About the Author: Lori Seiders is the director of organizational development and training for the Masonic Villages of Pennsylvania.
What is Lifelong Learning, and what is the buzz about employers offering education to employees as a benefit?
Lifelong Learning, according to Dictionary.com, is “the provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people’s lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfillment.”
Lifelong Learning enables people to function in the world around them. This occurs through formal education, such as elementary, middle and high school, as well as through colleges and universities. Employer-sponsored provided learning through their internal education provided in the form of internal courses, classes, seminars and on-the-job training, etc., is another formal method. The specific focus of Lifelong Learning is to have the ability to learn for a lifetime, with learning being the center of the activity. Informal learning is what you pick up as you watch other people who influence you in a positive way, and sometimes in a not-so-positive way. How you interact with family and friends is a type of Lifelong Learning that you will not find in a book, but is very essential to your survival.
Some people feel learning enhances their ability to feel alive and worthwhile. Lifelong learning occurs worldwide. The European Lifelong Learning Initiative defines it as “…a continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills and understanding they will require throughout their lifetimes and to apply them with confidence, creativity and enjoyment, in all roles, circumstances and environments.” (Watson 2003: 3)
Employers are finding that their employees want to obtain education, so they are answering that call with educational assistance programs, collegiate partnerships, and even paying for a college degree if employees attend the college they fund. For example, Starbucks employees can get a free four-year degree from Arizona State through its online education program. Chipotle is also joining this movement, as are other employers that wish to retain their talented workforce.
I love this quote by Bishop T.D. Jakes: “The world is a university, and everyone in the world is a teacher. Make sure when you wake up in the morning, you go to school.”
