Lifelong learning can help people achieve a sense of personal fulfilment and satisfaction, whether it is through pursuing personal interests or fulfilling professional ambitions. People have a natural motivation to learn, and lifelong learning improves the overall quality of life and a sense of self-worth through setting and reaching goals.
Lifelong Learning in the Workplace
At work, lifelong learning refers to the idea that people should continually be upskilling and reskilling. Employees with up-to-date, flexible skillsets enable an organisation to stay competitive. Other benefits to having a workforce focused on lifelong learning include a healthier culture, increased employee engagement, loyalty, and retention, improved performance and more agility overall. In addition, market trends are changing rapidly, with new processes being created so quickly that companies can barely keep up. If employees are lifelong learners, they can keep up-to-date with product and market knowledge and possess the skills, capabilities and attitude to succeed in their roles.
With its proven benefits for employees and the organisation, businesses need to encourage and support a culture of lifelong learning. However, lifelong learning is typically a voluntary and often self-initiated decision. Learners must be self-motivated and driven by personal interest or personal development. Cohort-based learning makes learning more enjoyable, which motivates people to learn. There are many other benefits to cohort-based learning that encourages lifelong learning.
Cohort-based Platforms Reflect the Way We Work
Nowadays, work most often occurs in teams, departments and cross-functions, especially with the rise in agile ways of working. At all levels of an organisation, work is collaborative, which is the way of the future. As such, employees in any role need to operate in a collaborative environment.
Cohort-based learning provides a collaborative environment that encourages relationship-building with peers and fellow learners. It is particularly effective as it is around teams at its core. This aspect of cohort-based learning platforms helps motivate adult learners to continue their lifelong learning pursuits.
Cohort-based Platforms Support Social Learning
The most valuable learning experiences are often social, such as at a conference, retreat, workshop or breakout session. These learning methods are more engaging than learning alone on a device, reading through materials, or watching pre-recorded webinars. Particularly after the pandemic, when people have spent significant amounts of time in front of a screen, it has become more difficult to keep online learners engaged.
People are social beings, and group activities are more effective than learning alone. Learning with others is significantly more engaging, which leads to higher course completion rates, more effective learning and increased motivation for lifelong learning.
Cohort-based Platforms Help with Knowledge Application
Learning is not just about accumulating knowledge but rather applying the knowledge we acquire to real-life situations, personally and professionally. The context and application of learning are driving the shift towards cohort-based learning. When we learn with others, we consider their perspectives and discuss ideas, which helps us better retain information. It also lets us understand how the knowledge we have acquired and apply it to the situations we are in.
Cohort-Based Platforms Teach Required Soft Skills
Learning in a group gives the unique opportunity to learn skills needed to thrive in the modern business environment. Cohort-based learning platforms are extremely effective in educating learners on areas that are traditionally hard to teach, such as leadership and creativity. This is one of the main reasons cohort-based learning is becoming more popular. These strategic learning initiatives focus on developing capabilities useful in business and life, such as teamwork, decision-making, creativity, and strategic thinking.
In Conclusion
Cohort-based learning is the future of workplace learning – transforming learning experiences through peer-to-peer collaboration to drive deep engagement, build capability and shift mindsets.
Cahoot Learning is an online learning community platform. We design cohort-based learning programs that transform learning experiences through peer-to-peer collaboration to drive deep engagement, build capability and shift mindsets. Our courses allow learners to solve real-world problems, arming them with the tools that let them apply their learnings in their roles. Get in touch with us to find out more about our cohort-based learning platform.
