The lifespan of skills is shrinking, driven by rapid technological change, shifts in the job market, and the need for continuous learning.

Technology is advancing faster than ever, with new tools and systems constantly emerging. As a result, the skills required for many jobs are changing quickly, and workers must regularly update their abilities to stay competitive.

The job market is also in flux. Automation and artificial intelligence are disrupting industries, leading to shifts in the types of skills employers need. Jobs that once seemed secure are now at risk of being automated, making it essential for people to keep learning new skills to remain employable.

Finally, the demand for adaptability is rising. In today’s fast-moving world, workers need to adjust quickly and pick up new skills as they go. This means committing to lifelong learning and being ready to invest in personal growth.

Access to training

While the requirement to learn is well understood, however, the issue of who is responsible is far less clear-cut. For instance, research from the London School of Economics shows that workplace training isn’t something that’s available to many of us. Indeed, the study found that less than 1 in 4 of us received any training from our employer.

Much of the learning we do undertake is conducted online, but research from the University of Eastern Finland suggests there are mixed results from these programs. The researchers explain that many online courses do little but produce certificates of completion that do little to produce real learning.

They explored the remote learning landscape in organizations in the tech and law enforcement sectors, and found that it’s common for learning to be conducted alongside one’s day-to-day work, which can precipitate a juggling act that employees are usually forced to manage on their own, which often means the learning is done in their own time.

“Inadequate pedagogical support from the organization could lead to situations where online lectures were listened to amidst other tasks, or training was completed during the quieter hours of the night, at the end of a long shift,” the researchers explain.

“Learning was often described as the transfer of information in a lecture-heavy format, with the content not necessarily being fully relevant to employees’ own work. Sometimes, they also struggled to understand how to put the things learned to practice.”

Beyond participation

The study reminds us that simply enrolling, or even completing, a course is not sufficient evidence to suggest that skills have been learned. Indeed, the researchers caution that certificates of participation can often give people a false belief in their abilities and their actual competences lag somewhat behind.

If employees get bogged down in this mindset, they can start to collect certifications in the misguided belief that they’re engaged in meaningful learning rather than something more superficial.

Things were slightly different in the tech sector, where learning was seen more as a part of everyday life. Things were complicated by the rise of remote working, however, as this made the kind of tacit and informal learning that often happens purely by virtue of the irregular conversations we have each day that much harder, both because interactions are more deliberate and also that those interactions can increase ambiguity.

“With remote work, spontaneous and informal encounters tend to get overshadowed by structured and content-heavy meetings,” the researchers explain. “It’s a shame because, according to the study participants, the best new ideas often emerge in such informal encounters.”

Eroding trust

The authors argue that the rise of remote work often coincides with an erosion of trust and a general decline in the social glue that binds us together (see this article on how this can be averted).

The kind of tacit learning that form the bedrock of our professional development requires a degree of trust and community that is hard to cultivate. This trust not only allows us to engage with our peers but it also creates the kind of culture of psychological safety that allows us to learn from our mistakes.

Targeted training

They believe that the best approach is to share responsibility for professional development, with training targeted towards the competence needs of both the organization and the individual. This needs to be accompanied by dedicated time for reflection and experimentation, both during the training session itself and during the normal working day.

“Enabling diverse, multi-channel interaction and informal encounters, together with engaging learning methods and sufficient time allocation, help to maintain innovation and competence development even in remote work,” they explain.

Indeed, they argue that the rise in online learning has precipitated the notion that learning is a one-way process whereby we consume content and knowledge flows into our brains. While that can be the case, it’s far from a guaranteed process, and it’s far more likely to happen when learning becomes more of a two-way discussion that features reflection and social interaction.

None of which is to suggest that online learning is bad, but rather that it needs deliberate interventions by managers to ensure that employees get the time and the support to make learning happen effectively.