Learning Doesn’t Have To Be Hard For Adults – 3 Ways

Most people give up on learning and amassing knowledge once they get their first jobs. With a significantly lowered number of people pursuing education or higher degrees as they grow older, education and the amassment of knowledge seems to stop.

In 2016, 44.4% of people in the EU aged 25 to 64 took part in education and training, the majority of which participating in non-formal education and training.

The participation of younger persons ( aged 25 – 34 ) in the EU was more than 20 percentage points higher than that of older ones ( aged 55 – 64 ) in 2016. This means to translate that the younger age group was almost 60 % in number against 40 % of the older age group. (Eurostat)

Nowadays, not many older people go back to study anymore, although it seems to be improving from what it was a few years ago, there still seems to be many things inhibiting older people from going back to study again.

However, you no longer have to worry any longer, with the introduction of the internet, improvement of technology and increased accessibility there is a new way to take courses that you might find interesting. Taking courses online will definitely be a way for you to continue your education without the frustration of going to university ordinarily.

There are three broad ways to take up professional or non-professional courses as an adult. These are:

University classes:

Whether you’re working or not, you could always go back to university, most universities offer special nighttime classes and pre-scheduled tests that you can take any time you get the chance. This makes it easy to manage between work, home, and education.

However, there remain quite a few drawbacks to this, which could make this method of education completely redundant:

  • If you are working, for instance, you will have to take night time classes which are not the main focus of the university in most cases as they give preference to the daytime classes. If you attend the day classes, however, this is no longer a problem for you.
  • If you are much older you don’t have much of a chance to make a friend group to discuss work and bond with and you might be all alone. However, with more and more older people joining the education trend, this might no longer be the case.
  • University courses are quite expensive and are not easy for everyone to manage. Working a full-time job while having to submit notes and attend lectures is almost impossible. This is one of the greatest negatives of university education at a later age.

Employer-sponsored education:

This is the second way you might come across education as an adult, in the form of training programs conducted by your company. This is most often work-related, however, if you happen to be working for a company that works in the field that you like you may get to study something that you desire, this, sadly, is rarely the case.

Sometimes companies might offer you an education grant where you can learn more.

This will be the only other way to get an education through your company.

Getting an education through your company will allow you to meet many other people taking the same course in your own age group. However, it restricts the subjects you can choose to study.

Online Courses:

Online courses are a relatively new concept. For years on years, people have stuck to the classical concept that if you must get an education, you must get it from a university.

Nowadays, most large universities offer online courses. Today, there is a course online in almost every subject, both professional and non-professional. When it comes to having variety, freedom to choose your own timings, and finding people across the globe doing the same course as you there is no better option than an online course.

As a bonus, most of them are quite affordable too and give you certificates of completion which you can add to your resume.

Today, the number of people enrolling in higher courses are slowly increasing in number and age as well. Hopefully, one day everyone will learn the course that they dream of.