Encouraging Lifelong Learning in Students

Louder for the people at the back 🎤 Many organisations today seem to have shifted from being institutions that develop great talent to those that primarily seek ready-made talent. This trend overlooks the immense value of individuals who, despite lacking experience, possess a great attitude, commitment, and a team-oriented mindset. These qualities often outweigh the drawbacks of hiring experienced individuals with a fixed and toxic mindset. The best organisations attract talent with their best years ahead of them, focusing on potential rather than past achievements. Let’s be clear this is more about mindset and willingness to learn and unlearn as apposed to age. To realise the incredible potential return, organisations must commit to creating an environment where continuous development is possible. This requires a multi-faceted approach: 1. Robust Training Programmes: Employers should invest in comprehensive training programmes that equip employees with the necessary skills for their roles. This includes on-the-job training, mentorship programmes, online courses, and workshops. 2. Redefining Hiring Criteria: Organisations should revise their hiring criteria to focus more on candidates’ potential and willingness to learn rather than solely on prior experience or formal qualifications. Behavioural interviews, aptitude tests, and probationary periods can help assess a candidate's ability to learn and adapt. 3. Partnerships with Educational Institutions: Companies can collaborate with educational institutions to design curricula that align with industry needs. Apprenticeship programmes, internships, and cooperative education can bridge the gap between academic learning and practical job skills. 4. Lifelong Learning Culture: Encouraging a culture of lifelong learning within organisations is crucial. Employers should provide ongoing education opportunities and support for professional development. This includes continuous skills assessment and access to resources for upskilling and reskilling. 5. Inclusive Recruitment Practices: Employers should implement inclusive recruitment practices that remove biases and barriers. Blind recruitment, diversity quotas, and targeted outreach programmes can help ensure that diverse candidates are given a fair chance. By implementing these measures, organisations can develop a workforce that is adaptable, innovative, and resilient, ensuring sustainable success and growth.

What if the most powerful “learning upgrade” for children today is not another app, but the return to real-world wonder? We are currently attending an outdoor church camp with our kids, surrounded by nature instead of notifications, and something beautiful is happening in between the simple moments. No screens. No algorithms. Just curiosity waking up again. A stick becomes a tool. A stream becomes a laboratory. A question becomes an adventure. And suddenly you can see it in their eyes again. That quiet spark of discovery that no device can replicate. One child asked why water flows faster downhill. Another tried to build a tiny dam with stones. Someone else simply sat and watched light move through leaves as if it was the first time seeing it. And I realized something important. Learning does not start with information. It starts with attention. When children are given space to explore instead of consume, something fundamental shifts. They stop waiting for answers and start building them. Science in its purest form is not about complexity. It is about curiosity in motion. And here in this simple outdoor setting, that principle becomes visible again. A spilled cup of water is no longer a mistake. It becomes a question. A hypothesis. A second attempt. This is where something deeper is formed quietly. Not just knowledge, but mindset. The ability to try again without hesitation. To observe without judgment. To stay curious even when things do not work the first time. In healthcare and leadership, we often talk about innovation, resilience, and adaptability. But here I am watching it form in its simplest version. In children who are not afraid to experiment with the world. Maybe this is what we sometimes forget in a hyper-digital age. That development is not only about acceleration. It is also about grounding. And sometimes the most advanced learning environment is not the most complex system, but the simplest moment shared outdoors. When curiosity returns, learning becomes effortless again. And when learning becomes effortless, everything else begins to grow from there. #ChildDevelopment #Learning #Education #Curiosity #OutdoorLearning #FamilyTime #HolisticDevelopment #FutureSkills #Mindset #Healthcare #Health

As a first in family student, stepping into university life (many, many years ago) felt daunting. I didn’t know the ‘rules’ or the language, and I carried around a quiet fear that I didn’t quite belong. Over time, I found that sense of belonging, largely through my experience living on campus in student accommodation. It was there that I built friendships, found mentors, and slowly came to understand that belonging isn’t something you either have or don’t have, it’s something that can be nurtured. That's why this recent research on student belonging resonated with me. It moves beyond the usual talking points and gets to the heart of what really helps students feel they belong, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds. A few actions that stood out as both meaningful and at times overlooked: 1️⃣ Connecting students to purpose and identity Academic success isn’t just about essays and exams. When we value lived experience and non-traditional learning, students feel seen. We can do this by asking students to reflect on real-world challenges in assessments or connecting learning to their own contexts.   2️⃣ Prioritising relationship-building in the curriculum and throughout Not just during orientation, but throughout the semester via peer mentoring, collaborative problem solving in class, and structured opportunities for students to connect meaningfully with one another. 3️⃣ Making uncertainty visible Students often think they’re the only ones struggling - tutors and academics can and should talk openly about academic challenges, and leaders can acknowledge that confidence and learning those unwritten 'rules' builds over time. Staff who share their own learning journeys can have a huge impact and kindness, respect and genuine interest can go a long way.   4️⃣ Designing for diverse student needs and barriers Not all students want, or are able, to join clubs or attend social events due to work, caring responsibilities, or other factors. Offering flexible, low-barrier opportunities to connect (like online forums or drop-in chats), designing learning experiences with multiple ways to engage, and considering time-poor or commuter students in planning should be non-negotiables. As this article highlights, belonging doesn’t come from a single program, initiative or activity – and it isn’t one size-fits-all. It comes from hundreds of small cues that tell a student: You matter. You’re capable. You are welcome here. Because of this, all staff, can play a key role in facilitating micro-moments of connection. 🔗 Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/ghTeHkxg

One of the biggest barriers to children reaching their potential in school, whether academically, socially, emotionally or even physically, is fear. The problem with fear is that we think we can predict somebody else’s fear. As adults, we can usually name what scares us. Trying a new food. Skydiving. Public humiliation. Failure. For children, some fears are obvious. Being bullied. Being publicly humiliated by a teacher. Scoring low in a test. These are visible and easier to mitigate. Yet in many schools around the world, they are still happening. But the deeper issue is this. There are countless small occurrences, or even potential occurrences, within schools that create low level anxiety. A gentle hum in the background. On its own, one small anxiety seems insignificant. But when they accumulate, we see children pretending to be sick. Crying at the school gates. Saying they hate school without really knowing why. Often they cannot articulate what is making them scared. Because it is subtle. It is the possibility of something happening, not necessarily the event itself. And if it cannot be articulated, it cannot be solved. So I began developing what I call the Safe School Framework. It asks schools to examine the underlying anxiety provoking elements within their culture. Tone of voice. Public comparison. Sarcasm. Unpredictability. Subtle shaming. The uncertainty of what will happen next. Even if these things rarely occur, the potential that they might is enough to keep a child’s nervous system on alert. And we know this from neuroscience. A dysregulated brain cannot learn. When the survival part of the brain feels threatened, higher level thinking shuts down. Children freeze. They disengage. They survive. Learning simply cannot occur in survival mode. I am not suggesting we shield children from the real world. But school should not be a place of background threat. It should be a place where mistakes are encouraged. Homework is practice, not proof. Invisible children are noticed. Sensory needs are anticipated. Praise builds confidence without comparison. Our goal is to move children into the Green Zone. Calm. Curious. Connected. Because this is where learning happens. I have identified 50 key practices that schools can implement to dramatically reduce this low level anxiety across an entire campus. They are practical, cultural and human. If we change the way our schools operate and clearly communicate to students and parents that certain things simply do not happen here, that background fear can quieten. These four slides might just be the most important four slides your school receives this year. If you would like formal training for your teachers on this framework, I would genuinely love to hear from you. gavin@upschool.co #education #school #teacher #teaching #children #montessori

The most curious people in your company aren't asking questions. I learned this the hard way. Last year, we were hired by a tech startup whose innovation had flatlined. The founder was frustrated: "We hired the smartest people we could find. Why aren't they contributing ideas?" So I did something unusual. Instead of running a workshop, I spent a week just observing. What I discovered changed everything I thought I knew about curiosity at work. 🔍The marketing director had revolutionary ideas about customer behavior but only shared them with her closest colleague during coffee breaks. 🔍 The product manager saw three major flaws in their development process but mentioned them only in private Slack messages to his team. 🔍 The finance lead had identified a massive cost-saving opportunity but kept it to herself because "it wasn't her department." Every single person was brimming with curiosity. They just didn't trust the environment enough to voice it publicly. Here's what the World Economic Forum 2025 report won't tell you: Curiosity isn't disappearing from workplaces. It's going underground. Your brightest minds are asking questions just not to you. They're asking in hallways. In private messages. During lunch. Anywhere that feels safer than the conference room. This isn't a skills gap. This is a trust gap. And trust gaps cost organizations their competitive edge. COMB's approach is different. We don't teach curiosity. We excavate it. For nine years, COMB has been developing soft power skills; curiosity, psychological safety, trust-building, and cross-functional collaboration across organizations and teams in Indonesia and Singapore. Long before WEF identified these as critical economic skills, we've been solving the root cause: environments that suffocate the very innovation they claim to want. Because when people feel genuinely safe to voice their questions: 💥 Innovation moves from coffee breaks to boardrooms 💥 Problems get solved before they become crises 💥 Cross-departmental insights finally surface 💥 Your smartest employees start acting like it That tech startup? Six months after building psychological safety, their product roadmap completely transformed. Not because we brought in new talent because we unlocked the talent already there. WEF calls curiosity an economic skill. COMB calls it your hidden competitive advantage. The question isn't whether your people are curious. The question is whether they trust you enough to show it. Lead Beyond Yourself. Rise Beyond Limits. Where are your best ideas hiding? And what would change if they felt safe to come out? Ready to excavate the curiosity already in your organization? Let's talk. #softpowerskills #innovation #teamperformance #trustbuilding #futureofwork #cassandracoach

Company annual reports: skills and training are not a clear top priority. If skills are critical to business strategy in a fast changing world then you would expect them to play a prominent role in the annual reports of companies. To uncover this data, a team of Multiverse data scientists build a Large Language Model (LLM) to analyze structured information from over 100,000 pages of company documents The team analyzed the annual reports of FTSE 100 and S&P 100 company reports spanning the last 10 years. The researchers found that: 1) 69% of FTSE 100 and 76% S&P 100 companies mention a strategic priority relating to technology. Yet only 7% (UK) and 8% (US) describe skills and training as a strategic priority. 2) With AI the situation is slightly better but still not fantastic. Some 49% of UK FTSE 100 mention AI as part of their strategy, 34% of companies referenced AI training. In S&P 100 10-K reports 48% reference AI in their strategy, while 18% mention AI training. 3) Some boardrooms are making moves on reskilling and upskillling. The proportion of FTSE 100 companies mentioning reskilling has nearly tripled in the last 10 years from 7% to 20%, while technical upskilling has more than doubled (23% to 51%). Similarly, in US 10-K reports, mentions of reskilling rose from 1% in 2013 to 13% in latest reports, while upskilling mentions grew nearly sixfold (5% to 29%). 4)In the most recent set of annual reports, only 10% of FTSE 100 companies and 4% of S&P 100 provided a sum for how much they were investing in training. When referenced, the average (median) spend was £600 per employee in the UK, and $1700 in the US. It might be that its lesser interesting for companies to report on training priorities but looking forward it’s likely to become a key element to value company business strategies. Lets wait for the 2025 annual reports. Source: https://lnkd.in/eU5huyXR

Saying ‘it’s a safe space’ doesn’t make it one.  It's like when someone says 'trust me' and you're immediately concerned. Here’s what makes a team safe: Assuming positive intent.  Seeking out diverse perspectives.  Staying curious when receiving hard feedback Valuing disagreement and debate.  Seeing failure as a learning process, Actively listening. Doing what you say you'll do. Admitting when you got it wrong.  Thanking people when they share tough truths. Here’s what undermines psychological safety Getting defensive to feedback. Overreacting to minor mistakes. Interpreting disagreement as disrespect.  Always needing to be right.  Making harsh assumptions. Only listening to respond.  Talking about the person instead of to the person. Blame-shifting. Shutting down debate and diverse views. ps. don't confuse psychological safety with psychological comfort. Safe teams have way more debate, healthy conflict and disagreement. Comfortable teams are more likely to choose the path of least resistance, status quo and conflict avoidance.

When I saw Sonali D'silva speak at the recent AITD conference, I knew I wanted her to join me for a conversation about psychological safety in learning environments on the Learning Uncut Elevate podcast. Sonali expresses complex ideas with great clarity and succinctness. Her practical, research-backed approach to fostering psychological safety is both refreshing and actionable. In this episode, we dive into five key strategies for creating psychologically safe learning spaces: 1. Acknowledging learner diversity 2. Encouraging team bonding 3. Making it acceptable to learn from mistakes 4. Ensuring everyone feels heard and seen 5. Staying humble and open to being wrong We share personal experiences and practical tips for implementing these strategies in various learning contexts - from face-to-face sessions to online and asynchronous environments as well as informal learning settings. If you're interested in creating more effective, inclusive learning environments, this episode is a must-listen. Sonali's insights are valuable for L&D professionals, leaders, and anyone involved in facilitating learning experiences. Listen on your favorite podcast platform and access some excellent resources on psychological safety from Sonali on the podcast landing page: https://lnkd.in/eifW3wD2   #LearningAndDevelopment #LearningUncut #PsychologicalSafety #DiversityAndInclusion

Do you read your student evaluations? I do, and here is how it went. It is New Year’s Day, and I'm reading through student evaluations from my Fall 2024 Principles of Macroeconomics course: ninety students, one semester, countless interactions - all distilled into numbers and comments. But, between the 4.76/5.0 ratings and paragraphs of feedback, I see more than statistics. I see stories. When I walked into that classroom, I saw more than just students—I saw lives shaped by economic forces they were beginning to understand. One student worked two jobs while studying, another worried about student debt, and the other’s family ran a small business struggling with inflation. These weren't just theoretical concepts in textbooks. They were personal realities. "Economics isn't just graphs and equations," I told them on day one. "It's personal! It’s your morning coffee purchase, a weekend job, and career dreams. Whether you notice it or not, it's everywhere in your life." I created space for their stories. When discussing unemployment, one student shared her job search experiences. During our inflation lesson, another described how her job adjusted business prices. These weren't interruptions—they were the curriculum coming alive. But sharing requires trust. Students needed to know they could be uncertain, could question, and could bring their whole selves to class. So I built that trust, day by day. There was no judgment when someone was confused. No dismissal of any question. Just open dialogue and mutual respect. The same philosophy extended beyond the classroom. One student said, "Dr. A provided office hours but without reason. Most office hours for other professors feel like you need a reason to be there... He provided you the space to be unsure of being unsure." These sessions became more than just tutoring—they were spaces where students could work through ideas, share concerns, or find support in their learning journey. The results speak through their words: "He made sure even the shyest voices were heard."  "He connected everything to our real lives." Ultimately, teaching economics isn't about perfect graphs or memorized definitions. It's about helping students see their place in the economic story and giving them the confidence to shape that story themselves. The numbers validated this approach. Out of 87 students, 33 responded to the evaluation. They gave the course a 4.76/5.0 for maintaining a respectful atmosphere, 4.67/5.0 for clear learning expectations, and 4.48/5.0 for improving understanding through course activities. But most tellingly, when asked what helped them learn, students consistently mentioned the engaging discussions, real-world connections, and supportive environment. One student summed it up perfectly: "Absolutely nothing. He has made this class to perfection, and I honestly wish I could take it again." To my students, thank you for a great semester and your feedback. #highereducation #Teachingevaluations