Learning Is Becoming the New Work. Adapt or Fall Behind.

The future of learning at work has begun to take shape.

Powerful technological forces, particularly artificial intelligence, are transforming how knowledge is produced, accessed and valued. At the same time, demographic and societal shifts are reshaping the composition of the workforce. For organizations to remain competitive, these twin transformations demand a renewed commitment to learning as a strategic necessity that supports both business resiliency and human flourishing.

This challenge is magnified by a long period of underinvestment in talent development.

Many organizations now face a widening gap between the skills they need and the skills available in the labor market. The cost of qualified talent continues to rise, while the qualifications themselves are evolving more rapidly than curricula at our educational institutions.

Meanwhile, higher education faces its own pressures: declining public confidence, demographic contraction, and volatile funding streams, including new restrictions on student borrowing.

At first glance, these trends appear to create a natural alignment. Businesses need educated and skilled workers. Universities need new learners. Yet the partnership between industry and higher education has often proven elusive.

The two systems operate on different time horizons, respond to different incentives, and measure success through different metrics. The question that animated our recent convening at the Sands Family Grounds in Rosslyn, Virginia, was whether these differences could become an opportunity for collaboration.

Over two days, the Sands Institute for Lifelong Learning gathered senior executives, university leaders and researchers to envision a new model for education at work. The discussion produced a shared framework for collaboration: a set of principles that can help both sectors move toward a more integrated, humane and effective learning ecosystem.

Shifting the Mindset

Participants agreed that one of the most important shifts is conceptual. We must move from a schooled society to a learning society, one that recognizes and rewards learning wherever and however it occurs.

This shift requires new forms of social infrastructure that can connect formal and informal learning, academic and workplace settings, and cognitive and interpersonal growth.

“To unlock our vast supply of human capital, we will need to distribute opportunity more broadly across time, place and people; recognize, measure and reward learning wherever it happens; and share the cost of learning among all who benefit,” says Mitchell Stevens, professor of education at Stanford University.

Learning must be seen as a lifelong process embedded in daily experience rather than as a discrete credentialing event.

This broader view of learning also acknowledges its emotional and social dimensions. Cognitive mastery alone is insufficient for thriving in an era defined by uncertainty and collaboration. Workers who feel psychologically safe and supported in their learning are more likely to adapt, innovate and contribute meaningfully to organizational goals.

For universities, this means adopting a more expansive sense of mission. Rather than only offering predesigned educational products, they can cultivate a business development mindset, working alongside industry partners to identify problems and co-create learning solutions. The new emphasis could be on partnership and problem-solving rather than on the delivery of prepackaged programs.

For businesses, the shift requires curiosity and a willingness to rethink long-standing practices in talent development. Too often, training is reactive, seen as a way to fill immediate gaps rather than a tool for long-term capacity building. A learning-oriented organization approaches education not as a cost but as a form of strategic investment.

Both sectors will need visible leadership commitment to sustain such a mindset shift.

The challenge is not merely technical but cultural. It involves aligning expectations about time, delivery and outcomes. Many participants emphasized that time is the most significant constraint: universities are structured for deliberation, while businesses operate under market urgency. Building partnerships that respect both rhythms requires intentional design and trust.

What We Must Stop Doing

If the first task is to change how we think, the second is to stop doing what no longer serves productive partnership between universities and business.

The language of academia and the language of business have drifted apart. One speaks of “learning,” the other of “doing.” This linguistic divide obscures the fact that the two are inseparable.

When institutions use different vocabularies to describe similar processes, they make collaboration harder than it needs to be. A shared lexicon of learning and performance would enable smoother translation between university programs and workplace applications.

We must also move away from the historically overly hierarchical view of expertise. The complexity of today’s challenges requires not only credentialed specialists but also practitioners, mentors and learners who can bring lived experience into the design of learning systems. We can rebalance our approach so that expertise is valued alongside creativity, application and experience.

Finally, practical and tactical learning should be elevated, complementing and advancing both theoretical study and applied knowledge. When organizations or universities devalue hands-on learning, they narrow the pathways by which people can grow and contribute. The future of learning at work depends on a continuum that values both the conceptual and the practical.

How We Move Forward

Having identified what needs to change, the group turned its attention to mechanisms that could make such change possible. The conversation yielded a set of practical ideas for facilitating lifelong learning across institutional boundaries.

First, new financial structures could empower individuals to make autonomous choices about their education.

Expanding the use of 529 plans or employer learning benefits to include short-term credentials, online programs and nontraditional providers would give workers greater agency in charting their professional growth.

Similarly, proposals for “skills savings accounts,” such as those piloted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, offer a promising model for portable, learner-centered financing.

“Workforce development must be a team sport to be successful, including technological innovation and legislative change which can support individuals and businesses in making the most of learning opportunities,” says Peter Beard, vice president, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

Second, while skills-based hiring is often celebrated, implementation remains uneven.

Employers recognize its potential to expand access and equity, yet few have found scalable ways to evaluate and credential skills outside traditional degrees. Cross-sector collaboration could help develop common frameworks for assessing competencies and signaling them to both employers and academic institutions in reliable ways.

Third, both higher education and industry should invest in creating a wider continuum of learning spaces.

These include on-the-job learning communities, micro-credential programs and hybrid models that blend online and in-person experiences. The goal is not to replace universities but to situate them within a bigger and broader ecosystem of lifelong learning that also values corporate academies, professional networks, experience and community initiatives.

Ultimately, these actions point toward a more porous boundary between work and education.

As one participant observed, “Learning is the new form of work, and work is the new form of learning.” To make this vision a reality, institutions will need to adopt policies that reward learning outcomes as much as traditional performance metrics.

A Shared Responsibility

The future of learning at work will not be defined by technology alone. Artificial intelligence may accelerate the need for reskilling, but it cannot replace the human relationships that make learning possible. What matters most is the collective capacity of institutions to learn from one another and to recognize that both business and higher education have something essential to contribute.

The Sands Institute for Lifelong Learning will continue to explore these questions and facilitate dialogue across sectors. The task ahead is to design systems that honor the full humanity of learners while equipping them for a world in constant transformation. The future of learning at work is already under construction, and its success depends on the choices we make today.

Anne Trumbore, chief digital learning officer, leads digital and open enrollment programs for the Sands Institute of Lifelong Learning and is responsible for expanding business education to new audiences of learners.