How Does Lifelong Learning Help Your Career Development?

4 Benefits Lifelong Learning Brings to You and Your Team

The concept of lifelong learning has been around for decades, but it has recently taken on a new urgency. A recent survey by findcourses.co.uk reveals that since COVID-19 hit, 53% of learners said they were more likely to learn something new now than ever before.

There are a few factors that have contributed to this development. First, the devastation in the job market caused by COVID-19 has brought about a renewed focus on training. In our survey on how COVID-19 has affected learning, the top two reasons stated by respondents on why they are more likely to learn something are:

• I have more time to dedicate to a course (selected by 56.8% of respondents)

• I want to make myself more valuable to my employer (36.8%)

Second, there is a growing awareness of the longer-term change in the workplace - automation and technology are predicted to soon displace certain existing jobs and tasks. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and McKinsey estimate that 90% of workers will need to reskill by 2030. Over the next decade, as job roles evolve, 26 million workers will need to upskill while 5 million workers will require retraining.

In the face of these challenges faced by the workforce, both individuals and the government have identified learning as not only a possible but necessary solution to respond to the challenges. 

In a recent survey by Future Learn, a significant proportion of UK respondents (40%) say they’re likely to take an online course within the next 5 years in order to grow their skill set and get ahead in their career. 

The UK government too is making lifelong learning a key plank in its plan to combat unemployment. The government announced a landmark Lifetime Skills Guarantee training programme in September 2020 to prepare the workforce for jobs of the future.

So why have so many people put their faith in lifelong education to enhance their career prospects? In this article, we highlight 4 key benefits that lifelong learning brings not only to you as an individual employee, but also to your team.

What is the concept of lifelong learning?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary:

lifelong learning is defined as the process of gaining knowledge and skills throughout your life, often to help you do your job properly.

More commonly, lifelong learning is accepted as learning that takes place at all stages of a person’s life. Lifelong learning encompasses formal, non-formal and informal learning.

“We all go through cycles of learning... Whether that’s through formal education or not is a separate question, but I think the starting point would be that we’ve really got to look to lifelong education, rather than formal education only happening at one point in your life.”

- Dr Rachid Hourizi Director, Institute of Coding 

Get a more detailed picture of what lifelong learning means and its importance to you and your company in our article What Does Lifelong Learning Mean? How Can It Help You?

What benefits does lifelong learning bring to your career development?

Lifelong learning can benefit not only you, but your team as well. Instilling a commitment to lifelong learning at a team level will help you and those around you commit to self-development; and here are some great reasons to do this:

Benefit #1. Lifelong learning sharpens the mind

Research shows that learning can delay the onset of dementia. Researchers conducted a study on individuals enrolled in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. They concluded that lifetime intellectual enrichment might delay the onset of cognitive impairment, and lifelong learning can be used as a successful intervention to delay or prevent the onset of dementia.

How this helps you:

Lifelong learning provides you with the intellectual stimulation that will help to keep your mind sharp even as you age. This enables you to prolong your career and have a long and fulfilling working life.

How this helps your team:

When older employees remain mentally sharp for a prolonged period, your team will be able to take advantage of the wealth of experience that older employees possess. The whole organisation can then continue to benefit from the experienced employees’ contributions.

Benefit #2. Lifelong learning enhances your professional confidence

Many people believe that learning could enhance their confidence. In the Future Learn survey, over a third of employed adults in the UK (35%) believe that learning could boost their professional confidence. 

How this helps you:

If you’ve been doing the same job or routine for a while, you may find it daunting to step out of your comfort zone and take on a new challenge. However, when you participate in lifelong learning, you are likely to gain (or regain) confidence in your ability to learn something new. This could then help you gain confidence in taking on new professional challenges.

How this helps your team:

When your confidence in your ability to learn something new increases, you will also naturally gain the confidence to share your new knowledge or learning process with others.

This then becomes a virtuous circle - when you share your knowledge with your team, they benefit from increased knowledge and skills; your contribution to your team also affirms your confidence in what you have to offer.

Benefit #3. Lifelong learning empowers late bloomers

With lifelong learning and a learning society, people who did not get the right qualifications earlier in life are less likely to be deprived of opportunities.

Some research suggests that those in their twenties have rapid brain functioning and memory skills. However, empathy and strong executive functioning skills only start to peak in people who are in their thirties and forties on average. And those aged 50 and above can begin to reap the benefits of wisdom.

How this helps you:

If you’re a late bloomer, lifelong learning - combined with the mature qualities that you are likely to develop later in life - can be critical in helping you launch new, successful careers and businesses.

How this helps your team:

You can share your awareness that lifelong learning can help develop people at different stages of their lives with your team and manager. Your employer can then help you and other employees pursue training opportunities that are appropriate for your levels and career goals. Such training opportunities could not only increase employees’ productivity but could also nurture employees’ motivation and loyalty to the team and organisation.

“We don’t know what the jobs are going to be in five or 10 years. We need adaptive people with resilience, the ability to learn and change their careers.”

- Nick Isles, Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design

Benefit #4. Lifelong learning widens your career opportunities

Lifelong learning is essential for anyone who aspires to take their career to the next level, or has an eye on future-proofing their careers.

Training can enhance the skills you already have. Lifelong education will also enable you to learn a new skill or trade.

“Lifelong learning has to be a philosophy we all live by. Culture is accelerating so rapidly that I think we’re all going to need to recognise that we will need two, three, four career changes.” 

- Dylan Williams, Droga 5

How this helps you:

You may wish to develop your skills to shine in your current role and move up to a more senior role. Or you may wish to reskill to pursue other opportunities or because of other reasons. (See the 4 top reasons that people reskill.)

In either case, lifelong learning is the key that will help you unlock your career opportunities.

How this helps your team:

Lifelong learning including formal, targeted training can help nurture your team members to take on more senior positions. Having people with the right skills will enable your team and organisation to grow and thrive.

While technology and automation are likely to displace certain jobs in some sectors, employment may not fall if workers can move on to perform new tasks. Hence, reskilling can help your organisation retain experienced existing employees.