Lifelong learning helps us recognize the fact that workers do not learn only during their formative years through traditional schooling. On the contrary, lifelong learning em­braces the notion that people learn throughout their careers. Whether through work experience or continuing education coursework, learning is a necessity in order to embrace new skills and compete successfully in a global environment.

The international marketplace creates a need for all employees to continuously hone their skills. In this way, they keep up to speed on technological advances, productivity enhancements and new procedures that relate to their jobs. In other words, lifelong learning provides employees with the opportunity to increase productivity and remain competitive in a changing world.   

In the mid-20th century, workers in the manufacturing sector generally earned a high school degree that provided them with a basic set of skills applicable to the manufacturing environment. Once they were hired, the workers may have also received some training specific to their position. From that point forward, workers’ skill sets were essentially set for their entire career.   

Beginning in the 1980s and continuing into the 1990s, it became necessary for manufacturers to re-educate their employees as the U.S. economy grew domestically and abroad. Learning evolved from something that was completed before beginning employment to something that was integrated fully into every employee’s work week.   

Indeed, it’s now a given that learning can never stop. Rather, it’s a continuous process that is part of the employee’s job description. The commitment to ongoing education is not just to learn how to perform jobs better but to learn entirely new skills.  

For example, in the 1950s, one-third of U.S. workers were employed in manufacturing. Today, less than 10 percent are employed in this sector as the economy shifted from being industrial- and agricultural-based to being service- and knowledge-based. However, U.S. manufacturing output is still very high, due to technological innovations and the continual reeducation of the American worker.

Now more than ever, manufacturers have to get the greatest bang for the buck for every dollar they spend on labor. 

Lifelong Learning Benefits
The benefits of lifelong learning are many. First and foremost for the company is profitability. Companies that invest in their workers stand a better chance at staying in the black. Profitability quarter after quarter leads to long-term stability as workers, investors and lenders come to view the company as rock-solid and dependable. The company also becomes more flexible and adaptable to the marketplace, because employees at all levels are better equipped to deal with change.  

From the employee’s perspective, lifelong learning has several benefits. An employer can only pay so much for its employees, and continuing education can be seen as an employee benefit that goes above and beyond the paycheck. The psychological value of lifelong learning can’t be overstated. Employees who participate in ongoing education will feel as if their careers are advancing and they are better able to provide for their families. Employees are more likely to feel valued, which reduces turnover, reduces absenteeism, and improves morale and productivity. These employees will be more engaged at work and provide more of the highly valued discretionary effort.   

Reducing employee turnover is especially important, due to the high costs of replacing an employee (including temporary overtime, advertising and recruiting costs, and time and resources spent on selecting, orienting and training the employee). Ultimately, lifelong learning creates a win-win scenario for both employer and employee.

Types of Lifelong Learning
The type of continuing education coursework depends on employees’ job descriptions. Savvy managers assess their employees’ explicit duties (those written into their job descriptions) and their implicit duties (those that are required to complete their formal, written duties). For example, an employee’s explicit duties may require that they maintain a certain machine at specified intervals. Implicit in that duty may be the use of certain hand tools or equipment required to perform the maintenance. Use of those tools should be included in the lifelong learning program, as well.   

Several modes of delivering learning have proven successful and popular. The most recent trend is online learning, which can be done on the job site, at the employee’s home, at a library or anywhere and anytime that is convenient. Some employers utilize vestibule training, in which a training space is provided at the work site, but separate from the production floor. Community colleges and vocational schools have become increasingly popular as employers are able to take advantage of the economies of scale offered by these diverse institutions.   

Most modes of lifelong learning for employees involve a crawl-walk-run approach, in which employees first learn the theory of a skill before putting it into practice on the job. What doesn’t work is an overbearing approach that involves too much classroom time and long stretches in front of an instructor. Simply put, if a worker had wanted to attend classes, they would have attended college or chosen a different field.

Companies That Have Invested
Two great examples of companies that have invested heavily in lifelong learning for employees are U.S. Steel and Truline Industries. U.S. Steel, like the rest of the American steel industry, has been hit hard by intense foreign competition. To stay competitive, the company made lifelong learning a centerpiece of its sustainability initiatives. For example, the company recently opened an 11,000-square-foot training facility in Birmingham, Ala., as well as a 32,000-square-foot training hub in Duquesne, Pa.    

State Rep. Bill Kortz was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as saying, “This investment is a capital investment in U.S. Steel’s assets, the people. You need a high-skilled work force to enter the plants and to complete globally.”   

Truline Industries is a Cleveland-based manufacturer of machine parts. It dedicates one hour of every worker’s week to online training with Tooling U., a provider of manufacturing education via the Internet. And Truline doesn’t limit training to workers on the shop floor – all departments participate in order to familiarize every employee with the company.

“I understand the value of a worker being on a machine and how training takes them away from production for one hour every week,” said Truline Vice President Stuart Watson in the June 2009 issue of American Machinist. “But you know what? The return on investment from that one hour is beyond calculation. For them, getting that higher education, furthering their skills – it’s invaluable both to the individual and to the company.”

Don’t Fall Behind the Curve
To demonstrate how important it is to jump start a lifelong learning program right away, let’s take a cue from the computer industry. Moore’s Law, invented by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that about every two years, the number of transistors one can place on a microchip doubles. A computer chip with a million transistors today can be made with 2 million in 2011, 4 million in 2013 and 8 million by 2015.    

Moore’s Law is an analogy for today’s rate of change. Things will change faster tomorrow than they did today, and even faster the day after that. If you aren’t staying ahead of the curve, you’re going to be left behind. And fast.   

Lifelong learning is truly an integral component of the work environment in America’s top manufacturing companies. The global economy demands that manufacturers keep their work force trained with the latest skills or risk losing their customers to cheaper competitors overseas. It’s a prudent move to evaluate the company’s lifelong learning program soon, and if you don’t yet have one, it’s an even wiser move to start one today.