Ownpath

Youre not going to learn to swim by just reading a book. Video courses and books are great, but they arent sufficient for a lot of us to actually build and improve skills over time. Building expertise takes systematic practice, ideally with feedback from other people whore further along the learning curve. It also requires us to stay motivated through a course or a book. This is usually easier to do in an immersive structure like a university. Universities have also traditionally been the spaces which provide access to experts and peer groups. However, theyre painful to get into and tend to be prohibitively expensive. Theyre also designed for an older model of how the world works: take a few years out, learn a few skills, get a degree and use that qualification for a lifetime. Heres the problem with that model. We simply dont know exactly what careers will be relevant in the decades to come. We know that it will be important to learn new things quickly, sustain focus and motivation, adapt to new situations, communicate and collaborate with others and look after our emotional health. But, specific careers? Not so sure. For instance, data scientist as a career option only appeared on the scene a few years back. A more relevant approach to helping people develop skills is lifelong learning. Theres no reason why learning should stop or should be limited to something we picked when we were teenagers. Were fairly adaptable and theres always so many interesting things to learn! While universities do tend to be hard to access and afford, they do provide something that online courses dont: physical environments to form relationships with other people. Whether its through working on projects, teaching each other things or just sharing our hopes and fears, these relationships help us immensely. They provide a support system for not just staying motivated and exploring collaborations, but also maintaining our emotional well-being. This is crucial, and its why, online education in its current form, isnt an adequate answer ...