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How to Attract the Lifelong Learner and Meet Their Needs
February 23, 2021

The traditional path of education is no longer capable of sustaining a learner throughout their professional lifetime. The new reality of staying relevant and competitive in the workforce involves learning that must progress past graduation and continue until retirement. Hence the name lifelong learning. The practice of lifelong learning is becoming increasingly critical for employees. Skill gaps are developing rapidly due to the digital transformation of top industries and altering the required key skills needed from their workforces. The demand for easy-to-use, on-demand job-specific upskilling and reskilling courses provided by trusted institutions is exceedingly high right now. Workers are seeking opportunities to increase their value to employers and stay competitive in their fields. The demand presents a unique opportunity for higher education institutions to capitalize on a repeatable revenue stream, so acutely needed right now, by providing professional development micro-courses. Supporting alumni and other lifelong learners along their learning journey is the path to success and prosperity for your university and the learner.  

Lifelong learners are currently looking for opportunities to upskill in a casual but valuable way to fit online learning courses into their already busy schedules. They are faced with alarming statistics, which make it clear that now is the time to further their education.  

The higher education sector is increasingly focused on the lifelong learning cohort: meeting their needs means adding value to the public, and to many of their alumni! Many are taking action to offer micro-courses for alumni and other lifelong learners. Doing so is also good for their bottom line, which was hit particularly hard financially by the pandemic. The only hurdle? Doing this only with their existing infrastructure.  

How Can Universities Provide Courses Quickly and Easily for Lifelong Learners? 

Lifelong learners are already starting their search for future upskilling courses. Offering micro-courses on valuable career advancing skills that reward certificates and credentials upon completion is critical. Unlike semester-long courses with college credit awarded, this alternative course format and certification method allows short-form, flexible courses to be created and delivered that do not necessarily require admission into the university. This more flexible and accessible offer massively expands the audience for these courses allowing for increased revenue potential. It also provides learners with a taste of what a traditional education at your university offers, leading to graduate school conversions. 

The answer to launching micro-courses quickly and easily at your university is a partnership with an online learning platform. Sourcing an online learning platform that provides micro-courses custom-tailored to your university is the path to success. A smart partnership is essential to provide the best value to your learners and increase repeat rates of upskilling from your university along the learner's lifetime. 

Key elements that an online learning platform and micro-credentialing program must have to attract and meet the needs of lifelong learners are: 

  • Flexible micro-courses with custom and relevant expertly curated content
  • Engaging and easy to use custom branded platforms that attract new learners and build community and brand awareness, influencing repeat business
  • Turn-key systems capable of immediate implementation with no learning curve 

Universities need to launch an online learning platform that caters to alumni and other non-matriculated lifelong learners now to attract these learners and meet their needs.  

Amesite Offers a Single, Easy to Use, Scalable Solution 

Launch a system that helps you attract and build relationships with lifetime learners to set up a repeatable revenue stream.  

Amesite is a high-tech AI-enabled online learning platform that creates custom-branded learning environments with content curated by experts in the industry that follow best practices, meeting your university's unique needs. Amesite offers turnkey, intuitive micro-courses, requiring no training for your university, enabling your school to take advantage of the programs' immediate need. Amesite has an outstanding and industry-leading 98% retention rate across its educational programs.  

Amesite provides the power and flexibility crucial to capturing the lifelong learner. Amesite is built on AI technology, advanced data analytic tools, and machine learning algorithms. This technological infrastructure allows courses to be flexible and customizable to each learner and stay factually up to date and relevant along the students' learning journey. It also provides powerful insights to the university and the learners about how they learn to improve their experience.  

Partner with Amesite to drive revenue for your institution while providing lifelong learners with excellent resources for education and upskilling. A host of self-paced, highly engaging, and intuitive courses can be ready for your learners in as little as 30 days. Request a Demo!   

Click here to see what Amesite did for Wayne State University as it built its portfolio! 

Resources: 

Mckinsey. Feb. 12, 2020. Beyond hiring: How companies are reskilling to address talent gaps https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/beyond-hiring-how-companies-are-reskilling-to-address-talent-gaps Accessed Feb 19, 2021.  

PwC. 2020. Navigating the rising tide of uncertainty. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2020/reports/pwc-23rd-global-ceo-survey.pdf Accessed Feb 19, 2021.  

SHRM. Feb. 5, 2019. The Skills Gap 2019. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/pages/skills-gap-2019.aspx Accessed Feb 19, 2021.