Opinion · Education & Skills · The Mark
Lifelong education is essential in the digital age — but it remains underfunded
Director for Education and Skills, OECD
Published 2 min read
These days we are finding out that we need to update our vaccination to win the fight against Coronavirus. The need to update our skills is no less urgent if we want to win the race with technology. Modern labour markets will evaluate us less and less by the degrees we once obtained and more and more by what we can do and our capacity to learn, unlearn and relearn when the context changes. We used to learn to do the work, now learning is the work.
Key findings
- Schleicher argues modern labour markets increasingly judge workers by their capacity to learn, unlearn and relearn rather than by the degrees they once obtained.
- Schleicher says learning integrated with real workplace experience is more effective than curricula taught only in educational institutions, because it builds both "hard" technical skills and "soft" skills such as teamwork and negotiation.
- Schleicher argues governments should make the economic and non-economic returns on lifelong learning more transparent to help motivate adults to invest in their own training.
- Schleicher says clear certification of learning outcomes and recognition of prior, nonformal learning would reduce the time and cost needed to gain a qualification.
Why must learning and work be integrated?
To succeed with converting education into better jobs and lives, we need to better understand what those skills are that drive outcomes, ensure that the right skill mix is being learned at the right moment, and help economies extract good value from those skills. We also know that learning is far more effective if the world of learning and the world of work are integrated. Compared to purely government-designed curricula taught exclusively in educational institutions, learning at the workplace helps people to develop “hard” skills on modern equipment, and “soft” skills such as teamwork, communication, and negotiation through real-world experience. Hands-on workplace training is also an effective way to motivate disengaged adults to re-engage with education.
We also know that learning is far more effective if the world of learning and the world of work are integrated
A wide spectrum of full- or part-time lifelong-learning activities needs to be available to address the skills gap: from work-related employee training, formal education for adults, second-chance courses to obtain a minimum qualification or basic literacy and numeracy skills, language training for immigrants, and labour-market training programs for job-seekers, to learning activities for self-improvement or leisure. There is much that can be done to dismantle barriers to participation in continued education and training:
What stops people from taking part in lifelong learning?
First, making the returns on lifelong learning more transparent can help to increase the motivation of users to invest in adult education and training. Governments can provide better information about the economic benefits (including wages net of taxes, employment and productivity) and noneconomic benefits (including self-esteem and increased social interaction) of adult learning.
Second, less-educated individuals tend to be less aware of learning opportunities. A combination of easily searchable, up-to-date online information and personal guidance to help individuals define their own training needs and identify the appropriate programs is needed, as is information about possible funding sources.
Third, clear certification of learning outcomes and recognition of nonformal learning are also incentives for training. Transparent standards, embedded in a framework of national qualifications, should be developed alongside reliable assessment procedures. Recognition of prior learning can also reduce the time needed to obtain a certain qualification and thus the cost of foregone earnings.
And not least, it is important to ensure that programs are relevant to users and are flexible enough, both in content and in how they are delivered to adapt to adults’ needs.
