To be content with a 4-year degree to attest your abilities for the rest of your life is not a viable reality anymore. In the era of innovation, fast-paced companies demand updated professionals on several skillsets, demanding actively-educated professionals.

Lifelong learning is the concept of never stopping learning throughout the lifetime. It’s about being curious, eager to understand the world around you and reinventing your set of skills based on where you want to get next.

Avoiding the learning path makes it hard to get new opportunities to improve your career. Check out why continuous learning should never be left aside if you plan to take good care of your career:

Why is lifelong learning important

Especially when people have been out of school for a while, the idea of having to face a learning path may seem scary and distant. However, continuing to learn is the best chance to develop a career and get the best opportunities.

Here are the main reasons why you should never stop learning:

Stand out in competitive markets

55% of full- or part-time workers say they participated in work or career learning to maintain or improve their job skills (Pew Research Institute). In a competitive world, the ability to learn can allow you to access better opportunities.

The best way to be able to deliver the best results at work through the years is by learning better ways to execute it and keeping updated with the skills demanded for the function.

Get promoted

24% of all workers say they wanted to upgrade their skills to help get a raise or promotion at work, and 47% say their extra training helped them advance within their current company (Pew Research Institute).

Learning new skills allows you to get to other levels of professional development, raising employer’s trust in your capability of taking on new responsibilities and getting a promotion.

Pursue a new career

27% of workers who continued learning said it helped them consider a different career path, and 29% said it enabled them to find a new job with their current employer or a new one (Pew Research Institute).

If you dream of having a different profession, studying to gain new abilities is highly recommended, especially when the skills necessary for the function are far away from what you already do.

How companies impact in employees’ learning

86% of employees believe it’s important for employers to provide learning opportunities (Ceridian). A company’s commitment to employee learning development can be decisive for employee satisfaction.

Employee’s willingness to learn is the second most significant factor in determining engagement (Training Industry). Indeed, people who work for companies that invest in resources for learning are 83% more likely to feel happier in their job (Ceridian).

However, lacking learning opportunities in the company can be extremely expensive for companies, as 40% of employees with poor training will leave the company within the first year (Go2HR). Meanwhile, 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development (Linkedin).

How to make continuous learning a reality

Training offered by companies is important to help people access learning opportunities, but their effectiveness relies on employee’s commitment to learning new skills and developing their abilities.

Organization, self-knowledge and focus can help optimize the learning process. It’s important to define a schedule with slots of time dedicated to studying and training new abilities.

Self-knowledge is also important to help you decide what you are interested in learning, based on where you want to get in your career path.

And, finally, focus is essential to keep you on track and committed to your goal. With a clear direction in mind, it’s easier to overcome the obstacles of everyday life.

Wrapping up

Knowledge has the power to redefine careers and sky-rocket professional journeys. While it is extremely important that companies allow workers to develop new skills by providing learning opportunities, the actual learning depends completely on the employee’s willingness and commitment to the learning process.

At The Bridge, we have opportunities for those who are interested in standing out of the crowd and building a successful career. You can check these opportunities here.

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