Author: Nadia Leonard
The shelf life of a skill is shrinking fast. According to the World Economic Forum, 44% of workers’ core skills are expected to change by 2027. It’s not a prediction; it’s already happening.
Businesses are under pressure to keep up. Talent shortages, rapid tech adoption, and shifting work models are making lifelong learning a necessity, not a nice-to-have.
So why are so many learning strategies still built around outdated models?
Talk of learning culture is everywhere — but what does it actually mean? In many organisations, it still amounts to a dusty LMS and the occasional leadership webinar. Employees are expected to figure it out on their own, with little structure, support, or strategic direction.
But in today’s environment, learning can’t be a passive, background activity. It needs to be deliberate, embedded, and measurable. That means making it part of how people work — not an extra thing they have to find time for.
According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report, 93% of organisations are concerned about employee retention, and 94% of employees say they’d stay longer if the company invested in their careers. Learning is no longer just about skills. It’s about engagement, loyalty and growth.
The pace of disruption means today’s in-demand skills could be irrelevant in just a few years. Gartner reports that the average skill now has a shelf life of just under three years. And with AI accelerating change across industries, that window is only getting shorter.
This isn’t just about technical roles. Soft skills like adaptability, critical thinking, and communication are also in high demand—and often harder to build.
If organisations aren’t actively reskilling and upskilling their teams, they’re falling behind.
Lifelong learning needs to move out of HR and into the boardroom. When learning is seen as a strategic driver — rather than a support function — it gets the investment, attention, and alignment it deserves.
That starts with linking learning to business goals. What are you trying to achieve as an organisation? What skills are required to get there?
It also means measuring outcomes, not just inputs. Learning leaders should be reporting on behaviour change, business performance, and readiness—not just course completions.
They don’t wait for skill gaps to appear — they anticipate them.
High-performing organisations treat learning as a proactive, integrated system that’s tightly aligned with business strategy. They regularly assess which capabilities are becoming outdated, identify future skill needs, and build learning roadmaps that evolve with the business.
They embed learning in the flow of work through nudges, microlearning, mentoring, and real-time feedback. Employees don’t have to “step away” from work to grow. They learn as they go, with resources that are timely, relevant, and easy to apply.
These organisations also invest in a learning culture. Leaders model curiosity. Teams are encouraged to experiment and share insights. Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, not failures.
And crucially — they measure what matters. It’s not about course completions or attendance. It’s about the real-world impact of learning on performance, retention, engagement, and readiness for change. They use data to refine what works and scale what drives results.
In short, they don’t treat learning as a support function. They treat it as a growth engine.
Lifelong learning isn’t a perk, it’s a strategic advantage. The organisations that treat learning as core to performance, adaptability, and growth won’t just survive change—they’ll lead through it.
At VSLS, we help businesses embed learning where it matters most—into culture, operations, and strategic execution. If you’re serious about turning learning into impact, reach out to Nadia Leonard at nadia.leonard@vsls.com.
