Each workplace can be a place for lifelong learning

While businesses in all sectors have been working towards digital transformation in recent years, covid-19 has accelerated this inter-industry shift. New technologies are advancing at a pace that employers need to constantly revamp in order to keep their workforce up to date. Organizations need to become a place to learn if they want to prepare employees for future jobs.

World Economic Forum has released an estimate suggesting that technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) could displace 75 million jobs by 2022 but create 133 million new roles, according to a study by IBM’s Business Value Institute 120 million employees it will have to be retrained in the world’s 12 largest economies over the next three years as a result of ever-increasing change in the direction and takeover of automation and AI. This scale of retraining and training requires a basic paradigm shift. In order for employers to move forward in this new digital area and be one step ahead of their competitors, they need to invest in the ongoing training of employees. Employees should also be encouraged and willing to continue learning to progress at work.

While employers are beginning to recognize their role in employee retraining and skills, they are not educated educators. To successfully double the place of higher education in the workplace, employers will need to build strong partnerships with higher education providers that offer flexible programs and incorporate innovative technologies to help these working adult students get to the next step in their careers.

Here are the three technologies we have found for the success of adult and successful students:

Virtual assistants. Time is a precious resource for those who are working and studying. Students who work do not have time to spend or spend time helping employees find answers to administrative questions.

Virtual assistants in online higher education implementation can assist students in a variety of fields, from their admissions processes to deadlines for submitting class updates and assignments. Students should be designed to record interactions, create statistics, capture analysis, and provide a more personalized experience each time students contact them.

Many of us have grown up relying on virtual assistants, such as Alexa or Google Home, to save time and make life easier. It makes sense to facilitate lifelong learning by expanding its use.

Predictive analysis. Predictive analytics is a powerful tool to help predict student success in a course so that they can continue to be adult learners through the interaction between machine learning, AI, and other technologies. It allows higher education institutions to identify a student who is struggling to complete assignments and may be at risk of leaving a program, with counselors, teachers, and other support systems initially intervening with individual student support. For employers collaborating with higher education providers, it is a powerful tool to ensure that employees are on track to complete the program they have invested in.

These fairly simple impulses are important. Life can interfere with the adult education in which she works, and she often works as a juggler with family or other priorities at home, so reminders and offers of help help a lot to help the student achieve his or her educational goals.

Gamification techniques. Gamification places game mechanics (such as point systems and tracking, achievement levels, rewards, and rewards) in non-gaming situations. It is already a part of our daily lives across many industries, such as fitness class rankings and frequent travel programs for airlines. Research has shown that gaming strategies encourage consistent user participation and long-term commitment. For example, a study from Finland they found that a simple gamification strategy to give badges to high school computer students had a positive effect — the majority of students said that trying to get badges increased their motivation.

Higher education requires the introduction and investment of gamification technology to help promote good student behavior and success in learning.

Online learning can become a challenge for student engagement. Even before the pandemics were successful and all courses were moved online, online instruction was examined because of the inability of students to keep themselves engaged and on the right track. Add these challenges to additional responsibilities for adult learners, such as caring for work and children, and the commitment becomes even more difficult. Gamification is a way to help motivate adult learners and internalize feelings of responsibility and commitment, and is a great endeavor for online learning for students starting out in this type of teaching, helping them to complete tasks online and make shopping more comfortable. perform the necessary tasks, such as reading the program or logging in to message boards.

Using technology to manage your training and benefits

If your employer offers tuition assistance or reimbursement programs as an advantage, you are likely to have a kind of education management platform to handle delayed operations, such as benefit distribution and program verification. But these platforms can often be clumsy, as employers maneuver across multiple interfaces to get information about an employee’s educational progress and expenses, and to find out what programs are covered by employees in their teaching support benefits. Collaborate with organizations that offer simple and easy-to-use platforms Staff Edge, enrollment support programs can help employees reap the benefits of enrollment and make it easier for employers to better track the return on investment in those programs.

Work, a place of higher education

As with any technology, the most important thing is to keep the end user in mind. An adult who is busy and working is not like an 18-year-old who has just finished high school and is ready to spend four years on campus. Training and retraining programs for adult workers must be flexible, accessible, and engaging. With the right pair of technology and education, every employer can become a site of higher learning, helping workers achieve careers and economic mobility by keeping them one step ahead of competing with highly trained employees.

For more information, visit workforceedge.com.

This content was created by Strategic Education. It was not written in the editorial board of the MIT Technology Review.