Go1 is excited to announce our partnership with the Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI), offering the Egyptian banking sector access to more than 80,000 courses through one centralised platform. 

EBI aims to support and develop the human capital of the banking sector to face the future, and for organisations to reach their full potential and strategic goals. 

Andrew Barnes, CEO, Go1 said, “Egypt has always been a strategic market that we were keen to establish our footprint in. We are pleased that we partnered with the pioneering Egyptian Banking Institute. This partnership will make it easy for banks in Egypt to quickly access our extensive library which offers much depth and breadth.”

Mr. Abdel Aziz Nossier, Executive Director of the Egyptian Banking Institute, stated: “The mandate set by the Central Bank of Egypt is to develop the skills of financial service professionals across Egypt’s banking sector. Go1’s comprehensive library has the breadth and depth to meet our banks’ diverse training needs, ranging from compliance and professional skills, to personal development and IT skills. We are very excited by our partnership with Go1 and Go1’s distributor in MENA region, Consultrics. We look forward to always offering our clients the cutting-edge of training.”

Dr. Hanan El Wagie, Managing Director of Consultrics, Go1’s distributor in MENA region said: “We’re very excited about this partnership. Egyptian banks will now be able to access Go1’s extensive eLearning library in a one-stop solution platform, while enjoying the exceptional support and guidance of the Egyptian Banking Institute. This will enable Egyptian banking professionals to quickly ramp up their knowledge and skills in par with global standards.”

EBI was established in 1991 by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), as its official training arm to apply the best international practices to develop the technical and managerial skills of the banking and financial sector professionals. EBI's vision is to become the financial knowledge hub for Egypt and the surrounding region through providing integrated knowledge services for the financial sector and spreading financial literacy. To learn more about EBI, visit www.ebi.gov.

Go1 makes it easy for organisations to learn, with the world's most comprehensive online library of learning resources. Go1 pulls the world’s top online learning providers into one place, delivering all the learning an organisation needs in a single solution. With over 1.5 million learners – and growing – Go1 is a world leader in online learning.

Go1.com has raised over US$80 million in total funding from investors including M12 - Microsoft’s venture fund, Madrona Venture Group, SEEK, Salesforce Ventures, Shark Tank investor Steve Baxter and Oxford University. To learn more about Go1, visit www.go1.com.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

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Go1 and Egyptian Banking Institute partner to empower financial service professionals through eLearning

Too often, L&D teams are seduced by short-term thinking. In fast-paced environments, it can be difficult to see past your immediate goals and plan for the long term. However, in a world where ‘sustainability’ is on the tip of everyone’s tongue, L&D must adapt. 

Whether it’s environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, or sustaining a healthy work-life balance, sustainability is now a critical consideration in most areas of life, and one from which L&D is not exempt. 

In fact, with the shelf life of skills shrinking and the cycle of unlearning and relearning in full swing, creating a sustainable learning culture should be a top priority for L&D teams. 

With this in mind, we’ll outline the importance of creating a sustainable learning culture, before asking what a sustainable learning culture looks like, and offering four practical tips to create a sustainable learning culture. 

Ready to put sustainability front and centre? Read on. 

The importance of creating a sustainable learning culture

If, like us, you’re a firm believer in lifelong learning, then the value of a sustainable learning culture is self-evident. However, to put it in more concrete terms, teams who create sustainable learning cultures also tend to be more successful in areas such as revenue, growth, and talent retention. 

Training Zone outlines the strategic importance of having a sustainable learning culture, saying, “Linking work-based training with an organisation's strategic goals and objectives can significantly improve business performance and, importantly, develop an organisational culture that nurtures innovation.” 

According to a recent report by Docebo, which surveyed 832 talent development leaders, just 31% believe that their organisation currently has a culture of learning to a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ extent. Only 6% of respondents said they didn’t have a learning culture at all, with the remaining respondents split between having a learning culture to a small or moderate extent.  

While most organisations recognise the importance of developing a sustainable learning culture, these findings show that doing so is an ongoing process, and there is usually room for improvement. 

Business benefits of sustainable learning

Organisations that cultivate a sustainable learning culture reap the rewards, with Docebo’s report finding that high-performing organisations are 5x more likely to have an extensive learning culture. Top performers are also twice as likely to say their learning functions help meet organisational business goals and 3x more likely to hold leaders accountable for demonstrating the importance of learning. 

Additionally, top-performing learning cultures are 6x more likely to “discuss an employer’s commitments to ongoing talent development during pre-hire interviews.” Such companies are also 3x more likely to leverage their learning culture in the recruitment process, showing that teams with entrenched learning cultures have a better chance of securing top talent.

Given these findings, building a sustainable learning culture is beneficial on multiple levels. Obviously, learning is its own reward, and the pursuit of knowledge is always a worthy goal. Yet, from a business-centric perspective, organisations with sustainable learning cultures tend to outperform their counterparts in many areas. As Docebo explains, “robust cultures of learning are distinct hallmarks of organisations that consistently produce the best business results — companies that lead the world’s markets in revenue growth, profitability, market share, and customer satisfaction.”

What does a sustainable learning culture look like?

Sustainability can mean different things to different L&D teams, whether it’s securing L&D’s position in the global marketplace, ensuring your team’s goals will be viable in 5 years, or upskilling employees to maintain relevant skills in a changing L&D landscape. Whatever sustainability means to your team, there are a few overarching traits of sustainable learning cultures. 

A study by the Association of Talent Development provides a useful definition of sustainable learning, highlighting several shared characteristics of successful learning cultures. They explain, “A culture of learning...is one in which employees continuously seek, share, and apply new knowledge and skills to improve individual and organisational performance. The importance of the pursuit and application of learning is expressed in organisational values and permeates all aspects of organisational life.”

A sustainable learning culture shares these characteristics, but with extra emphasis placed on long-term planning and repeatable, future-ready processes.

Characteristics of sustainable learning cultures

Deloitte’s 2021 Human Capital Trends report identifies several notable trends in sustainable workplace learning cultures, such as, “integrating workers’ physical, mental, financial, and social health into the design of work itself”, “creating teams and superteams that use technology to enhance natural human ways of working”, and “developing and acting on forward-looking insights using real-time data to harness workforce potential”.

Perhaps most importantly, they identify “capitalising on worker agency and choice as the means to drive learning, adaptability, and impact” as a key pillar of sustainable learning cultures. Unsurprisingly, when learners have agency over their professional development, results are more likely to be positive in the long term. 

According to interviews with talent development leaders, other characteristics of sustainable learning cultures include “closely aligned business and learning strategies, organisational values that affirm learning’s importance, and an atmosphere in which learning is so ingrained that it simply becomes a way of life.” 

Collaboration and personalisation lead the way

Deloitte's Human Capital Trends report lays out the top factors for sustainable workplace design. According to their research, 39% of respondents believe ‘introducing collaboration platforms’ is key to sustainable work, while 36% say ‘allowing for personal choice in determining how work gets done’ is vital to sustainable workplace design. 

Similarly, Docebo’s report identifies collaboration and open knowledge sharing as crucial factors in sustainable learning cultures, saying that in top-performing organisations “employees share knowledge with their colleagues at a rate four times greater than that of workers in lower-performing firms.” 

Likewise, the Association of Talent Development believes that ‘making time for learning’, ‘personalised development plans’, ‘creating accountability’, and ‘using culture to attract new talent’ are key contributors to sustainable workplace learning. 

While this may sound straightforward, simple things like learner collaboration, prioritising learning, and personalised learner development plans can go a long way to creating a sustainable learning culture. 

These findings paint a picture of modern sustainable learning cultures. It seems workplaces must take a holistic approach to employee wellbeing to reduce burnout and increase sustainability, while also removing barriers to allow open communication and knowledge sharing. 

Further, sustainable learning cultures tend to place employees in control of their learning, via initiatives such as personalised development plans, learning in the flow of work, and technologies that facilitate learning anywhere, any time. Over time, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, where learners actively seek out knowledge, and learning becomes a way of life. 

Four practical tips to create a sustainable learning culture

While creating a sustainable learning culture is likely a high priority for most L&D teams, achieving this goal isn’t easy. As we know, only 31% of organisations believe their learning culture currently performs to a high or very high extent, leaving the rest in a state of development. 

To help you take the next step towards a sustainable learning culture, here are four practical tips. 

Embedding a learning culture on an organisational level starts with your leaders. After all, why would employees take sustainable learning seriously if leaders don’t practice what they preach? 

Harnessing your leaders is good advice for any form of organisational change, with McKinsey finding that “good implementers were 1.4 times more likely than poor implementers to have change leaders who had personally led multiple change efforts.” 

In the context of sustainable learning cultures, high-performing organisations are 3x more likely to hold leaders accountable for demonstrating the importance of learning.

2. Put your learners in control with lifelong learning and learning in the flow 

As mentioned above, learners are more likely to succeed when they have autonomy over their learning. This just makes sense: would you rather someone tell you what you have to learn, or listen to your needs and help you develop a personalised learning plan? 

The stats back this up, with ‘allowing for personal choice in determining how work gets done’ ranking second among the most important factors for sustainable workplace design. 

For further insights on this topic, we analyse the importance of putting your learners in control in our recent blog post on making the shift from formal education to lifelong learning and our recent webinar on learning in the flow of work. 

3. Implement a growth mindset to develop a culture of knowledge sharing

Once again, it all comes back to mindset. As we discussed in our recent article on fixed mindsets vs growth mindsets, adopting a growth mindset opens up a world of possibilities for L&D teams — including embedding a sustainable learning culture. 

By doing this, you will remove communication barriers and develop a culture of knowledge sharing. As mentioned, high-performing learning cultures share knowledge 4x more than other organisations, so this should be a high priority.

The more you share knowledge among teams, the more you learn and grow, and the more sustainable your learning culture will become!

It’s fantastic to have a good learning culture now, but developing a sustainable learning culture is all about planning for the future. Having a future-ready learning culture has become more important for L&D teams, as the shelf-life of skills is shrinking, forcing a wave of reskilling and a shift from hard skills to soft skills. 

Put simply, L&D teams must focus on skills of the future to ensure their learning culture will be sustainable in the long run. 

Unsure what skills your team will need in the future? Don’t worry, we cover that in detail in our recent blog on closing the L&D skills gap.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs. 

Sustainability is now a critical consideration in most areas of life, and one from which L&D is not exempt. As such, we look at how to create a sustainable learning culture.

How to create a sustainable learning culture

Now that right skilling is at the top of many business agendas, it’s never been more important for L&D to get the learning content right. Organisations that incorporate a diverse mix of training styles, formats and delivery methods are seeing impressive results in terms of performance and profitability. 

So what does it look like, and how you can do it, too? 

You need to offer your people a breadth of content as diverse as the performance challenges you’re trying to overcome. It’s a concept embraced by Stanford, no less. They’re strong advocates, saying that the flexibility to learn in a variety of ways means “you’ll learn more effectively”.

Rather than relying on any single method or learning tool, take full advantage of the abundance of technologies and training courses out there. Here are a few to consider.

For many organisations, gamification has become the glue that holds remote teams together, uniting them through shared content and common goals. Gen Z will have grown up with gamified educational tools, so this fun and immersive pattern of learning will be familiar to them, but it’s become equally popular with other age groups. 

Gamification keeps users engaged by introducing elements of competition and giving a sense of progression. Leaderboards and challenges tap into employees’ natural competitive drive, motivating them to complete the training modules and gain the skills that meet business goals.

The popularity of YouTube tutorials is a testament to the effectiveness of engagement with video-based learning. The ability to pause and repeat the content lets employees control the pace of learning.

According to a report by Wainhouse Research, 90% of employees surveyed found streaming video (both live and on-demand) to be effective for communicating work-related information. More specifically, workers believe that online video tools help improve learning, compared to traditional communication tools alone – making video an important part of the L&D content kit. 

Here content focuses on a specific objective, doing away with the flannel to cut straight to the ‘how to’. It’s delivered in short bursts via methods including podcasts and infographics. And as it’s usually designed for smartphones, it’s ideal for just-in-time learning and fast-paced, changeable business environments. 

Macrolearning also has its place. Areas such as leadership training or compliance can benefit from a macro approach – think experiential learning or online courses spread over hours or days. Learners are more immersed in the subject and gain an in-depth understanding of complex matters.

Right skilling needs smarter content curation

As an L&D professional tasked with right skilling your workforce, you owe it to your learners to embrace a wide range of content. But skill requirements change quickly, so how do you keep up?

Many organisations turn to an online learning content marketplace. These massive repositories can certainly make your life easier, offering access to a huge breadth of subject matter in a variety of styles, formats and delivery methods. 

A large library of content allows you to deliver new learning in days, not months. Go1 is the world’s most comprehensive online training library, gathering the top training providers such as Skillsoft, edX, and Thomson Reuters, into one place. With experts to help you curate the content, it’s a good choice for savvy L&D professionals keen to position their learning function as a strategic enabler within the business.

By calling on a wide range of content, L&D professionals can create a learning environment that leads to success and creates business impact. It’s the smarter way to approach right skilling and ensure learning has a seat at the table. 

Now that right skilling is top of many business agendas, it’s never been more important for L&D to get the learning content right. So what does it look like, and how you can do it, too? 

Why right skilling is easy with content breadth

Psst… want to know the biggest reason L&D budgets get cut? It’s because most senior L&D professionals don’t know how to operate L&D like a business within their company. 

In the recent webinar How to make L&D a strategic enabler, industry experts Lori Niles-Hofmann and Amanda Nolen joined Ollie Browning of Go1 to reveal the secrets that make L&D a more successful function. 

There were plenty of useful takeaways from the webinar; we’ve pulled out our top four. 

Next time a stakeholder comes to you with a request, resist the temptation to jump in and simply fulfil the order. Instead, ask one simple question: “What is the evidence of need?” 

If your stakeholder can’t come up with an answer, other departments in your organisation can. Speak to IT, internal communications and marketing. They are already tracking employee behaviour and offer rich seams of data that can provide you with evidence – such as the ‘help’ subjects people are searching on the company intranet, details of performance goals, and findings from employee engagement surveys. 

If the data shows evidence of need, your next step is to drill down to discover the strategic value of this intervention to the business. 

Now it's the time to find out what the stakeholder is truly trying to achieve. Is it to reduce risk, save money, improve performance, lower attrition rates? 

The request must be tied to a business goal. If you need help locating your organisation’s business goals, take a look at recent company reports, turn to the Project Management Office to see what areas of the business they’re investing in, or speak to HR and those looking at strategic workforce planning to see what skills gaps they’re facing. 

Don’t be afraid to ask. L&D must use all the information available to align itself with the desired business outcomes.

Once you’ve given your stakeholder’s request the green light, you want to make your training impactful. Developing senior-level champions for training is key. Managers are the link between L&D and your organisation’s business strategy, so you need to get them on board early. The more positive a manager is about training, the more likely it is that the programme will gain traction with employees. 

There is a lot of great content out there, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. But with companies clamouring for the latest skills to stay productive and competitive, L&D professionals are often unsure where to turn. 

One option is Go1, an online marketplace of more than 100,000 courses from the world’s top training providers, including Harvard, Microsoft and Blinkist. You’ll find solutions to meet a diverse range of training needs all in one place – everything from compliance to communication, soft skills to leadership training – all carefully curated to meet your business priorities. 

If online content is part of your L&D strategy, a one-stop shop like Go1 can help you overcome some of the challenges you’re facing today. 

L&D must use all the tools available to become a strategic enabler. With the help of these tips, you’ll be able to speak to your organisation in ‘business language’ and demonstrate the impact L&D will have in terms of productivity, revenue, customer service and staff satisfaction. That way, L&D can deliver training that produces strategic business results. 

In our recent webinar 'How to make L&D a strategic enabler', industry experts Lori Niles-Hofmann and Amanda Nolen joined Ollie Browning of Go1 to reveal the secrets that make L&D a more successful function. There were plenty of useful takeaways from the webinar; we’ve pulled out our top four.

Top 4 takeaways from ‘How to make L&D a strategic enabler’

In our recent webinar 'How to make L&D a strategic enabler', industry experts Lori Niles-Hofmann and Amanda Nolen joined Ollie Browning of Go1 to reveal the secrets that make L&D a more successful function. There were plenty of useful takeaways from the webinar; we’ve pulled out our top four. 

Right skilling is not just another term in the L&D buzzword bingo. It’s about giving employees the skills they need to add business value, rather than simply notching up more hours of learning. 

In the recent webinar How to make L&D a strategic enabler, industry experts Lori Niles-Hofmann and Amanda Nolen joined Ollie Browning of Go1 to reveal what right skilling looks like, the business benefits, and how you can you make it happen in your organisation. 

Don’t confuse right skilling with reskilling, a term associated with helping employees whose jobs become redundant to ‘pivot’ and take on a different role within the company. 

With right skilling, employees learn new competencies to upgrade their current performance; competencies that convert into productive business results.

For L&D to cement its position as a value-add function, it must develop the knack of spotting strategic skills gaps. Look at what your organisation needs and what the market needs from a business perspective. Focus on the big-hitters: risk, safety, compliance and revenue, and be strategic about allocating resources. 

Target the training at the right people who can apply the new skills in the job they’re doing, or who are in your immediate talent pipeline. Fail to do that, and your people will be investing their time in something they won’t be able to apply and that your organisation doesn’t need. 

Right skilling current employees is a smarter investment than hiring new workers. As you right skill your staff, you increase your workforce’s effectiveness and boost business value. These are improvements that can be measured in direct monetary terms. For example, increased sales, decreased employee turnover, or better rates of customer retention as a result of improved service. 

Right skilling doesn’t have to be complicated. Like anything worthwhile, it will take some effort. But this will soon pay off. 

Start by designing a portfolio of initiatives that deliver engaging learning experiences. You’ll need content that offers sufficient breadth of style, format and delivery to suit your various employees. 

It’s a big ask, but before you consign right skilling to the ‘too hard’ pile, remember you don’t have to tackle the content alone. 

An online L&D marketplace such as Go1 can provide a window to a huge range of training providers. And rather than managing multiple companies – and multiple fees – a one-stop shop like Go1 gives you an access-all-areas pass that lets you cherry-pick content from various providers while only dealing with one supplier. That way, you can save L&D time and budget. 

For L&D professionals today, it’s not enough to just talk about adding business value. Now is the time to put a right skilling strategy in place to show your organisation that L&D can make an impact. Are you in?

Right skilling is not just another term in the L&D buzzword bingo, it’s about giving employees the skills they need to add business value. We analyse what right skilling is, who needs it, and how L&D makes it happen.

Enable ‘right skilling’ to add business value

Right skilling is not just another term in the L&D buzzword bingo, it’s about giving employees the skills they need to add business value. We analyse what right skilling is, who needs it, and how L&D makes it happen. 

Tracking requests to our Global Support team has now become a lot easier. 

At Go1 we understand that getting the help you need, when you need it, is important to all businesses. Which is why as of February 1st 2021, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our new Customer Support Hub, powered by Zendesk.  

As a customer, this new support hub will enable you to lodge a service job or request with our Global Support team, comment against an existing request to provide more information, and access all of your requests, all from the one location.  

To get started, simply email your inquiry to support@go1.com. Zendesk will automatically create a request on the Customer Support Hub on your behalf. Alternatively, you can head to the Customer Support Hub, sign up for an account, and log in to submit a request there directly. 

The new Customer Support Hub account allows you to view the status of your tickets, provide more information on a request by posting a comment, or create a new ticket on the fly. You'll also receive an email from Zendesk when there is an update on your request. You can either reply to that email or log in to the Customer Support Hub to respond - the choice is yours. 

Provides a full audit trail so customers can track every conversation from origin to resolution, even if it spans multiple channels and agents 

Full integration with our Customer Support Managers and Engineering teams for visibility of your issue across Go1 

Advanced analytics helps Go1 see trends in customer support tickets, which influences the product roadmap and leads to fewer frustrations for customers 

Explore the Go1 Customer Support Hub today 

With our new Customer Support Hub, powered by Zendesk, we are confident that we can deliver more meaningful experiences to our customers.  

If you have any questions regarding what the new Customer Support Hub means for you, please don't hesitate to reach out! We're here to help. 

Written by guest blogger Maureen Frank, Chief Disruption Officer at Emberin, and Diversity & Inclusion thought leader. Maureen challenges leaders and organisations to get real about diversity and inclusion. She has mentored over 35,000 people worldwide and has a passion for women in leadership and inclusive career development. Her approach to diversity and inclusion is challenging and unique, yet simplifies a complex discussion. 

I committed to having one hundred virtual coffees with leaders and diversity and inclusion experts from around the world. As a result, I have been having some very interesting conversations. My main question is:

What will the pivot in diversity and inclusion look like post-COVID?

This is the second article in a series of thoughts, drawing from these conversations, my own research, and my hands-on experience supporting leaders to be more inclusive during the lockdown. 

If you haven’t already, be sure to read the first article in this series, looking at taking the lessons of COVID forward to our new normal. 

In times of crisis and beyond, a conscious commitment to harnessing the potential of diversity and inclusion is vital. When faced with extreme stress, the standard human reaction is to shut down and close off, not open up. If leaders are to cultivate diversity and inclusion in their organisations, they need to be even warier than usual of contracted, isolating thinking – in themselves and in their teams.

One of the strongest messages to emerge from social distancing and isolation is that humans are at their best when they’re connected and engaged with each other. Diversity and inclusion are the ingredients of deep and meaningful interactions.

This is not fluffy stuff. The business outcomes of a diverse and inclusive workplace culture go beyond feeling good about ourselves. What we’re talking about is greater competitiveness, better results, and ultimately delivering key business objectives, time and time again.

The impact of a crisis is felt differently by different groups of people

For example, the 2008 recession was more immediately felt by men in terms of job losses. Yet, the prolonged cuts to public spending meant lower wages for the female-dominated public sector and a reduction in policies and financial support such as childcare for working mothers. 

Past pandemics, such as Ebola and Zika, also show different impacts for different demographics. The hardest hit have often been women who tend to be the ones caring for the sick at a greater risk to themselves, as well as lower-income households who have worse living conditions and reduced access to medical care.

Recognising that, although ‘we are all in this together’, we are not experiencing it in the same way is the first step to helping leaders create inclusive workplace cultures that are conscious of the crisis’ impact on different employee groups.

Additionally, behaviours that marginalise employees can go even more unnoticed when employees are working remotely. Employees can quickly feel that they are not being heard, are isolated from resources, or are unable to do the same quality or amount of work while working from home.

Inclusive mental health and wellbeing support is urgent

Leaders and managers must be more adept at spotting the signs of stress – their own and others – especially during this time of unrest.

Despite our best efforts to talk more openly about our mental health, there is still a level of stigma attached to it. Some fear it will be perceived as a weakness, while others feel it might hold them back professionally, and many believe that they will be judged unfairly as a result of disclosing information about their mental health.

If the current situation has taught us anything, it’s that none of us is insulated from the stress and anxiety that a global pandemic brings. Whether you’re concerned about loved ones, worried about navigating an ever-changing situation, or trying to stay safe as a vulnerable person, stress and anxiety have been a natural byproduct of COVID.

Many people find themselves in unimaginable circumstances, experiencing loneliness due to social distancing, being impacted by redundancies, or facing significant income challenges. Fortunately, there are many helpful wellbeing resources and tips available during these difficult times, as practising self-care is now more important than ever.

Taking the lessons of COVID forward to our ‘new normal’

Due to global lockdowns, organisations have had no choice but to rapidly adapt their business models, investing in technology to support remote working, while also improving connectivity with their customers and employees. 

With broad recognition that jobs can be performed just as efficiently outside of a nine-hour regular office timetable, we have an opportunity to transform our global working culture, utilising the flexible and remote working structures many of us now have in place. By doing this, not only can we step up progress in diversity and inclusion, thereby building a more creative workforce that can weather the storm, we can also create a better life-work balance.

Because of our inability to truly embrace flexibility, organisations have previously missed out on attracting top talent by shutting out large groups of people, particularly women who are more likely to work part-time because they still shoulder most of the domestic duties in the family. Similarly, people with disabilities and those experiencing physical and mental illness represent a largely untapped talent pool that could greatly benefit from flexible and remote working opportunities.

Flexible work and working from home have long been seen as either necessary or desired by women who shoulder a disproportionate burden of family care. But working from home, once a luxury for some, is now a necessity. Historically, the women (and men) who worked from home were perceived as less committed to their careers. Will this gender-biased assumption now be put to rest when everyone, from the CEO to the administrative assistant, is working from home?

What will responsibility look like at home as some people are laid off and others work from home long past the eight-hour workday? Most people don’t have a home office elegantly framing themselves for a video call, with books and fine art as a halo around them. But we can glimpse into their lives and see that men have generally always played a smaller role in childcare and family obligations. Do stay-at-home dads or male partners learn what their significant others juggle daily? Can there be a long-lasting shift that delegates obligations in a more equitable way?

Communities are actively coming together to help the most vulnerable. We have seen the advantages of working remotely and virtually – and the reductions in pollution. We can use this global shockwave to drive profound change by maintaining positive behaviours, the best agile work patterns, and new perspectives on what is possible. 

Guest blogger Maureen Frank takes us through the ways COVID will shape the future of diversity and inclusion. This is the second article in a series written by Maureen.

Diversity and inclusion post-COVID: we're in this together, but we aren’t experiencing it in the same way

Guest blogger Maureen Frank takes us through the ways COVID will shape the future of diversity and inclusion. This is the second article in a series written by Maureen. 

We’re very pleased to announce our partnership with Consultrics, an end-to-end eLearning consulting company located across Australia, Malaysia and The United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Through this partnership, Consultrics’ clients will be able to now access Go1’s expansive content library of over 80,000 courses, curated for their specific learning needs.

These courses are able to be curated for specific learning needs and include the world’s leading online training providers such as Harvard Edu, edX, Thomson Reuters, UL PureSafety, and Wall Street Prep. From compliance through to professional development, this combined offering provides end customers a comprehensive, best-in-class learning and development solution.

“As Go1 expands globally, we’re thrilled to be working with a partner like Consultrics, who has a deep understanding of the learning and development industry. This partnership will increase the availability and adoption of Go1’s comprehensive online training offering in the ever-growing MENA market,” stated Go1 co-founder and CEO, Andrew Barnes.

“Consultrics strongly believe that to deliver exceptional value to clients, it must partner with the best-of-breed market leaders in the learning and development space. Go1 topped this list. Having Go1’s extensive library as a core component of Consultrics solutions will offer our clients a limitless marketplace of knowledge, skills and choice. We’re very excited to partner with Go1,” adds Consultrics co-founder and Managing Director, Dr. Hanan El Wagie.

Consultrics are specialized in helping organizations enhance their people’s knowledge and skills by mapping training needs to the most suitable content that is easily accessible, compatible, current, and affordable. Consultrics work extensively with its affiliates and partners in sourcing and acquiring the best-of-breed training content, learning platforms, and subject matter experts.

Go1 makes it easy for organizations to train their staff, with the world's most comprehensive online training library. Go1 pulls the world’s top training providers into one place, delivering all the training an organization needs in a single solution. With over 1.5 million learners – and growing – Go1 is a world leader in online learning. Go1’s investors include Microsoft, Salesforce, SEEK, and Y Combinator.

Go1 partners with Consultrics to offer clients a limitless marketplace of knowledge, skills and choice

You learn something new every day. This saying is perhaps more relevant now than it ever has been. Factors such as the 24/7 news cycle, unfiltered access to information, and rapid rates of societal and technological change mean we are constantly flooded with new information — for better and for worse.  

Given this, it makes sense that we’ve been focusing on learning, unlearning, and relearning and growth mindsets in recent blogs. These elements all lead to one logical conclusion: making the shift from formal education to lifelong learning. 

These days, it’s no longer enough to complete a degree and assume those skills will remain constant for the rest of your working life. Just think, algorithms change by the day, new technologies are constantly adopted, and new scientific discoveries are always just around the corner. Without lifelong learning, your knowledge is stuck in the past. 

Rather, with reskilling in full flight, the shelf-life of skills getting shorter and shorter, and the predicted number of jobs people will work in their lifetime increasing, the only way to stay ahead is via a constant quest for knowledge. In other words, lifelong learning. 

With a focus on sustainability — both in terms of jobs and L&D’s position in the global marketplace — we’ll examine the state of lifelong learning, look at why credentials can’t keep up and cast an eye to the future through the lens of superjobs and microcredentials. 

Ready to make the shift from formal education to lifelong learning? Start here. 

You’ve probably heard the term ‘lifelong learning’ more and more over recent years as the concept has gained traction, so it might help to begin with a simple definition. At its core, lifelong learning is self-explanatory. The US Department of Education and Science defines it as “the continuous and voluntary pursuit of knowledge, building of skills, and improvement of abilities for personal or professional reasons.” 

Put another way, lifelong learning is all about updating. This means continually seeking out new knowledge, updating your beliefs, and embracing learning opportunities whenever possible. Lifelong learning is not assuming your learning journey is over once you graduate high school or finish university — there’s always something new to learn!

Of course, this shift towards lifelong learning should not mean dismissing formal education entirely, as it still plays a crucial role in education. Instead, lifelong learning is an essential supplement to formal education. 

A recent study by Deloitte shows why lifelong learning is critical to both personal and professional development. The study found that “Millennials credit school or university studies with 23% of the skills, knowledge and experience they currently have or use in their jobs...on-the-job training from employers or from continuous professional development carries much more weight: In combination, these two sources are estimated to contribute 52% of what millennials draw on at work.” 

These findings are startling, clearly demonstrating the shift from formal education to lifelong learning is well underway. Put simply, 77% of the skills that Millennials draw on in the workforce come from somewhere other than formal education. As such, younger generations rely on continual, on-the-job learning to stay up-to-date with changing skill requirements. 

Ultimately, Deloitte’s findings predict that “the role of employer as educator will take on even greater significance” in the coming years. This prediction signals the role employers will need to play by providing relevant, timely, and targeted lifelong learning opportunities. 

Given these findings, it should come as little surprise that a 2019 study by Finder revealed that 40% of respondents are not using their degree, with a further 28.8% saying they can’t find a job in a relevant field. Again, this makes a compelling argument for continued, lifelong learning beyond formal education. 

Despite this, formal credentials are by no means dead. According to Credly, 82% of adults say that a work credential was very useful for getting a job, while 80% say their credentials helped them keep a job, and 81% say their credentials keep them marketable to employers or clients. 

In many ways, this shows that employers have been unable to keep up with a changing education landscape. While Millennials credit formal education with only 23% of the skills they use in the workforce, 82% of adults still believe their credentials played a critical role in securing a job. These statistics show a sizeable disconnect between the expectations and realities of formal learning. Closing this gap will require a concerted mindset shift from businesses, employees, and formal education providers. 

There are many reasons for the ongoing shift from formal education to lifelong learning. However, in general, it comes down to one simple fact: formal education can’t keep up with the rapid rate of change in the modern workplace. 

According to IBM, 120 million people will require upskilling or reskilling in the next three years. McKinsey takes this a step further, estimating that “375 million workers — or roughly 14% of the global workforce — may need to switch occupational categories as digitisation, automation, and advances in artificial intelligence disrupt the world of work.” 

Additionally, Forbes finds that the average person will work 15 different jobs over their lifetime, while the average time required to close skills gaps in a workplace has increased from 3 days to 36 days over the last five years. On top of this, 51% of L&D teams planned to launch reskilling programs in 2020, with 48% believing their team is underskilled to deliver on urgent business requirements. 

Most alarming of all? The average shelf life of skills has now decreased to just six years, according to FYA. In the past, this number hovered around 15 years. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that 40% of degrees will soon be obsolete in Australia. After all, you may complete a four-year degree, only to find that many of the skills you acquired are already out-of-date, as the shelf life of your skills nears expiry. 

Whatever the scenario, one thing is clear: formal education can’t keep up with continually changing skill requirements. With upskilling and reskilling in full swing, constant, lifelong learning looms as the best way for forward-thinking L&D practitioners to future-proof their careers. 

Changing skill requirements have also heralded a shift from hard skills to soft skills, which we cover in greater detail in our blog on closing the L&D skills gap. 

The future? Superjobs and microcredentials 

If lifelong learning is the future, then it pays to ask, what will that future look like? Let’s examine the big and small of it, through the lens of superjobs and microcredentials. 

Deloitte’s 2019 Human Capital Trends report predicts the rise of ‘superjobs’, due largely to shifting skills requirements and the rise of AI. They define superjobs as “roles that combine work and responsibilities from multiple traditional jobs, using technology to both augment and broaden the scope of the work performed and involve a more complex set of domain, technical, and human skills.”

Expanding upon this definition, Deloitte explains that in contrast to traditional jobs, which prioritised “stable roles with written job descriptions”, superjobs will focus on “more flexible roles and less rigidly defined positions.” 

In many ways, this is the perfect encapsulation of the shift from formal education to lifelong learning. If people are expected to perform in superjobs, where flexibility is paramount and skills requirements are constantly evolving, then this will require a high level of adaptability and learning in the flow of work.

Additionally, microcredentials are poised to play a central role in the future of lifelong learning. According to Training AU, microcredentials are “certification-style qualifications that individuals choose to study to improve a skill found in a particular industry area...The key difference between microcredentialling and other qualifications offered by higher education institutions – such as certificates or bachelors – is that microcredentials are delivered as ‘bite-sized’ chunks; illustrating the proficiency in a particular skill.” 

Given other trends, the rise of microcredentials makes sense. With superjobs imminent, upskilling moving from ‘nice to have’ to ‘essential’, and the shelf life of skills getting shorter and shorter, microcredentials have emerged as a highly targeted way to bridge the skills gap and facilitate lifelong learning. 

A study by U2B shows why microcredentials are expected to be so important, finding that 64% of HR leaders believe the need for continuous lifelong learning will demand higher levels of education and more credentials. Further, 52% of employers believe that the majority of advanced degrees will be completed online in the future.

To help you embrace lifelong learning, be sure to check out our webinar on the future of skills and lifelong learning, as well as our blog detailing why we are lifelong learners. 

With reskilling in full flight, the shelf-life of skills is getting shorter. Ready to make the shift from formal education to lifelong learning?

Making the shift from formal education to lifelong learning

With reskilling in full flight, the shelf-life of skills is getting shorter and shorter. Ready to make the shift from formal education to lifelong learning? Start here. 

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Micro courses/videos on a variety of topics, including caring for children, mental health, aged care, nutrition, business soft skills, and more

Videos are of high quality and usually come from an expert or mentor

AU based company, but most topics would be globally relevant

Extensive courses on each of the Microsoft products in English, French, Dutch, German, and Spanish

These interactive courses have voice over and allow you to interact as you would with the actual Microsoft product

UK based company, but most topics would be globally relevant

They also have an up-to-date Teams course

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