Higher education for a changing world

In the not too distant future, centenarians will be far more common. To ensure that our longer lives are better lives, we will need to engage much more frequently in education and training as we get older.  Continuously updating and refreshing our education and skills not only to enable us to keep up with the accelerating pace of change across the industries in which we work, but also to revive and inspire us to make transitions in every stage of life.

The extent to which employers feel that the current tertiary education system is preparing labour market entrants is a perennial debate. There has also been a strong focus on the education and career motivations and preferences of millennials. Little, however, is in the public sphere about the contemporary attitudes, needs and preferences for lifelong learning from current workers.

To begin to address this information gap, Deloitte in Australia designed a survey of current Australian workers to better understand their views and intentions in relation to further education and training. For those interested in further study, we asked further questions to gain insights into:

• their motivations and perceptions around further education and training
• their preferred study modes, ideal time commitment and time constraints
• the level of interaction they expect from industry to support their learning
• the extent to which they believe their jobs and careers may change in the future
• the extent to which study-interested workers are aware of emerging education models and offerings, such as micro-credentials and whether they would consider learning at non-traditional providers, including massive open online course platforms

The survey has four key findings, providing us with more certainty about what our existing workers really want from further study and combining education and training with a working life.

Tertiary Talk November 2018 Contents 

• Space - the final frontier?
• Higher education for a changing world
• Microservice Architectures: the future of student management systems?
• How data insights can improve the student journey and experience

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