How to Thrive in a Fast-Paced World as a Lifelong Learner
Traditional higher educational systems are rapidly becoming more obsolete as lifelong learners try to adapt to evolving learning environments. They are now being asked to deal with changes that require innovative approaches and perspectives that could give them an edge for their future career and employment.
Previously effective learning models no longer apply to the modern teaching and learning environment. It is becoming even more important for colleges, universities, and training institutes to not just focus on ‘achieving competencies’ but progressively aiming for lifelong learning while attending to their learners’ needs.
Tackling Lifelong Learners’ Needs Today for Tomorrow
Traditional post-secondary educational institutions are being driven towards rapid changes as several emerging forces are changing the game for teaching and training. As one of the most affected sectors by these changes, colleges, and universities needed to find a way to adapt to the increasing demand for learning needs while individual preferences of consumers continue to rapidly evolve.
Meeting expectations for employment is now becoming even more tedious, especially for fresh graduates. Skills and learned abilities are often subject to obsolescence. What you may have learned for the last four years, may no longer be applicable to the employment sector after finishing your four-degree course.
Now more than ever, it is becoming evident that individual learners need access to both accelerated, personalized, and flexible learning, and progressive and active platforms that will give way to lifelong learning. This should be taken into consideration due to the pressures of a rapidly evolving work and economic environment. With these recent changes, much emphasis has now been given towards the continuous aim for lifelong learning.
Cultivating Effective Habits as a Lifelong Learner
Lifelong learners prioritize self-education more than anything else. This often gives them an uncanny advantage over other trainees and employees in the field of career development. Lifelong learning can be attained and cultivated to grow into as a lifestyle, and this could be an advantage especially with how eminent and unexpected changes are becoming in the school and work environment. These highly effective habits of lifelong learners could be learned and used to effectively deal with a fast-paced work and school environment.
Not only do lifelong learners put emphasis on self-learning, but they are most often classified as voracious readers as well. Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet have dedicated their lives to reading and self-learning in their continuous pursuit of knowledge.
Additionally, lifelong learners also eagerly maintain their to-learn list. As the majority of us go about the day to day activities in either work or school, the number of ideas and insights that we also generate often pile up and get neglected because of other more important tasks on a specific duration. Maintaining a to-learn list ensures that new concepts and principles can be tackled at a scheduled time of the day.
Lifelong learners also tend to test their understanding, not only with their previous knowledge but also by sharing what they have recently learned to others and by teaching them through any means that they are often familiar with. This process helps them understand things more deeply and remember things much faster. Taking down notes, comparing new ideas with previously existing concepts, and sharing insights to people who are interested in parallel discussions, take self-learning a step further than by just passively reading and browsing through new materials.
Traditionally effective learning models no longer effectively deliver the same results, especially now that we are immersed in rapid changes that have tested the foundations of education. Training employees and teaching students could have been the standard basic aim of training institutes and colleges and universities, but applying the same principles could affect the overall development of the industry. Introducing new platforms for learning and training can make a huge difference, as adapting can either lead to making or breaking the entire future of the education sector.
