Encouraging Autonomous Learning for Career Ownership

Dec 16, 2024 | AI, Articles, Employee Training

Autonomous learning, self-directed learning, a culture of continuous learning — all of these are different ways of describing learner-centric workplace training.

This means that learners take the initiative in the workplace by participating in training when they need it, setting learning goals, developing appropriate skills, and choosing the order and trajectory of future learning activities.

Autonomous learning differs from the traditional approach to workplace learning, in which training is served by the organization to the learner in a more static, top-down manner. In the current professional landscape, putting learners in charge of their own professional development is seen to encourage engagement and help employees better manage their own career paths.

Does autonomous learning really work?

This is the million-dollar question, especially for any L&D professional who has struggled with buy-in from learners: if you give your learners leeway, will they really develop skills that benefit your workplace?

Signs point to yes: research shows that most employees are interested in improving their performance at work. They want training. The Pew Research Center finds that many workers are interested in more learning, but 30% of the workers surveyed don’t have all the training they want. And while you might guess that workers want more training because they want pay raises or new jobs (which is true) the overwhelming majority of workers — 62%— say they want more learning to keep up with the requirements in their field or industry. The majority of those surveyed feel the best way to get that learning is at work.

What are the business benefits of autonomous learning?

Self-directed learning may seem like it only benefits learners, but organizations also derive value from this approach to learning and professional development. Some of ways that businesses can benefit from autonomous learning include:

  • Greater organizational agility: Allowing learners to focus on their own skill development makes learners more agile and adaptable. When employees know how to independently seek out skills and adapt to changing realities in the workplace that, in turn, makes the entire organization more adaptable.
  • The breakdown of silos: Knowledge silos can develop when one set of employees (such as a department) receives specific learning and other groups don’t. This can hamper communication between departments and slow down projects. But when employees are free to pursue their own interests and skill updates, they may seek skills and knowledge outside of their roles or teams. That can be the first step toward braking down traditional silos.
  • More engaged employees: Employees who take ownership of their own career path are more confident, engaged, and tend to be more motivated. Because they’re not waiting for the organization to serve up learning to them, they are more likely to pursue opportunities in the organization and develop the skills that advance them toward their goals.
  • Leadership development: When your learners are pursuing their career goals, you may notice some happy little surprises — learners that you might not have tapped for leadership training may be interested in learning more about management, applying for mentoring or coaching, or moving into leadership roles.
  • Personalized learning paths: Personalized learning is often a goal for organizations, but it can be difficult to personalize learning at scale. By committing to autonomous learning, your organization allows learners to personalize their own learning paths.

What are the challenges of implementing autonomous learning?

There are some challenges associated with an autonomous approach to learning. For example, it can be a big change from the norm for some learners, who may drag their feet when it comes to a major cultural shift — even if that shift benefits them. Why the resistance to change from some learners? It’s usually fear-based:

  • If they’re used to learning a certain way, they may worry about losing control over some part of their learning.
  • They may have anxiety about the company outsourcing responsibility for their learning to them.
  • They simply might not understand what’s involved in self-directed learning and may worry that they’ll “do it wrong” or have no guidance.

There are challenges for L&D professionals as well. It can be tough for L&D departments to track and measure completely autonomous learning. It can also be difficult to provide guidance to a large number of learners who may not know where to start.

How can technology be used for autonomous learning?

AI can be a powerful tool when it comes to building a culture of self-directed learning. Analytical AI has long been used in L&D to analyze learner behavior and provide insights about progress toward learning goals.

Generative AI now gives L&D professionals the ability to provide learners with the tools for autonomous learning, while still providing learners with guidance and monitoring their progress. Litmos’s AI Assistant, for example, answers learners’ questions, helping them find specific topics in Litmos’s course library and recommending relevant courses based on their needs and interests.

An AI chat interface can go beyond recommending modules to finding specific topics in a course. For example, if a learner needs to learn how to create pivot tables, they can ask the AI assistant, which will tell them which course contains that specific skill. If a learner wants to take a deeper dive into a particular topic, they can ask the Litmos AI Playlist to curate a personalized learning path that covers a specific subject (like advanced Excel skills, in the example above.)

Using autonomous learning to meet changing workplace challenges

In a world where technology is evolving faster than colleges can pump out new graduates, skills are becoming more important than job descriptions — and those skills have to constantly be updated. But this is a challenge for L&D departments; it takes time and effort to create new learning resources. It also might be difficult for L&D to understand exactly which technical skills need to be updated and who needs those skills.

However, there is someone who knows exactly what skills are needed: the learner. An autonomous approach to learning frees up the learner to pursue the skills that will improve their performance, as well as the skills that will help them advance toward their career goals.