Abstract
With reference to a range of recent publications, this chapter initially explores profound changes in the world of work and careers paying particular attention to the digital transformation of economic life by the increased use of AI and automation and through “gig-fication” linked to platformization. The chapter then explores the impact of these developments on the nature and organization of learning, specifically skills, vocationally and occupationally orientated lifelong learning as well as the impact on types of provision, often new, frequently venture capital funded and education technology powered, which are transforming the lifelong education market offering genuine competition through alternatives to traditional offerings in the context of an emerging change in perceptions of return on investment in formal, higher education credentials in an increasingly marketized higher education system. The chapter discusses how this transformation not only focuses on a government-sponsored “skills turn” in terms of content and curriculum, given the growing impetus of aligning programs and credentials to labor market needs, it also discusses modes of online, blended, and just-in-time delivery which address the increasing demand for easier opportunities for engagement and reengagement, to support a nonlinear career continuum and to create shorter learning opportunities that respond to the growing need for upskilling, reskilling, and retraining, and it discusses provision based on new business models such as revenue share arrangements between formal education providers and their commercial partners or freemium models in which basic limited features are offered to users at no cost with supplemental or advanced features being charged for; it problematizes new education architectures characterized by unbundling of services such as tuition- and campus-based experiences and of courses into microcredentials, competency-based and work-integrated learning, nano-degrees, and curated degrees, as well as cross-institutional aggregation models with partner and/or competitor institutions through so-called “marketplaces.” The chapter furthermore explores the role of multinational professional service networks in shaping these new market opportunities for the purposes of commercial exploitation in a global marketplace and it provides an overview of pertinent critiques offered by the higher education studies and lifelong learning literature. The chapter also reflects briefly on how the impact of COVID has accelerated the need for action because of the way the pandemic has accelerated digitization in higher education and revolutionized an understanding of affordances as well as student expectations.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call