Writing in an Insight piece for the CMI, Jermaine Haughton tells us that learning is not just for the young, with new research from Coursera showing that the most active online learners are professionals studying alongside their work commitments.

Coursera have revealed a 50% increase in new registrations over the last 12 months, with a large majority of this increase coming from workers in their mid-twenties or older who already have strong work experience.


Jermaine also reveals that:

  • Over 80% of online learners on Coursera are over the age of 22.
  • The most active online learners are professionals, mums, and dads with many commitments, and a desire to proactively make a significant change to their lives.
  • Learners are studying consistently throughout the day
  • Almost a third (30%) access courses on their smartphones
  • Aound half of enrollments from UK online learners are in career-boosting course categories such as business (18%), computer science (16%), and data science (13%)

Tying this in with the CMI’s Learning to Lead: The Digital Potential report, Jermaine also tells us that despite greater impetus from employers and employees to use online learning resources for skills training, many employee courses are not equipped to deliver worthwhile training for managers.

He tells us that although 97% of managers said they spend at least one day a year developing skills using digital learning, the report shows 37% feel this learning is not aligned with organisational objectives.  While nearly three-quarters (73%) of managers said they want digital learning that is more personalised and fits their style of learning.

Perhaps the best line in the article which we should all commit to memory is the one from CMI chief executive Ann Francke where she says: “Just dumping textbooks onto smartphones is a dumb way to upskill managers. Managers want personalised bite-size content, to share knowledge and learn from connected peer networks, to ask questions and get feedback in real time.

You can read the full CMI article here - How Online Learning is Shaping the UK Workforce