has different specialities or areas of interests, simply because, the Future, in itself, is an extremely broad subject to say the least. There are Economic Futurists. There are Design Futurists. There are Engineering Futurists. Divide up the 3,000, at best liberal estimate, spread globally, at present by every faculty you can think of, then sub-faculties. Mathematically, there is a challenge.

The deal with Adult Learning, is that necessarily it needs to evolve, transform and change in tandem with business processes, business realities, economic states, market forces, consumer changes and technological progress. Nothing happens in a silo, everything affects, everything. What you need to answer first, is the question, what is the future of work? And the question is now an ongoing one and not a one off, because the future changes or is pushed back, every time you arrive at it pass it to render it present and past respectively. And we are going to be in a VUCA environment for a long time, so the question is going to remain a constant for a while. What you really need here, is a Business Futurist, with a background in HR.

You cannot grab a Futurist and have him or her study HR. You need someone who has, with intrinsic interest, studied HR first, at conceptual level (basically someone with a degree in it), who has then gone on in life, to evolve into being a Futurist, particularly a Business Futurist, by profession, maintaining an interest, in understanding HR needs and challenges as a function, ahead, in his or her Future Studies work. You need to get a hold of such a Futurist, to study, the Future of Adult Learning, to then, give you answers, so that you can work towards or on that future. And this really, trust me, sounds easier than it truly is.

Answering the Question: What is the Future of Adult Learning

After you identify a Futurist who can study The Future of Adult Learning, to help you learn about it, understand it and work on it, the next challenge really is, getting the right people, to listen to that Futurist.

You need people who are in the business of both HR and Adult Learning, who need to be working on future learning needs, of adults, to listen, what the Futurist, with competencies, to answer the question, of What the Future of Adult Learning is, for it, the effort of studying or understanding or appreciating the Future of Adult Learning, to be worthwhile at all. Why is this a challenge? Simple. How many folks actually know what Future Studies is today, let alone are able to appreciate the need for it or its importance, relative to the total population of us, of around 7.4 billion? That is after, you identify a Futurist, that can help with the subject.

Until the appreciation for Future Studies and then the Futurists who engage in it, and then the need for introducing Futurists in a central function into the process of answering What the Future of Adult Learning is, becomes a reality, the subject of The Future of Adult Learning, will remain a challenge. Any investment in the form of effort or resource to understand or make good of the subject till then, guarantees a negative return. And this is where, it is all interesting, and no less. Time offers few guarantees, and here you have just one of those. How awesome is that?

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting include Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning and Organisational Future Proofing. Harish also has a background in HR Consulting, Executive Search, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Executive Coaching, Career Coaching, Assessment & Development Centres and Vocational Programme Management for Employability Enhancement.