Favour Osoba
Lifelong learning (LLL)—whether undertaken in a formal or informal setting—has five major benefits, as per a study by D Hildebrand and colleagues. LLL sharpens the mind and memory (staving off age-associated decline), boosts one’s confidence, and sharpens interpersonal skills, communication skills, and career opportunities. In professional sectors, pursuing lifelong learning can make a big difference between a stagnant and a stellar career trajectory, as well as a thinner or fatter paycheck. If you are considering adding a postgraduate degree or diploma to your list of achievements, here are a few reasons why you’re on the right track for success.
Online tutoring, coaching, and mentoring are now bridging a gap for busy employees who aren’t able to reduce their working hours or travel long distances to boost their skill set. However, companies should back this interest up with LLL opportunities for their employees. Studies show that companies retention rates rise by 30-50% in companies with strong learning cultures.
Today’s organizations are facing volatile, uncertain global markets that are demanding changes in executive skills and education. Workers who wish to stand the test of time at a company, and evolve according to industry needs must embrace lifelong learning in addition to the technical and emotional skills that are a basic need for them to carry out their job. Because technological changes are happening at an alarming rate and business models are constantly being reformulated, it is important for companies to encourage employees to take control over their own learning and development. This can be achieved by forging learning paths for existing and new talent.
Diverse organizations earn 2.5x more cash flow per employee and make better decisions a whopping 87% of the time. They are also considerably more productive. Lifelong learning can help guarantee a team’s diversity by making it easier for employees from different backgrounds and generations to work together seamlessly, without existing gaps in technological and procedural savvy.
Lifelong learning is now no longer an optional “benefit” for a small set of workers. It is necessary for survival and success. Younger generations are no longer interested in investing the best years of their lives in a company that does not invest in updating their knowledge. They are demanding incentives such as free online courses, fully or partially funded online university postgraduate courses, and tree tutoring. Mentorship, meanwhile, has come to play an important role in forward-looking companies that are smart enough to tap into existing talent to update skills and boost performance levels and confidence in newer employees.
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