Challenges and Opportunities of Lifelong Learning
This Business in the Community (BITC) factsheet highlights the challenges of implementing lifelong learning and what works well.
A perfect storm of automation, COVID-19, Brexit and the climate crisis elevates businesses’ need to focus on skills and development, prioritizing the employability of their future and current workforce. Much work has already been done on the type of skills needed to enable people to transition between job roles and sectors, including the importance of essential, digital and green skills.
Challenges to Lifelong Learning
This briefing paper looks at the challenges through the lens of:
- Cultural barriers
- Structural barriers
- The impact of COVID-19
It provides insights into what is working within organisations to address these issues and provides information on the lessons learned.
Business in the Community’s work on employment and skills
BITC supports organisations to create meaningful employment. This is one of the most significant ways that business contributes to the livelihoods of individuals and communities and is for many the only sustainable route out of poverty.
Offering a quality work experience, adopting new approaches to recruitment and breaking down barriers to entering work for people from disadvantaged groups can benefit business by tackling skills shortages, building new talent pipelines, boosting retention rates and achieving higher productivity.
Some recruitment practices create barriers for people from disadvantaged groups, find out about our inclusive recruitment initiative.
Is your business struggling to fill job vacancies or reach a diverse talent pool? Traditional recruitment practices can create barriers for jobseekers. To reach untapped talent, employers need to adopt inclusive recruitment practices.
Find out more about our Opening Doors campaign
WE CAN TAKE YOU FURTHER ON YOUR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS JOURNEY
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The Business in the Community inclusive recruitment Opening doors campaign identifies five keys to unlocking employment to ensure that jobs are accessible to all.
Learn more about Opening Doors and Opening Doors for Refugees
BITC is asking businesses to participate in the campaign by identifying at least three specific actions to take forward over the next three years and share the progress with BITC.
The actions should be selected from the list that underpins the five principles, developed in consultation with a broad range of charities that support the disadvantaged groups targeted by this campaign.
There is no cost to becoming an Opening Doors Employer, and the campaign is open to all employers – Business in the Community members and non-members.